Paul LaBue

Expert Interview: Paul LaBue

Behind the Executive Chef

What were your favorite foods growing up?
Anything with pasta; I used to eat pasta for breakfast. Chicken and eggplant parm, grilled cheese, cereal.

When did you decide you wanted to be a chef?
As early as 5, I would help my grandmother in the kitchen. I always loved cooking.

Where and when did your career in food begin?
At the Golden Pyramid Restaurant in Mays Landing NJ, I was 18 years old.

If you didn't become a chef, what would you be?
A Musician (bassist).

How would you describe your cuisine?
Modern American using multicultural ingredients with Asian influences.

What influences your cooking style and particularly the menu at Navy Beach?
The ocean, and the locals .

What are your favorite culinary weapons in the kitchen?
My Vitamix, Shun Knives, Bernier Mandolin.

What is your favorite secret ingredient?
Tipo flour, smoked sea salt, Sechuan buttons

What is the one rule or value you try to instill in all of your staff?
Consistency, organization and cleanliness

What qualities to you look for when hiring cooks for your restaurant?
They need to be team-oriented, open-minded and able to multitask.

What was your worst restaurant disaster?
When a full knife bag fell off a case of Windex and one of the knives sliced through my index finger, laying me out for 10 months.

What is your least favorite food?
Hard boiled eggs

What is your beverage of choice?
Ketel One on the rocks

What are some recent dining and culinary trends you have been observing?
Molecular anything...I would like to do more but this project doesn't call for it.

When you are not eating at your own restaurant, where are you eating?
Mostly at home, due to the fact that I have a 7 month year old son.

Which foreign country (continent) inspires your style most?
Asia as a whole.

What was the most spectacular meal you have ever had?
A tasting menu at Daniel for my 30th birthday.

What is your best cooking tip for a home enthusiast?
Always purchase high quality ingredients especially salt. NEVER iodized.

What do you eat when you are home?
Light and healthy: grilled meats and fish, yogurt, grains and lettuces. After tasting food all week I need to detox.

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Expert Profile

Determined to become a successful chef from as far back as he can remember, Paul worked diligently at various restaurants while carrying a full course load in school at The Academy of Culinary Arts. After graduating with honors, he went on to hold positions at several well-known N.J. restaurants from as far South as the resort town of Cape May to as far North as The Parsippany Hilton. Moving quickly through the ranks, he landed his first executive chef position at the age of 24 at The Wyckoff Inn.

After a handful of culinary positions in and around Manhattan, Paul would return to the familiar landscape of being back by the ocean in East Hampton NY, at Nick and Toni's. At Nick & Toni's, he spent three years working alongside executive chef Joseph Realmuto, eventually becoming the sous chef as well as the pastry chef. It was from there he would go on to open The Beacon in Sag Harbor and live his lifelong dream of truly making it as a professional chef. After more than a decade of continuously trying to strive for excellence, Paul eventually would step down a year and half later as The Beacon's Executive Chef after a life changing accident.

From there he found the casual yet intense cooking as a private chef would revitalize his appreciation for the local high quality ingredients. Cooking privately for three years would be the turning point in redefining his style and love for cooking. He then went on to become the Chef de Cuisine for The Laundry Restaurant for four years. After more than 15 seasons on Eastern Long Island, Paul now finds himself again in a small seasonal resort town this time it's called Montauk. In April 2010, he became the executive chef at Navy Beach in Montauk offering coastal cuisine and comfort food influenced by local seafood and produce. Paul currently resides in Flanders N.Y. with his wife Ilyse, 5 month old son Aiden and two dogs.