From Rock Bottom to Rittenhouse: Lacroix’s Head Chef Shares His Inspiring Journey

Eric Leveillee in Lacroix’s kitchen. / Photograph by Mike Prince

Behind the Line is Foobooz’s interview series with the people who make up Philly’s dynamic bar and restaurant scene. For the complete archives, go here.

Ask Eric Leveillee what matters most in the kitchen of Lacroix at The Rittenhouse, and he’ll tell you it’s technique. Above the concept, above the recipe, above all else (except maybe flavor), the dish’s execution matters most. When you see his signature caviar-topped potato risotto with every piece of potato hand-cut to the size of a grain of rice, you’ll realize that it’s not just the end product that Leveillee thinks matters most; it’s the process — all the tiny, precise steps that led to the plate.

But the road to perfection isn’t straightforward. It’s full of wrong turns, missed exits, and pitfalls — and Leveillee’s journey to Lacroix was definitely a bumpy ride.

At his lowest point, he was unhoused, addicted, and in and out of jail. His life was spiraling out of control, but if it weren’t for the help, love, and forgiveness from a few anchoring people in his life, he wouldn’t be where he is today. They gave him space to grow, space to mess up, a chance to believe that he could do better next time. It inspires him to pay it forward, offering mentorship and direction to other wayward travelers navigating the rough roads of the hospitality industry.

Here, Leveillee talks about how he started his career by trying to impress a girl, his obsession with precision, and how sometimes our greatest mistakes are our greatest lessons.

I came to Philly … from Rhode Island. I moved to go to Temple.

I graduated from Temple with … a degree in economics.

I didn’t go to … culinary school. A lot of times I’m just reading through cookbooks and thinking, Okay, I want to do this right. I’ve never done it before, but we’re going to put it on the menu at Lacroix in three weeks, so let’s figure it out.

I started working in the industry … so that I could meet a girl who I was attracted to. I was dining out at El Camino Real; she was my server, and I was like, I need to meet this person. So I took a job in the kitchen with Jen Zavala, who was actually the chef there at the time.

Within the first few months … we started dating, and then I asked her to marry me after dating for six months. I was 22 years old and engaged. We stayed together for a while, but we split up because I was really struggling at the time. And then I cleaned up my act, and five years later, I reached back out, and we got back together. We’re married now.

After working at El Camino Real … I was struggling with stuff, so I went back home to Rhode Island. I got a chance to work at Cook & Brown Public House for a chef named Nemo Bolin, who is a James Beard Award nominee. We changed the menu like every day; there were just two of us in the kitchen. It was pretty challenging. We had to work with local farms and all of that. And I got paid $300 a week or something like that. Yeah, it was pretty rough.

Plum-marinated lamb at Lacroix / Photograph by Mike Prince

When I moved back to Philly … I worked for Greg Vernick at Vernick Food & Drink. I started a few months after they opened. When I was there, reviews started coming out, and the roast chicken was the craziest thing anybody’s ever heard of. But I didn’t stay for long because I was still struggling at the time. I was only there for maybe six months. We parted on decent terms. We kind of just both decided it wasn’t for me. My father was actively dying while I was working at Vernick. He had lung disease, so he had a transplant. My life was in shambles.

After leaving Vernick Food & Drink … I stopped cooking for a while, trying to get my life back together. I was unhoused, addicted, and in and out of jail. At that point, my father passed away, and my mother passed away. I woke up one day and was thinking of my life before, and I thought to myself, This isn’t really how it’s supposed to go. I had one aunt who was helping me out. She knew I was going through all this stuff, but she was letting me come to it on my own accord, which I am eternally grateful for. I just called her one day and said I needed some help. And she sprung into action. I went through a state-run detox and halfway house.

When I got back to cooking … I worked for Whetstone Tavern with Jeremy Nolan and worked my way up from line cook to executive chef, and then I went to Marigold as executive chef.

I came to Lacroix … in 2019 after working as the executive chef at Marigold. I wanted to work for a chef who could mentor me. I knew Jon Cichon had really strong fundamentals. I wanted to learn sauce-making and stuff like that, and how to run a larger team.

Lacroix’s “Savoir Faire” menu / Photograph by Mike Prince

Jon Cichon taught me … a lot, and not just about how to cook. He coached me through buying my house, how to sign up for a 401(k), and a lot about managing a team.

When I first started as head chef at Lacroix, one of the biggest challenges was … reorganizing how we run the range of services we offer at the Rittenhouse Hotel. We have a ton of different outlets — there’s banquets, pastry, Lacroix lunch is much different than Lacroix dinner, and room service. Now we control the Scarpetta as well. Everything was blended together before, so we had a problem with turnover and finding people who were interested in doing the high-end foods that were also interested in doing burgers and turkey clubs for room service and lunch.

When I came in, I set pretty hard delineations between the services. So, instead of there being a cook who was cooking the tasting menu plus room service, I split that off. Then we had just a room service person. And that’s been really good. I’m able to hire people who are interested in doing that specific thing and retain them because they’re being challenged in the ways they want to be challenged. It’s better than having a cook who wants to cook super high-end stuff and them getting frustrated with making chicken fingers and stuff like that.

My favorite dish at Lacroix is … the potato risotto with the caviar and chive. It’s a good testament to my ethos. I believe in really heavy technique. I like technique above all else — above concept or flavor or whatever. If you can show technique, then it means you’re a talented chef. The flavors are simple, and it’s not like there’s a million things on the plate. It’s just potatoes that are cut meticulously, down into pieces the size of a grain of rice, and cooked perfectly and served with one other ingredient.

Bananas foster at Lacroix. / Photograph by Mike Prince

I’m constantly trying to find … not only what’s good for me, but what’s also good for my team. I didn’t have a mentor like that until Jon, which was pretty late in my career, so I try to make sure that other people do have that. It means that if we need to talk about how you present yourself in meetings with the finance director, I’m happy to bring you into those meetings so that you can learn. That means sitting down and going through food costs or inventory or anything like that — I’m happy to do that with people. Or I’ll sit in creative meetings with my line cooks and ask them if there are any dishes that they want to work on. Sometimes, dishes from those meetings end up on the menu.

The whole point of our Sunday brunch is … extravagance. It’s way too much food, it’s way too much work, and it’s supposed to be very abundant. I have a dedicated team that prepares brunch all week. They spend their time making canapés and building a raw bar. We have a six-item carving station; there’s a pastry room that’s filled with pastries, as well as an action station where we’ve done liquid nitrogen ice cream and s’mores and things like that. It’s a lot of fun.

My signature move is … technique. By technique, I just mean diving into very difficult, sometimes tedious tasks willingly.

Learn more about how Leveillee’s dedication to technique sets Lacroix apart in the video below and follow Foobooz on Instagram for more.