Chef Daniel Boulud's Powerful Legacy
The 2026 Gala for Good honoree reflects on his career, mentorship, and his next chapter.
2026 Gala for Good honoree Daniel Boulud. (Photo: Bill Milne)
Mon, October 19, 2026
It's late on a Monday afternoon when we reach chef Daniel Boulud by Zoom at the office above his eponymous New York City restaurant, Daniel. It's hard to believe that he is sitting still, given that he recently opened Brasserie Boulud, a sprawling French bistro on the Upper West Side, Blue Box Café in Costa Mesa, California, and will soon open Café Boulud at the Waldorf Astoria London, adding to his portfolio of 25 restaurants around the world. Despite being seated, his boundless enthusiasm is on full display as he animatedly describes a surf-and-turf–inspired dish he developed with his team for a dinner celebrating the 260th anniversary of Lapérouse, Paris' oldest restaurant, then proudly holds up his phone to show off a photo of the elegantly plated truffle–stuffed squab breast with langoustine.
That this prolific, multiple James Beard Award–winning chef with a four-decades-long career still displays such passion for his craft and creative collaboration is part of what makes Boulud's legacy so enduring. Ahead of being honored at this year's Gala for Good, which coincides with the James Beard Foundation's 40th anniversary, Boulud reflected on his career, how he defines mentorship, and his legacy's next chapter.
Boulud with 2025 Gala for Good honoree Marcus Samuelsson. (Photo: Jeff Schear)
When Boulud moved from France to the U.S. to work as a private chef in Washington, D.C., he did so with an impressive pedigree. He began apprenticing in restaurants at age 14, working under venerated French chefs Georges Blanc, Paul Bocuse, Michel Guérard, and Roger Vergé. Boulud's arrival in New York City, in 1982, coincided with the celebration of regional, American cuisine and emerging culture of chef notoriety. "That was the era of Craig Claiborne, James Beard, and Jacques Pépin, when I arrived here," he says, rattling off additional names like Jonathan Waxman, Larry Forgione, Wolfgang Puck, and Jeremiah Tower, and institutions like Chez Panisse.
Boulud worked at some of the city's best restaurants, including the Polo Lounge at the Westbury, Le Régence at the Hôtel Plaza Athénée, and Le Cirque, which earned national acclaim during his tenure as executive chef and culminated with him winning the James Beard Award for Best Chefs in America New York City in 1992. While working at Le Cirque, he got to know Peter Kump, a cooking school owner who co-founded the James Beard Foundation® with Julia Child in 1985 to honor his mentor and friend.
Boulud remembers giving cooking classes at Peter Kump’s New York City Cooking School, then located in Kump's Upper West Side apartment. "Oh, it was cozy because the kitchen was not big; the crowd that came for the classes was all gathered tight into that little townhouse kitchen. But it was fun," Boulud says. "Knowing Peter Kump when the James Beard Foundation was created, I was one of the group of chefs that already had the opportunity to do things together."
Cooking for a crowd with limited equipment in small spaces served Boulud well when he was invited to cook at the James Beard House®. For one of his early dinners, Boulud took a tack that James Beard would have approved of. "I felt like, 'What am I gonna do that is different, spontaneous, and celebrating the season, always?'" His "A Celebration of Tomatoes" menu featuring Lucky's Real Tomatoes (Le Cirque's purveyor) and developed in collaboration with owner Lucky Lee, included dishes such as chilled tomato salad with quail eggs and chervil, skate with tomato pistou, and stuffed tomato with young rabbit ragout. "Because it was the James Beard [House], you could go there and give them rabbit and things like that," Boulud says.
A young Boulud cooking at the James Beard House.
Boulud opened Daniel, his flagship restaurant dedicated to French fine dining on Manhattan's Upper East Side in 1993. A year later, he won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Chef. "In '94 it was incredible because to be nominated so young against all the top guns of America, I felt really special there," Boulud says. "Today there are many platforms and ways to get yourself known. But I think the James Beard [Awards]—it was like winning an Oscar. So, it’s not about stars or anything. It's about being chosen to be the one."
The accolades kept rolling in, with Restaurant Daniel taking home James Beard Awards for Outstanding Wine Service in 2003, Outstanding Service in 2009, and Outstanding Restaurant in 2010. Reflecting on his James Beard Award wins, Boulud says, “It's as much pride for me winning for the team as it is for one of the [team leaders] winning for everyone else.”
This sentiment speaks to Boulud's industry impact—by fostering mentorship and an environment to learn, he has helped support the next generation of culinary professionals in their own pursuit of culinary excellence and leadership. Many Boulud alumni have won James Beard Awards, including Jean-François Bruel, who won Rising Star Chef of the Year in 2002 and has worked with Boulud for over 30 years. Several Award winners have gone on to lead their own restaurants, including Outstanding Pastry Chef Award winners Jacques Torres (1994), François Payard (1995), Dominique Ansel (2014), and Ghaya Oliveira (2017). 2008 Rising Star Chef of the Year Gavin Kaysen, who, after working with Boulud at Café Boulud, founded his own hospitality group in Minneapolis, is also a founding member of Ment'or, a nonprofit organization co-founded by Boulud with chefs Thomas Keller and Jérôme Bocuse, that is dedicated to inspiring culinary excellence in young professionals through competitions and grant programs.
"The grants are used to help them to take sabbatical to go work for a great chef, or be exposed to a great restaurant, or to be exposed to anything they want to learn about," Boulud says. "We feel responsible for the next generation but also we feel responsible for the ones that are less fortunate, and we want to make sure they get to make connections," Boulud says. "It's very important to have young people connect with people who are already more established or more confident."
Boulud toasting with the chefs at the 2015 Gala for Good. (Photo: F. Martin Ramin)
Boulud's impact extends beyond the culinary industry with his philanthropy work. For more than two decades, he has been involved with Citymeals on Wheels, a nonprofit dedicated to ending elder hunger (he currently serves as Board Chair). In 1999, when Boulud relocated Restaurant Daniel from East 76th Street to its current address on East 65th Street, he created an annual fundraising event for Citymeals on Wheels; the 2026 Sunday Supper at Daniel raised over $1.3 million to deliver 130,000 meals for older New Yorkers in need.
For the inaugural event in 1999, Boulud invited all his chef-mentors from France to attend. "And so, Paul Bocuse, Roger Vergé, Michel Guérard, Georges Blanc—they were all there honoring me in a way, but I wanted to honor them. Sometimes it's nice to be able to recognize your mentors," he says.
Recognizing and honoring mentors for their dedication is reflective of Boulud’s philosophy as a chef and employer, so it’s fitting that he expresses a similar sentiment about being honored at the 2026 Gala for Good. “This honor represents a lifetime dedicated to excellence, mentorship, and the belief that nothing is achieved without perseverance, passion, and focus,” he says. “I’m incredibly proud of what we have accomplished in NYC alongside our talented team, and receiving this recognition from the James Beard Foundation is deeply meaningful to me, my family, my partners, and everyone who works every day to make our restaurants special.”
When asked what the next chapter of his legacy looks like, Boulud responds with a laugh, saying, "Well, I don’t know if I want to open another ten restaurants!" On a more serious note, he adds, "I think my journey is not over. I hope to write more books, to always be supportive to the next generation, and to teach my kid how to cook as well. That would be a beautiful thing."
