Jay Veregge - Executive Chef, Big Water Grille

Jay Veregge, Executive Chef Big Water Grille - Lake Tahoe’s Premier Fine Dining Restaurant

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About Chef Jay

Chef Jay Veregge Executive Chef Big Water Grille Lake TahoeJay Veregge, Executive Chef of Big Water Grille, brings a wealth of experience to the Lake Tahoe fine dining scene. Chef Veregge has worked for famed establishments including Stars and Tadich Grill in San Francisco. During the mid 1990s he owned and operated Tarot in Berkeley.

“Being a chef means more than running a large kitchen and being treated like a celebrity,” he admits, “I’ve had some truly grand experiences. I’ve cooked for the King of Spain, rock stars - Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin used to summon me regularly - and I’ve played golf with President Ford. But my real love is to be hands on in my own kitchen where I can touch the food myself.”

Chef Jay’s new cutting edge style is a fusion of Indian, Persian and Thai flavors with the classical French techniques that he mastered while training in France.

Veregge was born into the restaurant business. His grandfather, Burt Veregge, an accomplished chef who came to the United States from the Basque region of France near the border of Spain, owned a popular French Basque restaurant in Stockton, California. Veregge started working at the restaurant when he was 13 years of age. He learned to do everything in the old style way, from making sauces and pasta to butchering their own cuts of meat. At home, his Italian mother, Maria, graced the family table with traditional dishes such as banga calda, fresh pasta, and garden vegetables.

“I was immersed in good food and all of the family living that goes with it until I left for cooking school in France when I was 17,” he recalls. “It wasn’t exactly by choice that I went so early. I was acting like an American teenager, which did not fly with my European parents. I had two choices: cooking school or
the service.”

An aura of success has accompanied Veregge’s career since he first arrived in France to study at the French Academy of Culinary Arts in Lyon. The three-year course was rigorous. Of the 13 students who started, 6 graduated. “ I worked really hard, but it came very naturally,” he recalls. “My grandfather’s training had given me a tremendous foundation.”

During his time at the academy Veregge gained so much respect from Jon Noel, Chef/owner of Michelin rated Le Sol in Nice, and the head instructor, that he was invited to work for him and live with his family after graduating. He learned basic French bakery where no measuring is involved and received certification in charcuterie, as a saucier, poissonier, and chocolatier. “I became certified in everything but Executive Chef which one doesn’t receive until the age of 30 in France,” he explains. “ I got excellent formal training which has served me well.”

Veregge then spent two years in Majorca, Spain adding fresh seafood to his repertoire before returning the United States where he spent three months as Chef de Cuisine at Slates in New York. Back in California he worked at Escargot in San Francisco while attending The University of California, Davis, earning a Bachelors degree in wine science. “I developed an interest in wine and started collecting while I was in France,” he says. “I knew that a university degree would make me even more valuable as a chef.”

Veregge then spent three years at Stars in San Francisco as Executive Sous Chef. Furthering his career he next served as Executive Sous Chef at San Francisco’s Hotel Donnetello/Portobello before moving on to become Executive Chef/Partner at Le Bistro Restaurant in Lake Tahoe. The next step in his career was to open Tarot in 1995.

According to Veregge, The Tadich Grill in San Francisco where he served as Executive Chef from 2001 until 2003 is the most professionally run restaurant he has ever worked for. “The owners have extremely high standards that are adhered to by the staff and their families. They provided me with sound business practices I’ve been able to incorporate into other projects, including opening Augusta and taking over at The Big Water Grille,” he says.

Returning to a smaller restaurant where he has the opportunity to be creative in his own kitchen and to develop relationships with his customers, Veregge is energized and inspired. “The Big Water Grille is rustically refined,” he says. “We enjoy a fabulous view of Lake Tahoe and have beautiful patio that’s perfect for Spring, Summer and early Autumn dining. Our bar has a cozy atmosphere trimmed in warm wood and its own menu. We make our own charcuterie and are constantly pushing the boundaries of what it means to be a fine dining restaurant in Lake Tahoe.”

“I am here to make people happy,” he continues. “I love it when they are enthralled with my food. We chefs are petty tough, but we are sensitive and compassionate and need a lot of praise. We figure out how to get it: through our art. I am really proud of what I do and love being a chef.”

Veregge, his wife Kaitlyn, a law school graduate, and his 16 year-old son Christopher, are enjoying their life in beautiful Incline Village, one of Lake Tahoe’s most sought after residential towns. He is in the process of writing a book he calls The American Chef, emerging from 2,000 pages he has written in his journals since the age of 15. “I plan to finish the book now that we are settled here in Lake Tahoe, while I take the Big Water Grille to a new level.”

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