OUR CHEF

Claude Nicolet is executive chef at the Pinetop Country Club, a long way from his native Switzerland. Nicolet, who began his culinary career at age 15, is a product of Swiss schools of culinary arts and hotel/restaurant management in Geneva. Growing up in a multilingual nation, he speaks French, German, and English. He is well-traveled, well-educated, and well-versed in that magic of pleasing the particular palate.

After a three-year culinary apprenticeship and education in Geneva, Nicolet came to the US and worked for his uncle at Chez Louis, a small French restaurant in Scottsdale. Two years later, he joined friends on a movie-making expedition to the archaeological sites of Mexico, before returning to Switzerland. Back in Geneva, he attended hotel/restaurant management school, graduating with a certification European law necessitates for the opening of one's own restaurant.

He was determined to work in the US and after graduation, applied for his "green card." While waiting for the wheels of bureaucracy to grind out the necessary documents, he spent six months touring Peru. "This time," he notes, "I was not making a film about archaeological sites to sell to universities… I was just a tourist." When he got home, he soon found himself the proud holder of a visa and a green card, so he once again came to the US and again, he went to work for his uncle at Chez Louis. He remained there until 1984, when he and three partners opened the North Star Restaurant in Scottsdale.

"It was a bad time and a bad choice of location, "Nicolet recalls. "There were more than 50 restaurants in a one-mile radius. The competition was very fierce. The North Star closed after one year. "All was not lost, however, as a position at the Tempe Mission Palms resort came Claude's way immediately. In just a couple of years, he went from running a kitchen to executive chef.

Next came a position at The Boulders in Carefree, where he went from restaurant chef to club chef in just a year. Destiny was about to stir the waters of Claude's life again, since the club traditionally closed for summers and he was once again looking for gainful employment to full the gap. "We got a letter from the Pinetop Country Club," he recalls, "looking for a summer chef. I drove up, took a look, and got the job. It turned out better than I'd expected. Claude took his classical French cuisine education and his technical perfection (a Swiss trait, Claude says) in hand, and produce d a summer's work that so impressed both members and management that, at the end of the summer, he was offered a four year, year-round position as the country club's executive chef.

Packing up his wife, Katherine, and their sons, Timothy and Christopher, Claude moved to Pinetop. He set out to produce a menu that offered something for everyone, with a Continental flair.

Chef of the Month
Claude Nicolet: A happy Chef in an Enviable Position
By Dave Jackson
Restaurateur of Arizona, July 1995

In 2006, Claude received his citizenship and is a US citizen.