Eric Ziebold, chef of CityZen at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington, D.C., is happy to be back in the nation’s capital after spending more than eight years with Thomas Keller at the French Laundry.

Growing up in Iowa, he enjoyed cooking, working side by side with his mother or testing recipes on his own. “I was always into food, but there’s a big difference between enjoying food and cooking professionally,” says Ziebold. He experienced that at age 16 when he started working in a restaurant and decided he liked the lifestyle. After high school he went to the University of Northern Iowa, studying finance, but after two years transferred to the CIA.

Ziebold’s first job after the CIA was with Vidalia, a Washington, D.C., restaurant run by Jeffrey Buben, where he worked as a chef de partie, saucier, and poissonier. He then went to Spago in Los Angeles as its chef de partie. In 1994 he moved north to Yountville, California, to work at the French Laundry. Ziebold worked with Keller for eight-and-a-half years, eventually becoming chef de cuisine, and helped open Per Se in New York.

Despite the charms of living in California, Ziebold had a soft spot for Washington, D.C. In 2004, a friend who worked with Mandarin Oriental mentioned they were opening a hotel in D.C. In the blink of an eye, Ziebold interviewed, got the job, and started with Mandarin Oriental in June in preparation for CityZen’s grand opening in September.

Working for a hotel is very different, admits Ziebold, especially when it comes to paperwork. “We’re action people more than we are sitting-atdesks-writing-on-paper people.” At the same time, he says, there are perks, such as the resources available. For example, one Friday night the oven went out at the beginning of service. He called engineering and it was fixed by 6.

Ziebold was not involved with the naming or design of CityZen. It was originally designed with Jean Georges Vongerichten and an Asian seafood concept in mind, but that deal fell through. “I said to them straight up if you’re looking for someone to do Asian food I’m the wrong person,” Ziebold recalls. Ultimately, he was granted virtual autonomy. “They’ve been very good about letting us operate like an independent restaurant. We’re under their umbrella, but when it comes to decisions about the menu, they let us sort through that.”

New York-based tonychi and associates designed the restaurant and kitchen. Diners enter either through the lobby or from the street through tall frosted art glass doors. They are greeted with a long “fire wall” behind the bar. The dining room, with 20-foot ceilings, is shaded in warm natural tones with walnut floors, rough grey limestone-clad columns, grass cloth walls, and dupioni silk drapes. It’s contemporary and old world at the same time.

Ziebold cooks in a roughly 300-square-foot presentation kitchen, open from about chest level up to a 20-foot ceiling. A massive hammered stainless steel hood dominates the kitchen. The back walls are clad in predominantly green glass mosaic squares.

Ziebold made a few changes in the kitchen. He created more usable counter space to help with plating. He pulled out a five-foot grill and two woks and replaced them with French burners. There are several things he’d like to change— namely to pull out the South Bend cooking suite and replace it with equipment from Montague. Also on his wish list is his own ice-cream machine, currently shared with the pastry department. “When there are banquets and they’retrying to spin ice creams at the same time we’re trying to spin our stuff, it’s a challenge.”

Ziebold initially wasn’t keen on being on display. “But it doesn’t bother me as much as I thought it would. I’m not the yelling and screaming type of chef anyway, and I have a fantastic staff, so everybody communicates easily ... we operate at a pretty calm, methodical pace. It’s nice because you can see the tables ... from a timing standpoint it’s easier to see if somebody’s done with something,” Ziebold says.

Occasionally, diners come by and talk. “The challenging thing about that is I’m very much a part of service, so you try and have a conversation with someone but the show must go on.”

Influences

Traces of his upbringing influence Ziebold’s cuisine. As an Iowa native, Ziebold says, “It’s no secret I have an affinity for pork.” His home also inspired the Parker House rolls that are a restaurant signature.

“We didn’t eat a lot of bread with dinner,” says Ziebold, “but the one time we had bread was on a special occasion like Christmas or Thanksgiving … we proof [the rolls] to order, bake them to order, they come out warm in this little box, and they’re still attached to each other …it just tastes good and makes people happy.”

Mushroom fritters served with a white truffle emulsion are another CityZen signature. “Frequently you hear people say I’ll take a basket of those.”

A corned beef tongue was inspired by Ziebold’s mother who corned her own beef. “She used an earthenware crock, put the brine on top of the beef, and placed a rock on top. It was always the same rock,” recalls Ziebold.

Ziebold spends a lot of time cultivating relationships with vendors, establishing contacts to learn “who goes hunting for wild mushrooms, who’s got the best fish, who’s got the best strawberries.”

Ziebold once wanted to use lamb’s feet, but his purveyor, Keith Martin of Elysian Fields Farms in Western Pennsylvania, told him he couldn’t ship it because the FDA had no procedure to inspect and approve it. Ziebold forgot about his inquiry, then got a call almost a month later from Martin saying the feet were being shipped. Martin had worked with an FDA inspector just to accommodate Ziebold and initiate a policy. There might be other farmers who raise lamb that tastes as good, says Ziebold, but not everyone will go the lengths Martin did.

The support is reciprocal. At Christmas, Martin called Ziebold to say one of his major clients had shut down for the season and he had a surplus of lamb. He asked if Ziebold could feature it. Ziebold instantly came up with recipes to fill that gap.

“That’s my part of the process—to support him so he’s economically viable. When I want to try a crazy idea like lamb’s feet he’s not worried about his bank account and makes it happen.”

Ziebold has a similar relationship with Amish farmers who supply him with butter and vegetables. This past spring they sent him unripe rhubarb. Rather than return it, the pastry chef and sous chef brainstormed and considered turning it into a salad, similar to a Vietnamese green papaya salad, or pickling and serving it like a stalk of celery in a Bloody Mary. Eventually, Ziebold juiced the rhubarb, turning it into a gazpacho served with soft shell crabs.“In fifteen minutes, we found four or five creative ways to use a product most would have sent back because it wasn’t exactly what they were looking for,” he says, implying it may be mistakes, not necessity, that are the mother of invention.

Ziebold is still getting a handle on the D.C. market. Sweetbreads, tripe, and tongue sell well. And, surprisingly, 15 percent of diners order his vegetarian tasting menu. “We take the craft of cooking and apply it to vegetables, in some cases treating them like meat or fish.”

Only about 2 percent of hotel guests dine at CityZen, Ziebold estimates. Guests are more likely to eat at the hotel’s other restaurant, Café Mozu, which has an Asian flair and handles all hotel food service and banquets. Ziebold thinks that ratio is good for the Mandarin: “We’re bringing Washingtonians to the hotel because of the restaurant.”

CityZen is open Tuesday through Saturday, with Tuesday being surprisingly busy. On an average night CityZen has 70 diners, jumping to about 100 on weekends. A typical day for Ziebold runs from around 10 to almost midnight. After hours he may join other Washington, D.C., area hotel chefs like Michel Richard at Citronelle at the Latham, Fabio Trabocchi with Maestro at the Ritz Carlton, or Patrick O’Connell at the Inn at Little Washington. He works hard but plays hard.

When cooking at home, Ziebold prefers simple one-pot dishes or using the grill. “The beauty of a grill is you use it, don’t do much when you’re done, then add a little charcoal the next time and it burns off and you’re ready to go again.” He has a lot of gadgets. His favorite toy is a pasta machine “because I’d rather spend an extra five minutes to make fresh pasta than use dried pasta.”

CityZen closes twice a year, which lets Ziebold indulge his passion for travel. Lately, He’s been spending time in Asia. Always sampling cuisines, some of that trickles into his menus. “Not to say we do fusion food, because we don’t, but I see ingredients in different places and take that back and let it influence what I’m doing.”

At the Peninsula in Hong Kong he had a dish of sautéed bean leaves, shredded dried scallop, and Chinese brown sauce. The leaves intrigued him. “They were like fava bean leaves with the richness of a shelling bean and the fresh flavor of a green bean.” Haunted by the flavor, he concocted a dish of creamed fava leaves with roasted mushrooms and red wine sauce. The dish wasn’t remotely Asian, yet he was influenced by something experienced in Asia.

CityZen has raked in the accolades. Esquire named it one of the best new restaurants in 2005, Food and Wine named Ziebold one of America’s best new chefs, and Mobil awarded the restaurant four stars and AAA four diamonds. But the award Ziebold is most proud of is the “RAMMY ” from the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington, which rated CityZen the best new restaurant in 2005. Ziebold says none of his 12-member team had cooked together before and that it is more gratifying to be recognized as part of a team than an individual.

Beth Rogers is a frequent contributor to HOTEL F&B EXECUTIVE.