DINING
The Queen OF GEMS
CHEF DEAN YASHARIAN OF PERLE PERSEVERES WITH A FRENCH TWIST BY FRIER MCCOLLISTER
Dean Yasharian, the chef and owner behind Perle, has weathered hardship during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A cote de boeuf, 40-ounce tomahawk ribeye chop with bouquet garni with caramelized garlic, thyme and tarragon, accompanied by pomme frites. 16 | ARROYO | 02.21
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Photos by Luis Chavez
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ast year’s arrival of chef Dean Yasharian in Pasadena and the launch of his first solo venture — the upscale French restaurant Perle on Union Street — were eagerly anticipated by foodies and should have made a big splash in the relatively small, local fine dining pond. Unfortunately, Perle’s soft opening was the second week of March — the same day of the initial pandemic lockdown. “We couldn’t have timed it worse in March,” Yasharian says. Nonetheless, despite the pandemic’s whirligig of restrictive vicissitudes, Yasharian and his impressive team can still serve their French-influenced cuisine. Just not at a table. For now. Yasharian brings an unusually refined pedigree to his work at Perle, despite growing up on a rural upstate New York beef and dairy farm. He finished high school and started cooking in rural Pennsylvania after his father moved closer to family. “The parents of a friend of mine had a restaurant in town that was Italian, Greek and Mediterranean,” Yasharian says. “It was a little more than your neighborhood pizza place. Then, like any kid, I had to decide what I wanted to do for college. Cooking was what I was doing at the time and enjoying it. I went to Penn College for a four-year culinary program.” Yasharian temporarily moved to England to take an apprenticeship and slept on his sister’s couch. “I did a year abroad at Midsummer House in Cambridge,” he says. “At the time, they were one-star Michelin. Still probably the hardest job I ever had. Very intense learning. 8 a.m. to midnight, usually no breaks. I did that for a year.” Visa issues brought him back to the United States and New York City, where another sister lived. “That’s where I stumbled on Daniel Boulud,” he says of the legendary French chef. He hired Yasharian as a junior sous chef at his flagship restaurant, Daniel, which had three Michelin stars. “I did three years there, touring all the stations.” Yasharian then decamped for a year to work with Gordon Ramsay, who opened his namesake restaurant Gordon Ramsay at Manhattan’s The London in 2006. Ramsay’s New York venture garnered two Michelin stars in the first year of its opening, with Yasharian in the kitchen. “Personally, I liked working with Daniel Boulud and his entire company,” Yasharian says. “They offered me (the opportunity) to open Bar Boulud, which is really where I fell in love with the cooking that I’m doing now.” He worked as chef de cuisine for the first two years after Bar Boulud’s opening on Manhattan’s upper west side in 2008. “Then we opened the second Bar Boulud in London, where I was executive chef opening in the Mandarin Hotel in Knightsbridge, London. It was a big success. I did that for five years.” The restaurant’s series of international accolades attest to Yasharian’s work in London during that time. “At that point, it was time for me to come home,” Yasharian explains. “I wanted to come back to the States. I wanted something different.” He became executive chef at West Hollywood’s Chateau Marmont, with the assignment of revamping the entire food and beverage program, renovating the kitchens and streamlining operating costs. Arriving in Los Angeles was a bit of a homecoming, as his wife is from South Pasadena. Yasharian met Pauline Zee in New York, and the couple wed just prior to moving to London, where they started a family with three children. Zee graduated from Mayfield Senior School in Pasadena, where her sister now lives. Her brother still resides in South Pasadena, and her parents live in Arcadia. Meanwhile, the Yasharian family landed in Altadena after arriving from London. Zee is a co-owner of Perle and serves as the restaurant’s communica
