Jesus Roman Melendez was the “backbone” of Jean-Georges. On April 1, the coronavirus took his life. chrisecrowley writes
Jesus Roman Melendez cooking at Nougatine, where he worked for 20 years. Photo: BETOX004 The chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten is the obvious face of the restaurant Jean-Georges and its more casual café offshoot, Nougatine. Vongerichten is the person on TV, on cookbook covers. He’s the person who is prominently featured when one of his restaurants lands a glowing review.
“When I heard about Jesus’s death, I thought about all the other people who I have worked with. There are a thousand of those guys who are just the nameless, faceless workhorses who don’t get the love they deserve,” says Dean Shemeret, who worked with Melendez for two years and is now head of food and beverage for the Edition Hotels.
“He deserves to be put on a pedestal,” says Amelia Rampe, a food editor who worked at Nougatine in 2014 and 2015. “I don’t know a cook who went through JG who doesn’t have affection for this guy. Jean-Georges doesn’t run without Jesus and the rest of those guys,” she says. “I think everyone has pretty much the same story about him, because he was so consistent in the way he treated people,” says Olivia Razzano Pucciariello, who is now a sous-chef at Vongericheten’s ABC Kitchen. “These are all the things everybody said about him while he was still here.”
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