There always is.

And then an opportunity came to come to Washington to be a private chef.

And I thought, you know, private chef, it sounds like a sabbatical, but to come to make the trip to America, it sounds like a very safe bet.

I was betting on the fact that, you know, They paid for my ticket.

They gave me an apartment.

They gave me a car.

They gave me a lot of vacation.

And

Well, this is special.

A- absolutely.

And this, this is the kind of dish you can do all year long.

It don't matter if it's summer, winter.

Uh, and, and so the, um, um, I have short ribs, and I like to cook them on the bone, of course, because all the flavors are there.

Mm-hmm.

And then we have the, uh, uh, we have a little bit of tomato paste because tomato paste will definitely make a sauce much more-

Right.

Jean-Louis Palardin was the youngest two-star restaurant in France in, uh, in the '70s, and Jean-Louis was a free spirit.

He was an artist.

He, he was writing his menu every day.

It was a tasting menu.

He had a 30-seat restaurant in the Watergate Hotel in, uh, Washington, DC, the famous Watergate.

And, uh, and Jean-Louis became an icon in America, uh, for really daring to challenge the French, the French aspect of dining and hospitality.

Right.

How do you decide what you protect, the traditions that you protect and hold on to, and then how you keep evolving and changing to get better?

Well, especially in restaurants that are built to be non-traditional.

Like Daniel, it's classic, but it's not traditional.

And so we always have reference from French cuisine.

Of course, I'm trying to always defend my heritage, but also to be inspired by the evolution of French cuisine.

And there's been a lot of evolution over almost century now.

And I just feel that creativity is often coming out of a root.

Do you use AI? Does it make its way into your 20 restaurants? Does it make its way into how you manage your overall enterprise? How are you thinking about it? Of course, we use

Is that like the hot new thing, like inside Bergdorf Goodman and some of these, you know, whatever's left out there to partner with some of them? And I

think it's an extension of service to their clients, I think is important.

and we do that also with American Express at the Centurion Club as well.

But also Avian, I mean, all those partners, BMW, Avian, and many of them, Air France, they're also very generous with charity.

And I support City Milan Wheel here in New York, and such as Bloomberg as well have been very generous.

And I think it's important to be able to cross help each other through that.

It's happening at

the end of July.

a little something for RJ, a little surprise?

Yes.

First, congratulations for the energy you bring, the passion and certainly the knowledge you have for his age.

But grandma is responsible for that.

You know, I grew up with grandma around me cooking all the time and it really made such an impact.

Of course.

And also the fact that you dig into your roots, for me, is so important because that's going to be your guiding light.

So there,

Mm-hmm.

...

the only flight we could find was out of New York City, and so my dad and I drove, uh, from Boston down 95 to Daniel.

And we were running late.

Like, we had to change into our suits in, like, a, a rest station, uh, bathroom.

And we show up at Daniel, and we walk in, and they greet us.

They walk us through the bar.

(laughs)