When does four plus five add up to the perfect ten? When Jean Robert de Cavel has his way! The former chef of five-star restaurant Maisonette turned the former four-star eatery Pigall's into a nationally recognized dining destination in record time.

Jean-Robert de Cavel is, the press says, eccentric but unpretentious, creative but not overpowering. He was born in Roubaix, France. After graduating from an apprenticeship at Le Feguide culinary school in Lille, he was chosen to work under Master Chef Joe Rostang at La Bonne Auberge, a Michelin three-star restaurant in Antibes, France. Chef Rostang later sent Jean-Robert to the Malihouana Hotel in Anguilla, British West Indies and eventually to New York City, where at 26 years old, he became the Executive Chef of Le Regence restaurant at the Hôtel Plaza Athénée. Le Regence was soon given three stars by the New York Times and referred to as "one of the best French restaurants in the city."

After 8 years in New York, Jean-Robert moved to Cincinnati, Ohio in 1993 to take the helm as Chef de Cuisine at the Maisonette, the longest-running Mobil five-star restaurant in the country. Jean-Robert extended Maisonette's string of excellence, earning the restaurant seven more five-star ratings before leaving in 2001 to pursue his dream of opening his own restaurant.

It takes enormous confidence, a large dose of brio, and just a bit of lunacy to open your first restaurant on the same site as a beloved dining establishment-and then to give it the same name. Well, almost the same name. Pigall's, for those of you unfamiliar with the city's dining scene, was the onetime jewel in Cincinnati's gastronomic crown. But de Cavel had a simple plan: prepare French-American cuisine so sublime that the memory of the original restaurant would fade. And that's just what happened in August 2002 with the unveiling of an extraordinary menu served in a modern Parisian setting… with a little New York ambiance and plenty of Cincinnati charm thrown in.

"I enjoy cooking in the Midwest because the seasons allow me to use ingredients and preparations from both the North and South of France. In winter, my cooking recalls the food of my childhood in Northern France - braised dishes, root vegetables, more meat and butter - but interpreted in a lighter, more modern style. In summer, I do things as we did in the South of France - tomatoes, zucchini, lighter fish, and olive oil.

"I also really look forward to the spring in Cincinnati when local farmers begin appearing at the back door of the restaurant, their pickup trucks overflowing with produce picked that day. Their products are as good as what we can buy from California or the south. The changing availability of local fruits and vegetables allows me to change our menu precisely as products come in, in order to embrace the season's best."