MARC MEYER VICTORIA FREEMAN GINGER PIERCE
MARC MEYEREXECUTIVE CHEF & CO-OWNER
Five Points | Cookshop | Hundred Acres
For the last twenty years, Marc Meyer has carved a reputation out of a commitment to locally produced, seasonal and sustainable cuisine. His clean, unpretentious approach to flavor has wrought a style that is both innovative and warmly satisfying. “I am constantly looking for that essential quality, the essential purpose of my cooking,” he says.
Meyer began his career in New York at The Odeon under celebrated chef Patrick Clark. From there, he traveled to Rome, trading in his butter for olive oil and beginning to explore the storied history of Italian cuisine. Whether it was the use of capers and anchovies to add flavor or using marinades and relishes in the place of sauces, the time Meyer spent in Italy laid the groundwork for his culinary philosophy and style.
Meyer returned stateside to work with legendary Chef Larry Forgione at An American Place before claiming his first executive chef position at Brasserie Savoy in San Francisco. The experience on the left coast exposed Meyer to the many challenges of running a successful restaurant and further refined his commitment to seasonal, ingredient-driven cuisine.
Back in New York, Meyer made a connection that would prove fortuitous years later; a young restaurateur named Vicki Freeman hired him to helm her restaurant, Vix. While he only cooked here for a short while before leaving to work with acclaimed Chef Jonathan Waxman as co-executive chefs of Ark Restaurants, the two developed a professional friendship that blossomed years later, when Meyer and Freeman married and ultimately partnered in the restaurant industry.
Anxious to introduce his culinary philosophies to the New York dining community, Meyer and Freeman created a successful formula that focused on the ideals of hospitality and excellent, simply prepared food. Their first independent venture, Five Points, opened in 1999 and has become a NoHo mainstay loved for its neighborhood feel and fantastic brunch.
Following the success of Five Points, Meyer and Freeman opened Cookshop, a Chelsea eatery, in 2005. Gaining as dedicated a clientele as Five Points, Cookshop and Meyer’s seasonally driven cuisine continues to delight diners and receive rave reviews.
In 2006, the opportunity arose for Meyer and Freeman to revive the beloved downtown haunt, Provence in New York’s SoHo. Viewing this as an incredible opportunity, they partnered with Aibhinn Wilson O’Keeffe to recreate the classic establishment adored by so many New Yorkers. In Spring 2008, the team realized their passion lay in sustainable American food, and decided to transform Provence into a casual neighborhood restaurant, Hundred Acres.
Meyer’s first cookbook, Brunch: Recipes from Five Points (Rizzoli), made many of the wildly popular items available at Five Points’ acclaimed brunch accessible to a broad audience of readers. It was published in October of 2005.
“You must constantly be evolving and learning in this business,” he says of the career that earned him the title of “Chef to Watch” from Gourmet Magazine and CityMeals. “As a human being, I feel obligated to choose sustainable products and to respect the source. As a chef, I feel obligated to create humble, delicious food that references what people truly want.”
VICTORIA FREEMAN
CO-OWNER
Five Points | Cookshop | Hundred Acres
Victoria Freeman’s passion for the restaurant industry started as a child. Aside from always dining out with her “foodie” parents, she recounts clear memories of attending and understanding cheese tastings—pretty impressive for a six-year-old. Upon moving to California in 1975, Freeman’s parents became the owners of a mostly organic American restaurant, further ingraining her love for the industry. In 1979, Freeman made her way back to New York, diving immediately into the city’s competitive food arena. Before long, she opened a catering company, which she owned and operated for 12 years. This achievement was followed by only another impressive endeavor; Freeman went on to open the famous “underground” restaurant, Vix. Freeman’s next stop was Columbus Bakery, a 100-seat café on New York’s Upper West Side, which she opened with Jonathan Waxman in 1994. Armed with consulting, catering, and ownership knowledge, Freeman and her husband, Chef Marc Meyer, opened Manhattan’s Five Points Restaurant in 1999. Five Points’ focus on simple seasonal food and its famous brunch established this restaurant as one of New York’s most popular, a title it has retained for eight years. In 2005, Freeman and Meyer opened Cookshop in Chelsea, offering New Yorkers more of the honest American cuisine for which the duo had become so well known. In 2008, Freeman and Meyer transformed SoHo’s Provence into Hundred Acres, a restaurant that offers accessible, farm-driven cuisine in a comfortable, relaxed atmosphere.
GINGER PIERCE CHEF
Five Points
Chef Ginger Pierce was raised in the San Francisco bay area where her parents had a keen appreciation for the bounty of fresh, local produce they found available in California. Her mother, an avid gardener, gave her an early affection for backyard produce, often yielding delicious tomatoes and a variety of fresh fruit. Following her family’s gate, Ginger attended the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco where she learned to utilize the fresh produce she grew up on. While in school she worked for the Grapevine Catering Company cooking for premier events in the Napa & Sonoma Valleys. Upon graduating, Ginger landed a job Roxanne’s restaurant in Marin County, California where she was often assigned to the task of selecting produce from the San Francisco Ferry Plaza farmer’s market as well as foraging for indigenous plants. When Roxanne’s closed its doors, Ginger reverted to her roots and learned the land the way her parents knew it by taking a job with Annabelle Lenderlink, at Star Route farms, harvesting vegetables and working at the Berkley Farmer’s market. “Hand picking haricot verts & harvesting fresh shell beans gives you a serious appreciation for all the work that goes in to what we eat.”
On a whim and a prayer, Ginger and her boyfriend, Preston Madson (now chef of Freemans restaurant) jumped in his van and set course for New York City. Knowing no one and having little reference to the city but a Zagat's guide to New York, Preston and Ginger landed jobs at Barbuto Restaurant working under Chef Jonathan Waxman . It was there Ginger went from line cook to Sous Chef, and realized a serious love for all things Italian. Jonathan, a fantastic teacher, instilled in Ginger a serious appreciation for simplicity. From Barbuto Ginger went on to Provence restaurant and finally to Five Points. “At Five Points I get to create food I would want to eat on my day off: food that is fun, accessible and totally market driven. Jason and I both find great joy and inspiration from the market each day and our dishes reflect just that.