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Glendale News Press, CA
Sept 2 2012
Start the Presses: An Armenian chief, French food and a side of homesickness
By Dan Evans
September 2, 2012 | 1:00 a.m.
The L'Eden Restaurant & Bar sits on the corner of Tampa and Madison
streets in downtown Tampa, about five blocks away from where the
Republican National Convention was held this week.
The owner and executive chief, Gerard Jamgotchian, sat down with me on
Thursday in his nearly empty establishment.
`Business has been terrible, just terrible,' he said as two-dozen
khaki-clad police officers walked by the large picture windows. `There
is no access, no parking.'
Jamgotchian, whose grandparents fled the Armenian Genocide near the
turn of the century, is from Marseille, France. The 55-year-old has
lived and worked in New York, the Caribbean, California and all across
Europe. The menu - unique in the Tampa area - has dishes inspired from
all of those places.
He said with a smile that neither he nor his parents have ever been to
Armenia, but said his love of cooking was inspired by his
grandparents.
`My grandparents, their priority was cooking,' he said. `From the time
they woke up, cooking. All day. I loved it.'
His mother was not nearly as keen on the idea, Jamgotchian said,
saying she forbade him from entering the field.
`She wanted me to be a doctor or something,' he said. `So, I got my
degree in optometry, threw it back on the table and went back to
culinary school.'
The business, which he has owned since 2004, has been successful, and
he has been able to open a second location. That one, however, is
behind the secure perimeter near the Tampa Bay Times Forum - the site
of the RNC - and has been closed this entire week.
Despite this material success - Jamgotchian lives in one of Tampa's
nicer neighborhoods and rives around in a 1965 Citroen Traction Avant
- he says he's completely and utterly homesick.
`What's missing is family, friends, a social life,' said Jamgotchian.
`You've been here for years, though,' I pressed. `No friends here?'
`Acquaintances,' he said. `No one I would really call friends.'
According to ArmenianDisapora.com, a Glendale-based website, there are
slightly less than 4,000 people of Armenian dissent living in the
Tampa Bay area. I asked Jamgotchian if he spends any time with other
Armenians.
He said a beautiful church - St. Hagop Armenian Church - was recent
built in nearby Pinellas Park, `But, I'm sad to say, I never go.'
Despite all this, Jamgotchian doesn't see himself headed back to France soon.
`If I head back, after a couple weeks, I'd be homesick for America,'
he said. `I don't think I'd be able to have a restaurant in France.
Too many taxes, too much. It would be so much harder to do my
passion.'
Besides, Jamgotchian said he loves America, despite its social challenges.
`I have the best of everything,' he said. `Full-blooded Armenian, born
in France and naturalized American. So, yes, I chose to be American.'
With that opening, I decided to ask him how he stood in the election.
Jamgotchian gave me a look.
`As French people, we really tend not to say these things,' he said.
`That being said, I think Obama is doing a good job.'
He said Mitt Romney, his wife Ann and one of their children - he isn't
sure which one - stopped by the restaurant for breakfast about six
months ago.
`I didn't even know it was him,' he laughed, `I guess he didn't make a
big impression. One of my waiters had to point him out.'
http://www.glendalenewspress.com/opinion/tn-0902-start-the-presses-an-armenian-chief-french-food-and-a-side-of-homesickness,0,2539886.story
Sept 2 2012
Start the Presses: An Armenian chief, French food and a side of homesickness
By Dan Evans
September 2, 2012 | 1:00 a.m.
The L'Eden Restaurant & Bar sits on the corner of Tampa and Madison
streets in downtown Tampa, about five blocks away from where the
Republican National Convention was held this week.
The owner and executive chief, Gerard Jamgotchian, sat down with me on
Thursday in his nearly empty establishment.
`Business has been terrible, just terrible,' he said as two-dozen
khaki-clad police officers walked by the large picture windows. `There
is no access, no parking.'
Jamgotchian, whose grandparents fled the Armenian Genocide near the
turn of the century, is from Marseille, France. The 55-year-old has
lived and worked in New York, the Caribbean, California and all across
Europe. The menu - unique in the Tampa area - has dishes inspired from
all of those places.
He said with a smile that neither he nor his parents have ever been to
Armenia, but said his love of cooking was inspired by his
grandparents.
`My grandparents, their priority was cooking,' he said. `From the time
they woke up, cooking. All day. I loved it.'
His mother was not nearly as keen on the idea, Jamgotchian said,
saying she forbade him from entering the field.
`She wanted me to be a doctor or something,' he said. `So, I got my
degree in optometry, threw it back on the table and went back to
culinary school.'
The business, which he has owned since 2004, has been successful, and
he has been able to open a second location. That one, however, is
behind the secure perimeter near the Tampa Bay Times Forum - the site
of the RNC - and has been closed this entire week.
Despite this material success - Jamgotchian lives in one of Tampa's
nicer neighborhoods and rives around in a 1965 Citroen Traction Avant
- he says he's completely and utterly homesick.
`What's missing is family, friends, a social life,' said Jamgotchian.
`You've been here for years, though,' I pressed. `No friends here?'
`Acquaintances,' he said. `No one I would really call friends.'
According to ArmenianDisapora.com, a Glendale-based website, there are
slightly less than 4,000 people of Armenian dissent living in the
Tampa Bay area. I asked Jamgotchian if he spends any time with other
Armenians.
He said a beautiful church - St. Hagop Armenian Church - was recent
built in nearby Pinellas Park, `But, I'm sad to say, I never go.'
Despite all this, Jamgotchian doesn't see himself headed back to France soon.
`If I head back, after a couple weeks, I'd be homesick for America,'
he said. `I don't think I'd be able to have a restaurant in France.
Too many taxes, too much. It would be so much harder to do my
passion.'
Besides, Jamgotchian said he loves America, despite its social challenges.
`I have the best of everything,' he said. `Full-blooded Armenian, born
in France and naturalized American. So, yes, I chose to be American.'
With that opening, I decided to ask him how he stood in the election.
Jamgotchian gave me a look.
`As French people, we really tend not to say these things,' he said.
`That being said, I think Obama is doing a good job.'
He said Mitt Romney, his wife Ann and one of their children - he isn't
sure which one - stopped by the restaurant for breakfast about six
months ago.
`I didn't even know it was him,' he laughed, `I guess he didn't make a
big impression. One of my waiters had to point him out.'
http://www.glendalenewspress.com/opinion/tn-0902-start-the-presses-an-armenian-chief-french-food-and-a-side-of-homesickness,0,2539886.story