Chef Biography
Robert Barral was born and grew up in Montpelier, France, where he attended culinary school. Later in life, he taught at a culinary school in Montpelier, Vermont. After additional training at the Lycée Hôtelier de Grenoble in France, he apprenticed at the Hotel Alban-Ambassador in Basel, Switzerland, then at the four-star Chateau de Divonne in Divonne-les-Bains, France, followed by the Terminus St. Lazare in Paris.
In 1976, he moved to the Four Seasons in Montréal, working his way up the kitchen ladder until he relocated to Edmonton to open the Four Seasons in 1978, as banquet chef. He left two years later as sous chef tournant. In 1980 he was the executive sous chef of the Ritz-Carlton in Chicago before returning to the Four Seasons Boston as executive chef in 1984.
In 1987, he went to the New England Culinary Institute in Montpelier, Vermont as banquet chef and by the time the Great Chefs television team showed up in 1992, he was their executive chef. Great Chefs taped him for the Discovery Channel’s Great Chefs of the East television series where he appeared in episode #8.
He left NECI, and he and his wife opened Café Provence in Brandon, Vermont where he remains today in 2016.
Recipes
Warm Goat Cheese Roulade with Chive Dressing
Serving: 4 Print Warm Goat Cheese Roulade with Chive Dressing By Great Chefs November 10, 2015 In the past two decades, small U.S. cheese makers have begun rivaling France in the quality of their goat cheese. In this salad, thinly sliced potatoes are sauteed, then layered with herbal goat cheese to make a roulade, which […]