Jean Francois Meteigner

* The chef-owner of La Cachette came to Los Angeles in 1980 to be executive chef at L’Orangerie before opening his own restaurant in 1994. He received the Outstanding American Chef award from the Grand Master Chefs of America and is president of the Club Culinaire of French Cuisine/California.

Stewed Meat and Dove: I go to two French restaurants which are completely different from each other. I go to L’Orangerie because I’m still friends with Gerard [Ferry] and I go eat with him there. I invite him to La Cachette and he invites me to L’Orangerie. At L’Orangerie, they usually have chefs over there who cook kind of the way I cook with lighter food without cream and butter and stuff like that. I also go to Mimosa because Jean-Pierre [Bosc] is very good at country French cooking like stew, dove and pasta with stewed meat. He’s one of the best in town for that.

Giant Bowls of Soup: We go to a Japanese ramen place with the kids on Sawtelle called Asashi. We have the gyozas and a salad with cucumbers and chicken. And we have the soup with noodles, and it’s lightly spicy with lots of vegetables and not too many noodles. It’s light, very casual. The kids can make a mess and nobody bothers.

Volleyball With Chefs: Usually on Sunday in July and August, we go to the beach in the Marina or Malibu, and we play volleyball and we bring sandwiches and stuff. We have a picnic and the kids can play on the beach. We play volleyball with six to 10 people, always the same people. They are chefs, people from the restaurant business, people who sell wine and the manager of the Regency Club. Some of the waiters from La Cachette come with us. If they are not mad at me, they usually come.

Fish and Fondue: I like to go to Mammoth in the summer. But the thing is, when I go to Mammoth I need two days off and that doesn’t happen very often. But when I go, outside of Bishop I like to go fly-fishing. In the winter, we go skiing. Usually, we do a lot of cooking in Mammoth. We went to a Swiss place one time to have a cheese fondue. But there’s not much stuff to do in Mammoth at night.

On the Boardwalk: Saturday, I always work. But sometimes, I go play paddle tennis in Venice and I go to work around 2 p.m. We used to play a lot, but my back went out a year ago, so I play a little less. We go roller-blading there on Sundays. We usually roller-blade to Malibu and play volleyball.

Just for the Kids: We shop a lot at Whole Foods, the one on National, especially for meat, fish and vegetables for the house. It’s like Gelson’s, but they have a lot of organic vegetables, fruits and chicken. It’s especially for the kids, because I don’t eat at the house that much. That’s why my wife likes Whole Foods so much. They have some great items like frozen shrimp, organic chicken and fresh roasted turkey. But it’s expensive, so it’s all for the kids. My wife and I eat at the restaurant most of the time, which is just as good.