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Chef
Jeff LaBeau (left) and Ron Achterkirch (right) hope
the International Chefs' Culinary Center will bring
chefs and foodies alike to downtown Burnsville.
-November
2004, Foodservice News
If
the way to the heart is through the stomach, Ron Achterkirch
and Chef Jeff LaBeau hope that the way to the heart
of a city is through its culinary center.
Burnsville's
International Chefs' Culinary Center will hold the grand
opening of its banquet hall on November 6. In the coming
months, Achterkirch and LaBeau plan to add culinary
classes, a kitchen gadget store, a test kitchen and
a small cafe.
 The
Culinary Center has already hosted a few weddings, wine
dinners a and strategic planning meetings in the 450
seat, 10,000 square foot banquet space. It also hosted
its first culinary class, which is intended for foodies
interested in making their own bruschetta and established
chefs looking to continue their education. "When
you go to Cooks or Byerly's , you see chefs doing demos
and serving the food to people- we're going to actually
get people to put apron on and cook the food." LaBeau said.
He
also set aside space for Minneapolis ACF meetings--LaBeau
was the chapter's chef of the year in 2001--and a kitchen
where ACF chefs can take practical exams for certification.
The
Culinary Center, located in Burnville's Grande Market
Place on Nicollet Avenue, is the culmination of eight
years of planning by Achterkirch for something he saw
missing in Burnsville, and most other American cities.
"I've
traveled all around the world, and every city has a
village square or a central area where people gather
and kids can play," said Achterkirch, who's lived
in Brussels, Belgium; Beijing, China and Caracas, Venezuela
during his years with software company Fourth Shift.
"There's nothing like that here, especially in
the suburbs."
Five
years ago, Achterkirch realized he needed a chef to
help him realize the vision for the Culinary Center.
He settled on LaBeau, who owns the Depot bar and Grill
in Faribault, Minnesota and operates a catering business.
Along
with new town homes and condos, the Culinary Center
is the first step toward creating a downtown area for
Burnsville The city's mayor, Elizabeth Kautz, is also
onboard and has designated the area as the "heart
of Burnsville," Achterkirch said.
-By
Jacob Bunge
Hometown
cooking
Chef
LaBeau and partner want to put Burnsville on the culinary
map
Posted: 11/12/04
by John Gessner
This week Newspapers
Jeffrey
LaBeau wants to put his hometown of Burnsville on
the culinary map.
LaBeau
has worked as a chef in hoity-toity joints from The
Greenbrier resort in West Virginia to the Garden City
Hotel in New York.
But
the apprenticeship is over, and LaBeau figures it’s
time for chefs to learn a thing or two from him.
LaBeau
is director of culinary operations at the International
Chefs’ Culinary Center (ICCC) in Burnsville’s
Grande Market Place.
The
center, which opened last month and celebrates a grand
opening tonight (Saturday), is a banquet room and
culinary school rolled into one.
Located
on the second floor of the south end of Grande Market
Place, ICCC is the brainchild of Burnsville resident
and majority owner Ron Achterkirch, who recruited
LaBeau to be his culinary director and a minority
owner.
“There
is no reason,” Achterkirch declared, “that
this place and this state shouldn’t be on the
culinary map of the United States.”
Achterkirch
is a former Control Data executive and software-company
founder who pitched the idea for the mixed-use Grande
Market Place project to developer Sherman and Associates.
His vision of a European-style market square in Burnsville’s
Heart of the City redevelopment district was inspired
by his worldwide travels and love of fine dining.
The
vision included the ICCC, the only piece of the sprawling
Grande Market Place project in which Achterkirch retains
majority ownership. Its 440-seat banquet room places
it in the top 10 of Twin Cities banquet centers, Achterkirch
said.
He
and LaBeau are still developing plans for the school.
They intend to offer classes for amateur “foodies”
but also working chefs seeking high levels of certification
by the American Culinary Federation — including
the “master” level, one held by only 71
chefs nationwide.
“I
would like to have a culinary program where executive
chefs could come through the program and increase
their chances significantly of passing the certified
master chef exam,” Achterkirch said.
LaBeau,
a certified executive chef (one level below master),
plans to recruit master chefs to do much of the professional
teaching. “And while they’re doing that,
they can offer courses for foodies,” he said.
Hometown
cooking
LaBeau,
whose mother was a waitress and caterer, grew up around
good food. The 1984 Burnsville High School graduate
began chef’s training at Dakota County Technical
College while still in high school.
He
graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in
New York, apprenticed at the Saint Paul Hotel and
worked under master chef Hartmut Handke at the five-star
Greenbrier resort.
LaBeau
headed to New York with wife Patty, a fellow chef
he met at The Greenbrier. He worked as sous chef at
Fluties in the Wall Street District, as executive
chef at seafood restaurant Riverbay on Long Island
and as executive sous chef at the Garden City Hotel.
“That’s
when I found that I had a passion for seafood,”
LaBeau said of his New York days. “With beef
and pork, it is what it is — you can only do
so many things with it. But having 60,000 species
to create with is just awesome.”
LaBeau’s
big break came with a glowing New York Times review
of Riverbay. “That’s when my career took
off,” said LaBeau, 38, who now lives in Lakeville
with Patty and their two children.
He
was lured back to Minnesota in 1992 by his brother,
Kenny, who owns the Longbranch Saloon and Eatery in
Farmington. They opened The Depot Bar and Grill in
Faribault, adding a fine-dining touch to a twice-bankrupt
casual restaurant. Jeff and Patty LaBeau still own
The Depot, where Patty runs the kitchen.
When
Achterkirch introduced himself to LaBeau three years
ago, LaBeau weighed 350 pounds and wasn’t sure
about the stranger’s grand scheme to build a
“downtown Burnsville.”
Now
a gastric bypass has LaBeau down to 200 pounds, and
Grande Market Place is the anchor of the Heart of
the City.
“Jeff
and I make a good team,” Achterkirch said. “He
knows the catering and food business inside out. I’m
a good sales guy and I’m a good marketing guy,
and we both have a strong desire to put together a
quality culinary program for working chefs.”
John
Gessner is at burnsville.thisweek@ecm-inc.com.
Past
News
February
25, 2003
The
Business Journal has nominated Grande Market Plâce
as a finalist in the
"New Mixed-Use Development" category in
its "Best in Real Estate 2002"
competition.
April
14, 2003
The
Business Journal named Grande Market Plâce
"Best New Mixed-Use Development" at its
annual "Best in Real Estate" awards dinner
held April 3.
July
22, 2004, St. Paul Pioneer Press
Public
Sculpture to be Unveiled Saturday in Heart of City
A new public sculpture will be unveiled Saturday
in Burnsville. The statue of a girl with a basket
of food, called "Abundance," will be placed
in a courtyard in the Grande Market Place in Burnsville's
Heart of the City. The work is intended as the focal
point for the Grande Market Place, a site that developers
call a European-style complex of shops and apartments.
It also will be the home of the International Chefs'
Culinary Center, a cooking school and catering and
banquet facility.
July
28, 2004, StarTribune
In
Brief
Preliminary
plans to build a hotel, a performing arts center
and some retail and housing along Nicollet Av. and
Hwy. 13 in Burnsville were approved by the City
Council last week. The council also approved another
developer's plans to build housing, retail and a
Cub Foods store in the former Kmart lot at Hwy.
13 near Nicollet. Both projects are part of the
Heart of the City downtown redevelopment effort.
A sculpture of a girl with a basket of food was
unveiled Saturday in Burnsville's Grande Market
Place courtyard, also in the Heart of the City.
Mary Pat Lutz, who teaches at Burnsville's Minnesota
River School of Fine Art, sculpted "Abundance."
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