Cooking With: Barrique Executive Chef Pierre Rougey

Over the last decade, Babylon Village has been developing a reputation as a foodie destination, and the arrival of upscale wine bar Barrique has added to the downtown's culinary cache.

This week, as part of Patch's ongoing series profiling local chefs, Patch stopped in to the kitchen at Barrique to check out what goes on behind the scenes at the flourishing restaurant.

The small but efficient kitchen was relatively quiet on a recent Sunday, as Barrique Executive Chef Pierre Rougey and cook Andrew Napoleon fired off aromatic lunch-time orders of chorizo pizzas and seared scallops.

Chef: Pierre Rougey, French-trained executive chef of Barrique Kitchen and Wine Bar and chef-partner of Barrique's predecessor, Emerson's restaurant.

Age: 48

Culinary Experience: After spending decades cooking in France, where Rougey also attended culinary school, he moved to New York where he became executive chef at the prestigious bistro Raoul's on Prince Street.  Chef Rougey also taught at the French Culinary Institute and worked at Upper East Side mainstay Park Avenue Cafe. 

Rougey and his partners opened Emerson's, a small French and American restaurant, in 2006, which received good reviews and had a loyal clientele, but ultimately fell victim to the economic crash and closed in 2009.  Gregory Bartolotta, co-owner of Argyle Grill across the street, developed the restaurant concept and took over the location to open Barrique.  Rougey was kept on as chef, along with some of his signature dishes from Emerson's, including a popular long-cooked braised short rib dish.

"I'm known for my short ribs," Rougey laughs. "That's what everyone asks me about. It's become my signature dish."

Best aspect about the job: Rougey considers the wine bar one of the most exciting local spots to work at because of the level of sophistication of the cuisine. "Cooking here is the most like being in the city."

Worst part of the Job: "When it's a holiday, it's a holiday for the diner, not for us!" Rougey rues the long hours and grueling lifestyle of a chef.  Relationships with partners and family members can suffer from the demands of working in restaurants. "It's not 8 to 4!"

Cooking on Long Island vs. Manhattan: "You have to be professional in what you do.  It's about establishing trust between the diner and the chef.  If you make [the diner] comfortable with good, simple food you can push the diners [to try more cutting-edge or unfamiliar food]." Referring to the restaurant renaissance in Babylon, Rougey says "there's definitely been an education of the palette over the last 10 years."

Advice for aspiring chefs: "You have to know what you're getting into.  Cooking is a craft, not an art.  You have to practice it every day.  You need to be committed to deal with the lifestyle and have a passion for food and cooking." If you have that passion, Rougey offers some simple advice: "go for it."

His choice for a last meal:"Merguez with couscous and ratatouille" Rougey answers with little hesitation. A house-made version of the spicy French lamb sausage is, perhaps not so coincidentally, on the menu at Barrique, along with other French-inspired small plates that Rougey continues to fine-tune and perfect. "We've established the menu and the concept," Rougey explains as he darts from stove to prep counter, "but now we are playing with them, perfecting them."