Holiday Traditions: Notes from France

Rusty Rae/News-RegisterChef Gilbert Henry talks with diners at Cuvée, which marked 20 years in Carlton in 2024. He prepares French dishes his way, with influences from other cultures, such as Tahiti, where he served in the French military, or islands where he worked for Club Med. Henry’s passions for food and music — he plays saxophone — date back to his childhood in the Alsace region of France.

When Gilbert Henry was growing up in the Alsace region of France, he loved two things: music and cooking. Raised in an apartment above his aunt’s restaurant, Henry was classically trained in culinary school and kitchens of his native country. He now runs Cuvée, the oldest restaurant in Carlton. Over the years, he has demonstrated at the Food & Wine Classic and the International Pinot Noir Celebration.

This year, Henry celebrated 20 years in Carlton and Cuvée marked its 20th anniversary. By Sept. 17, 2004, when Cuvée opened, Henry had been a chef for more than two decades and had worked all over the world. He had owned Portland restaurant Winterborne for 12 years, as well.

“Cooking is like music,” he said. “You can play classical; play what you read on the score; or you can be like me and improvise.”

At 12, he started culinary school to learn the profession. In addition to formal schooling, Henry and his classmates worked as apprentices under chefs, or “masters.” It was hard work with long hours. As French culinary education progresses, students spend more time on the job and less in classes. “When you graduate, you can pick a higher level restaurant to work at,” he said.

In his case, though, the Army was waiting when he graduated. He took the routine tests, both physical and academic, and qualified as a cook and a bandsman. He was happy to be assigned to a French base in Tahiti in 1979. “I wanted somewhere warm,” he said. Since he had been playing trumpet for years, the position fit his musical skills. But when he reported for duty, the director told him a saxophone player was needed instead – and handed him a tenor sax. Henry learned the woodwind quickly. There was no one there to teach him, he said, but he was motivated to learn on his own.

“I had always wanted to play sax,” he said, but started in the brass section instead because that’s what his city band needed. Musicians at the Tahitian base played a variety of music for different occasions. One of the most important was playing patriotic tunes when dignitaries visited. Henry played “La Marseillaise,” the French National Anthem, many, many times. Today, he especially loves jazz. He plays tenor and soprano sax at Christmas and other events in Carlton and McMinnville, such as a Wednesday evening jam session at the Pinot Vista tasting room at Third and Evans streets in McMinnville

When his stint in the military was up, Henry returned to France briefly seeking a job. He applied with Club Med, a company with resorts on islands around the world. “They needed cooks, not musicians, so that was what I did,” he said. The job took him to Spain, Greece, Italy, Martinique, Guadalupe, Turks and Caicos Islands and other places. He often worked 70 hours a week, preparing lunches and dinners every day.

“I worked under a chef. I did what I was told to do,” he said, happy to be the one in charge these days. The job also led him to meet his wife, Susan, an American who was vacationing at one of the Club Med sites. After he left Club Med and settled in the U.S. in 1987, Henry was on the job hunt again. He applied many places, only to be turned down.

“They didn’t want me because of my rap sheet,” he said – not a list of criminal charges, but his resume. “I had too much experience” for a sous chef position. Then, through a friend, he invited the owner of Winterborne to his house “to see if we were compatible.” At their next meeting, Henry prepared a pig on a spit, Tahitian style. Impressed, the owner/chef hired the Frenchman to cook at his renowned restaurant for three months, while the chef traveled and worked on writing a book. He stayed on, and in 1992, Gilbert and his wife purchased the restaurant. He made some changes that brought in more customers, but kept Winterborne’s emphasis on fish.

In 2004, though, the couple decided to relocate to Carlton, so he closed the Portland restaurant and opened Cuvée. Finally, he said, he could offer a wider range of dishes that expressed his French background along with local ingredients. Many of his customers from Winterborne followed him, and new customers found him there, as well, he said. Nowadays, on an average night, 70% of the diners are returnees, he said. With one service a night, the 36-seat restaurant is often full, so reservations are recommended for the Thursday through Sunday dinners.

When Henry opened Cuvée, Carlton had few places to get a meal. The Penguin, a casual spot, was located right across the street, but that was about it, Henry said. The Penguin closed, but Cuvée has been joined by numerous other restaurants – Tequila Burrito Bar and Margaritas, offering Mexican food; Ikigai, a Japanese restaurant; the upscale Land & Sea; Park & Main and From Another Udder, The Horse Radish, Carlton Corners and Carlton Bakery, along with numerous wine tasting rooms.

Cuvée is located on West Main Street, just down from Ladd Park. The site once was, by turns, a grocery store, candy store and butcher shop. A door on the west side, leading into the Bull Run whisky shop, is extra wide, a souvenir of the butchery days. It took nearly four months of hard work to remodel the building and get it ready for restaurant service, Henry said. He put in a full kitchen and preparation area, which customers don’t usually see, and an airy dining room with wooden tables covered in white cloths and set with a variety of stemware. A chandelier hangs in the center, and collages by Lorrie Lewis line the walls.

The restaurant offers prix fixe dinners – the $50 covers an appetizer or dessert, soup or salad, and an entree. Several choices are available in each category: oysters, other seafood or pate among appetizers, for instance; or entrees such as boeuf bourguignon, Coquille St. Jacques, rib eye steak, filet mignon or fish of the day – often ling cod, “my favorite,” Henry said. He cooks at home, as well as in the restaurant. In his private kitchen, he said, he prepares the same type of dishes, but he doesn’t make the fancy sauces like he does at Cuvée.

“With cooking, I learned and developed. Like with anything else, you get better,” he said. “Same with music.” He said he’s very confident in the kitchen. He joked, “If I played music like I cook, I’d be better.”

These days, Chef Gilbert Henry’s Christmases are more likely to be rainy than snowy. But during his youth in Fréland, a city about the size of Carlton on the border between France and Germany, snow was de rigueur. The Christmas season started about Dec. 15, and by Christmas Day snow lay deeply on the streets. He and his brothers and sister looked forward to spending Dec. 26 playing in the drifts.

“Lots of snow, above our heads,” he said. French children knew about St. Nicholas, or Pere Noel in French, and also about Pere Fouettard. Henry said the latter was “a bad Santa” dressed in black robes. He threatened punishment if children were naughty, he said.

“I was always good,” of course, he said.

His family set up a Christmas tree in the corner of their living room decorating the front with real candles. He said, “We always kept an eye on it” when the candles were lit. The whole family also put colorful ornaments on the tree, which went up a week before Christmas and displayed through New Year’s Day.

On Christmas Eve, his family sat down for a special meal. Henry’s mother did the cooking, even when the teen was in chef school.

“She said I used too much butter,” he recalled fondly. Their holiday dinner included “simple stuff,” Henry said: starting with escargot – snails, the French delicacy – followed by duck or chicken as the entree. Dessert was buche de noel, a sponge cake rolled around filling, then frosted to look like a yule log. Mulled wine, flavored with star anise, cinnamon, pepper and other spices, was a favorite, as well. It’s more popular in Europe than in the U.S., said Henry, whose siblings still live in there. Once he prepared mulled wine for his restaurant guests in Oregon on New Year’s Eve. They appreciated the free glass of warm beverage, he said. But few actually drank it.