He goes for casual approach to changing times

Americans equate French restaurants with rich dishes and formal surroundings, but chef Jean-Marc Loustaunau of Libertyville's Cafe Pyrenees prefers a lighter style and a casual vibe.

Loustaunau, grew up in Bearn, in southwest France, near the Pyrenees mountains, a region that's known for its Spanish-influenced cuisine, and he hates to put on a tie. The chef and his wife, Mari, put these tastes to work when they opened the restaurant in 1990 in Vernon Hills and continued that vein when they relocated two years ago.

Loustaunau trained at Ecole Hotelierede Toulouse and apprenticed in Paris at Lucas Carton and Taillevent. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1978 to work at Le Titi de Paris, then in Palatine. There he met Mari, who was checking coats, and worked there for 12 years before the couple opened Cafe Pyrenees.

The Loustaunaus live in Cary and have three adult children, all of whom still help out in the restaurant.

What led you to become a chef? When I was 14 years old, I was cooking at home. My mother wasn't a cook. My family had a clothing business. Cooking was always something I wanted to do.

What brought you to the U.S.? I came in 1977 on vacation. I was working in Paris. The restaurant used to close for two weeks in August. So I came on vacation with three other chefs, and we came to New York, and we drove from New York to Florida -- in August!

Then I went back to Paris. A friend of mine was working Alouette in Highwood. He knew Pierre Pollin, the (former) owner of Le Titi de Paris. Pollin called me and I came here for one year, with a work permit.

After I stayed a while, I applied for the green card and I met my wife.

I think it was a good move. Sometimes you have to do something different.

What do you remember was different about cooking here? When I came here, I was surprised that the butter was salted. And when you do pastry with it, it tastes salty.

What really surprised me when I came here, though -- at night the customers used to come to eat at 5 o'clock. It gets dark so early. In Europe, people eat at 8 o'clock, 9 o'clock.

What's the secret of your 17 years of success? To succeed in the business, you need to be really into the restaurant. You need two good people -- one in the front and one in the back. My wife is really good in the front of the house. She knows our customers by their names.

Most of the people don't know me, which is fine. I think my wife is doing a great job with this. I'm more comfortable in my kitchen. My wife, she's very good. She knows the people and she knows just what they expect. To know the customer is important. We want them to feel they've been taken care of.

We try to keep the teamwork. Many of my employees have been with me 15 or 16 years.

We do our own stock for sauces. I have a big kettle. All the pastry we do here. We do the ice cream, the sorbets.

What kinds of changes have you made over the years? I've been trained very classic, but things change. In sauces, we use less butter, less cream. We try to do something different, to find new products. It's not just French. French is the technique.

High-end French spots have been closing lately. Is haute cuisine losing ground? Times are changing. People don't want to go to a place that's too stuffy. They want to come to a restaurant in shirtsleeves, in shorts. The want to go out two or three times a week to have fun, instead of once to a really expensive place.

The number of restaurants open today is enormous. Thirty years ago, high-end was just French. Today, you have very fine American restaurants, Italian, Mexican. There is no more monopoly.

Do you have favorite ingredients? I like the dishes from my area of France. I use a special pepper from the Basque area, a red pepper, pretty mild.

What do you do when you're not cooking? There's always something to do here. Even on Mondays, our days off, we come here to check on the cooler -- is it working? And I'm still working the line -- I'm not the executive chef with 10 people working under him. I'm here in the morning and I close at night.

I try to go to the movies sometimes. And I try to go out to eat someplace I can pick up ideas.

What kind of restaurants do you like? I like to go to casual places that I can go to in jeans and a shirt. I don't like a suit and tie.

Do you think there's a difference between city and suburban restaurants? It seems that in the city when a new place opens -- whoop! -- all the people go there. Then in two weeks when another new place opens -- whoop! -- they go there. In the suburbs people have more fidelity. We have good customers. People who know us and ask, "How are you doing?" "How are your children?"

What would you have been if you weren't a chef? I think I would have been an electrician or a plumber, maybe a carpenter. I could not work in an office. In the kitchen, you're always doing something different.

Tell us about this recipe. This is a very traditional French dish from our menu.

Try this at home or at Cafe Pyrenees, 1762 N. Milwaukee Ave., Libertyville (in Alder Square), (847) 918-8850, www.cafepyrenees.com.

Beef Bourguignon

1 tablespoon olive oil

2½ pounds beef chuck roll, cut into 1-inch cubes

2 large carrots, peeled and chopped

2 onions, peeled and chopped

1 rib celery, peeled and chopped

1 teaspoon chopped garlic

2 bay leaves

1 tablespoon flour

1 bottle (750 ml) Pinot Noir

2 cups beef broth

1 tablespoon tomato paste

Heat the oven to 325 degrees.

Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat and brown the beef on all sides. Remove the beef to a plate. To the pot add the chopped vegetables, garlic and bay leaves and toss until brown. Return the beef to the pan and sprinkle with flour. Cook, stirring with a wooden spoon, until the meat caramelizes.

Add the wine, beef broth and tomato paste; bring to a boil, cover. Remove from stovetop, transfer to oven and bake 2 hours or until the meat is tender.

Serves six.

Chef Jean-Marc Loustaunau, Café Pyrenees, Libertyville