THE QUEEN OF GEMS

Dean Yasharian, the chef and owner behind Perle, has weathered hardship during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Queen

OF GEMS

CHEF DEAN YASHARIAN OF PERLE PERSEVERES WITH A FRENCH TWIST

BY FRIER MCCOLLISTER

Last 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

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Despite his impressive experience with hotel operations, Yasharian always intended to open his own restaurant.

“The Chateau was my foot in the door to LA,” he says.

Having visited Zee’s family many times over the years, he was very familiar with this part of town.

“I’m familiar with the restaurant scene in Pasadena and how it’s evolved and changed in the last 15 or 20 years. It feels like a good time to be here,” Yasharian says.

It’s a good time to be here, except for the pandemic. The unfortunate March opening of Perle was determined by escrow and construction delays. Having hired and trained 20 staff members to open, Yasharian scheduled his dry-run, friends and family service the day the initial lockdown was announced.

“We had to lay off everybody,” Yasharian says.

He pivoted briefly to straight takeout. Indoor dining entailed more expense, followed by the reprieve to outdoor dining in barricaded lanes created by the city.

“It’s been a rocky rollercoaster from the beginning,” he says.

Without a record of payrolls, Perle was not eligible for most available loans.

“Because of our newness, we got screwed on government relief,” Yasharian explains.

Still, he has persisted with his talented core team intact. His general manager, Roderick Daniels, stocks the wine cellar. He’s the former sommelier at Gwen and ran the wine program at Farmshop in Brentwood. Daniels was service director at the acclaimed and now-shuttered Auburn just prior to joining Perle. Anthony Lopez is the pastry chef, and the talented barman/mixologist Scott Sullivan helps as expediter.

“He’s been a very solid team member,” Yasharian notes.

At Perle, the original menu was comprised of the classics he liked. Most notably, the standard menu of bistro classics joins vegetarian and vegan alternatives.

“I’ve seen the trend,” he says. “I wanted to offer something a little more creative for vegetarians. We can do these classic dishes with plant-based substitutions.”

However, since the most recent ban on outdoor dining, Yasharian has been offering preordered, multicourse family meals. With optional add-ons like caviar and truffles, the scheme was successful over the holidays.

“We sold over 20 pounds of truffles,” he notes.

The focus is similar, with weekly family meal menus available for preorder, fashioned on specific regional cuisines of France. In mid-January, Bordeaux was the menu theme. Offering six courses at $70 per person, the menu included yellowtail tartare; warm goat cheese salad; porcini mushroom soup with roasted hazelnut pesto; lingcod a la Bordelaise; braised beef cheeks; pears poached in red wine; and petit four.

Add-ons included everything from a fresh baguette and salted butter ($5) and French onion soup ($13) to escargots ($17) and black truffle pasta for two ($45).

A corresponding six-course vegetarian menu for $60 per person was offered and featured included avocado tartare, mushrooms braised in red wine and chickpea panisse as substitutions for animal protein.

Daniels’ wine pairings and Sullivan’s custom wine-based cocktails are also available. The menus are offered Thursday to Sunday and change weekly. Check the Perle website for the latest regional French twists.

Finally, as an exclusive bonus to Arroyo readers, Yasharian gives up his prized recipe for béarnaise sauce. Already have one? Take it from a chef who knows.

“It’s one of those things a lot of people get wrong,” Yasharian says.

Perle 43 E. Union Street, Pasadena 626-460-8819, perlerestaurant.com

BÉARNAISE SAUCE

INGREDIENTS

1/2 CUP WHITE VINEGAR 1 CUP DRY WHITE WINE 6 SPRIGS TARRAGON, FINELY CHOPPED, STEMS RESERVED 3 SPRIGS PARSLEY, FINELY CHOPPED, STEMS RESERVED 1 SMALL SHALLOT, ROUGHLY SLICED 5 EGG YOLKS 1/2 TEASPOON WHOLE BLACK PEPPERCORNS 12 OUNCES UNSALTED BUTTER (1 1/2 STICKS) SALT AND PEPPER TO TASTE

METHOD

1. COMBINE THE VINEGAR, WINE, HERB STEMS, SHALLOTS AND PEPPERCORNS IN A SAUCEPAN AND BRING TO GENTLE SIMMER OVER MEDIUM HEAT. SIMMER FOR APPROXIMATELY 10 MINUTES, UNTIL THE LIQUID IS REDUCED TO 3 TABLESPOONS. STRAIN LIQUID INTO A STEEL MIXING BOWL. 2. ADD EGG YOLKS AND A PINCH OF SALT TO THE VINEGAR/WINE REDUCTION. 3. CLARIFY THE BUTTER IN A SAUCE PAN OVER MEDIUM HEAT, SKIMMING THE MILK FOAM FROM THE SURFACE AS IT FORMS. 4. PLACE THE BOWL WITH THE EGG YOLKS OVER A SIMMERING POT OF WATER. WHISK YOLKS VIGOROUSLY UNTIL SOFT PEAKS FORM. REMOVE AND REPLACE THE BOWL OVER THE WATER, WHILE WHISKING TO CONTROL TEMPERATURE, ABOUT 10 MINUTES. THE MIXTURE SHOULD BE VERY SMOOTH AND THICK. REMOVE FROM BOILER AND RESERVE. (CHEF YASHARIAN’S NOTE: “THIS IS A KEY STEP TO A FOOL-PROOF BÉARNAISE. DON’T BE AFRAID TO COOK THE EGGS. THE THICKER THE BETTER.”) 5. WHISK THE CLARIFIED BUTTER INTO THE EGG MIXTURE BY SLOWLY DRIZZLING THE BUTTER IN A STEADY STREAM, WORKING QUICKLY TO RETAIN HEAT. 6. FOLD IN CHOPPED TARRAGON AND PARSLEY AND ADJUST SEASONING, AS NEEDED. SERVE IMMEDIATELY OR RETAIN COVERED IN A WARM PLACE FOR UP TO TWO HOURS. 7. “ENJOY YOUR BÉARNAISE WITH YOUR FAVORITE STEAK AND FRENCH FRIES!”

Photo by Luis Chavez

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