Chef Chat: Buvette chef on French food mission

She grew up on a farm, studied art in England and found her current calling baking bread — in high heels — in the basement of an Old Market restaurant.

At 29, Julie Berry is the executive chef at La Buvette Wine & Grocery, the casual eatery and wine bar that opens its French doors to the elements in spring, summer and fall; embraces local ingredients; and channels the rustic and refined elements of a Parisian neighborhood grocery.

We caught up with the farm-girl-turned-chef to learn more.

Q: Where are you from?

A: I grew up in a farm town out west called Dalton, Neb. It’s by the Wyoming border, a town of about 200 people. It’s way in the corner of the Panhandle.

Q: Were you a farm girl?

A: Yes. My dad’s a farmer. My grandpa was a rancher.

Q: What brought you east?

A: Well, I went to Kearney for college, and then I went overseas a little. I was in Nottingham, England. I worked in a restaurant there while going to school.

Q: What were you studying?

A: English literature and painting/studio art. I have a degree in fine arts.

Q: Do you still paint?

A: I do.

Q: How’d you end up cooking in Omaha?

A: I was going to go to grad school, but I wasn’t sure what for. Academia was losing its luster. One of my favorite shows was “Great Chefs of the World” on the Discovery Channel. And I’d been cooking my whole life on the farm. So I got a job in the kitchen at Marks in Dundee. I really took to it. It was a nice skill set, a good way to earn some money and still have time to paint — though now I don’t have nearly as much time for that.

Q: How long have you been at La Buvette?

A: Five years — almost six now. I started as a server. And then the baker downstairs wanted some time off. So I started learning how to do the bread, and I started working down there two days a week. And then I just kind of took over after (the previous chef) Paul Kulik left for the Boiler Room (which opened in January).

Q: Who are your mentors?

A: I learned a lot from Paul, but (La Buvette owners) Mark Mercer and Vera Mercer are always really inspiring to me. They have great taste and are always interested in the mission of Buvette, which is to make French food a little more available and not pretentious. It’s really very similar to any country cooking.

Q: What inspires you?

A: I love the fresh produce of summer, and I think another thing Buvette does well is the farm-to-table thing. Mark and Vera really make sure everything is local and high quality.

Q: I heard that you like to cook, or at least bake, in high heels. True?

A: I’m definitely going to stick to that story. Vera told me once that everything tastes better when you cook it in high heels, and I believe it.

Q: What’s new at Buvette?

A: I have a little more help downstairs, so the menu’s gotten a lot bigger this summer. I’m still doing foie gras, to some people’s chagrin. But I really enjoy it. And one of the nicest inspirations has been some heirloom pork I’ve gotten — Red Wattle and Berkshire pork from a farmer in Iowa. It’s not like any pork you get from a store. It’s not “the other white meat.” It’s red, delicious and marbled and porky.

Q: Have you been able to get back to England or to Paris, the Buvette touchstone?

A: Not yet. But I’m getting married in a month, and I’m hoping we’re going to take a nice European getaway.

Contact the writer:

444-1069, nichole.aksamit@owh.com