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An Armenian chief, French food and a side of homesickness

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  • An Armenian chief, French food and a side of homesickness

    Glendale News Press, CA
    Sept 2 2012


    Start the Presses: An Armenian chief, French food and a side of homesickness


    By Dan Evans

    September 2, 2012 | 1:00 a.m.
    The L'Eden Restaurant & Bar sits on the corner of Tampa and Madison
    streets in downtown Tampa, about five blocks away from where the
    Republican National Convention was held this week.

    The owner and executive chief, Gerard Jamgotchian, sat down with me on
    Thursday in his nearly empty establishment.

    `Business has been terrible, just terrible,' he said as two-dozen
    khaki-clad police officers walked by the large picture windows. `There
    is no access, no parking.'

    Jamgotchian, whose grandparents fled the Armenian Genocide near the
    turn of the century, is from Marseille, France. The 55-year-old has
    lived and worked in New York, the Caribbean, California and all across
    Europe. The menu - unique in the Tampa area - has dishes inspired from
    all of those places.

    He said with a smile that neither he nor his parents have ever been to
    Armenia, but said his love of cooking was inspired by his
    grandparents.

    `My grandparents, their priority was cooking,' he said. `From the time
    they woke up, cooking. All day. I loved it.'

    His mother was not nearly as keen on the idea, Jamgotchian said,
    saying she forbade him from entering the field.

    `She wanted me to be a doctor or something,' he said. `So, I got my
    degree in optometry, threw it back on the table and went back to
    culinary school.'

    The business, which he has owned since 2004, has been successful, and
    he has been able to open a second location. That one, however, is
    behind the secure perimeter near the Tampa Bay Times Forum - the site
    of the RNC - and has been closed this entire week.

    Despite this material success - Jamgotchian lives in one of Tampa's
    nicer neighborhoods and rives around in a 1965 Citroen Traction Avant
    - he says he's completely and utterly homesick.

    `What's missing is family, friends, a social life,' said Jamgotchian.

    `You've been here for years, though,' I pressed. `No friends here?'

    `Acquaintances,' he said. `No one I would really call friends.'

    According to ArmenianDisapora.com, a Glendale-based website, there are
    slightly less than 4,000 people of Armenian dissent living in the
    Tampa Bay area. I asked Jamgotchian if he spends any time with other
    Armenians.

    He said a beautiful church - St. Hagop Armenian Church - was recent
    built in nearby Pinellas Park, `But, I'm sad to say, I never go.'

    Despite all this, Jamgotchian doesn't see himself headed back to France soon.

    `If I head back, after a couple weeks, I'd be homesick for America,'
    he said. `I don't think I'd be able to have a restaurant in France.
    Too many taxes, too much. It would be so much harder to do my
    passion.'

    Besides, Jamgotchian said he loves America, despite its social challenges.

    `I have the best of everything,' he said. `Full-blooded Armenian, born
    in France and naturalized American. So, yes, I chose to be American.'

    With that opening, I decided to ask him how he stood in the election.
    Jamgotchian gave me a look.

    `As French people, we really tend not to say these things,' he said.
    `That being said, I think Obama is doing a good job.'

    He said Mitt Romney, his wife Ann and one of their children - he isn't
    sure which one - stopped by the restaurant for breakfast about six
    months ago.

    `I didn't even know it was him,' he laughed, `I guess he didn't make a
    big impression. One of my waiters had to point him out.'

    http://www.glendalenewspress.com/opinion/tn-0902-start-the-presses-an-armenian-chief-french-food-and-a-side-of-homesickness,0,2539886.story

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