NEW YORK - To see him and to hear him, you'd think Jean-Georges Vongerichten a typical French chef. He grew up in Alsace, on the French-German border, "with a lot of rich food, foie gras and sauerkraut."

This genial, 41-year-old "chef's chef," who's been collecting accolades the way Mark McGwire collected home runs, trained in a Michelin three-star restaurant and worked in the South of France, learning and using the techniques and ingredients that for hundreds of years have defined French gastronomy as one of the wonders of the Western world.

But, in 1980, when he was 23, Vongerichten took a turn to the East.

He was working at L'Oasis, on the French Riviera, for noted chef-entrepreneur Louis Outhier. Outhier needed someone to go a restaurant in Bangkok, Thailand. Vongerichten went.

It was a voyage that took him from tradition to innovation. In its recent passages, his journey has swept up the restaurant-going public in New York with a whole new style of cooking - and along the way, it snagged Vongerichten the title of outstanding chef of 1998 from the James Beard Foundation.

Baltimore chef Cindy Wolf, of Charleston in the East Harbor area, chose Vongerichten's Jean Georges restaurant recently as the place to celebrate her birthday, with her husband and fellow restaurateur Tony Foreman.

"The food is perfection," she said. "It's presented in a beautiful way, with the best ingredients - it's real food that has real depth and flavor."

His impact on the restaurant world has been to remind everyone that such perfection is possible, Wolf said, without the excess that has characterized some "modern" restaurant food. "He doesn't do crazy stuff to make himself stand out," she said.

Sitting in the dining room of Jean Georges, his newest restaurant (of several) in New York, Vongerichten says simply, "I've always been interested in new things."

He has positioned himself between the long, blond bar and the big open kitchen, with his cell phone cradled in one hand. Outside, lunch-time pedestrians trying to get into Central Park vie with traffic on Columbus Circle, but inside, amid pale colors and a subtle grid theme - by celebrated designer Adam Tihany - everything runs smoothly, without fuss.

The air of discreet accomplishment comes partly from the "silent splendor" of the address, as the Nation's Restaurant News noted in 1997, when the building and the restaurant opened. But it also arises from a certain understated confidence reported by New York Times restaurant critic Ruth Reichl when she gave the year-old restaurant a rare four-star review this past April: "In his quiet way the chef and co-owner, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, is creating a restaurant revolution."

The revolution began when Vongerichten spent four years in the Orient, in Bangkok, Singapore and Hong Kong. The experience changed him, and it changed his whole approach to food.

"I had learned all the traditional ways of cooking," he says, "the stocks and the sauces, the hours of preparation. And the first day I am in Bangkok, they put a soup together in 10 minutes." He laughs, remembering the surprise. "It opened up a whole new horizon for me."

It was in Bangkok that he first encountered the Asian tastes he still loves - cumin, lemon grass, ginger, fish sauce, cilantro. "I was cooking in the French style, but every day I was eating - breakfast, lunch and dinner - Thai food," he recalls.

He had other postings - Geneva, London, Portugal and, finally, the United States, landing at Restaurant Lafayette, on the upper East Side of Manhattan. By the mid-'80s, he was becoming famous for the juice-based reductions and flavored oils that gave his food complex flavor without smothering it in butter or cream.

The new style of cooking resulted in part from his discovery of how the American way of dining out differed from the European model he had grown up with. "People in New York go out to dinner five or six times a week," he said. "In Europe, people eat in restaurants for an occasion. In the U.S., they stay home for an occasion."

People who dine out every night don't want heavy food, he says. And when they go to lunch, they don't want to spend three hours over the meal. "That's when I started my style with vinaigrettes and reductions. I tried to create food people could eat every day."

In 1991, he opened his first restaurant, JoJo. The place is small - some call it a bistro - but it gave him the freedom he needed to develop his own palette of flavors. "I always wanted to do a combination of French technique and Asian food - herbs and vegetables and spices," he says. A year later he opened a second restaurant, Vong, where the food is Southeast Asian - with French accents.

Then, a couple of years ago, he decided it was time to "get back to grand dining," and he opened Jean Georges at One Central Park West, in the landmark tower completely renovated by Donald Trump. Celebrities such as Woody Allen, Diane Sawyer and Harrison Ford have been spotted in the dining room. But, even though the restaurant opened to critical acclaim, it remains, for Vongerichten, a creative playground where he can experiment with the techniques and flavors that intrigue him.

"He has the best palate of anyone I ever met," says Mark Bittman, chef and author who teamed up with Vongerichten on his new book, "Jean-Georges: Cooking at Home With a Four-Star Chef" (Broadway Books, 1998, $35). "He's able to combine flavors in ways most other people can't even think about."

The book is already No. 1 on the Los Angeles Times list of "hot cookbooks."

Bittman, who had gotten to know Vongerichten as a food journalist, was intrigued but skeptical about being able to

translate Vongerichten's "really unbelievable" restaurant food into dishes home cooks could tackle.

But Vongerichten told him it would be no problem, because everything he cooks is really simple.

"We spent a day cooking together," Bittman recalls. "We made 15 dishes, and 14 of them I thought were just fine for home cooks."

A favorite Vongerichten sauce is an unlikely combination of pureed capers and raisins, seasoned with a little nutmeg, sherry vinegar and salt and pepper.

"It's the way I like to eat," Vongerichten says. "It's much fresher, much cleaner. When you cook a stock for 10 hours, all you have left at the end is a sticky bone taste. Who wants to eat sticky bones?"

He dismisses all that fussy French tradition with a shrug. "A hundred years ago it was OK, when there was no refrigeration. Now it's 2000, it's over."

His quest for the new continues. He loves the city's green markets, and shops three times at week at the one in Union Square. But his current passion is for what most people might consider weeds.

"Here [at Jean Georges] we use a lot of wild herbs," he says, asking an assistant to bring a plate of examples, so a visitor can sample lovage, lamb's quarters, wood sorrel and garlic mustard.

"We use lovage in soups," Vongerichten says of the plant that looks somewhat like celery, with a sharper taste and an almost citrus-y edge. "When I was growing up, we had these bushes outside the door. I would put the leaves in all the soups."

To find the wild herbs he is using, Vongerichten went foraging with an ethnobotanist. "I tell my chefs, there are no new fish coming out of the sea. The role for a chef, for me, is to bring new flavors to the table."

Peach Gratin

Serves 4-6

3 egg yolks

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup champagne or other sparkling wine

3 tablespoons butter

4 large peaches, about 6 ounces each

1 cup currants, berries or pitted cherries

1/2 cup heavy cream

To make a sabayon sauce for topping, combine egg yolks, sugar and champagne in a saucepan, and bring to a boil over high heat, whisking all the while. When the mixture foams up, continue to beat for 1 minute. Cool, then refrigerate. (If you're serving the dish right away, cool by placing the bowl in a larger bowl filled with ice and water; stir occasionally.)

Bring a pot of water to a boil and submerge the peaches (one or two at a time) in the water until their skins loosen, about 30 seconds. Drop into a bowl of ice water and peel when they cool down. Pit and slice.

Melt the butter in a large nonstick skillet over high heat. When the foam subsides, add the peaches; brown them lightly, just for 1 to 2 minutes, then turn over and brown on the other sides, again for just a minute.

Arrange the peaches in a gratin dish or in 4 or 6 small bowls; garnish with the currants. Preheat the broiler.

Whip the cream until it barely holds a soft peak, then stir it into the sabayon. Spoon the sabayon over the peaches and run the dish or dishes under the broiler until the sauce is nicely browned on top. Serve immediately.

Cucumber Salad With Lemon Grass

Serves 4

1/2 cup white vinegar

1 Thai chili, very finely minced

1 clove garlic, very finely minced

2 stalks lemon grass (see note)

3 cups thinly sliced cucumber

1 cup bean sprouts

1 cup cubed jicama, apple or Asian pear

1/2 cup shredded carrot

1/2 cup minced mint and cilantro, mixed

1 tablespoon nam pla or nuoc mam (Asian fish sauce)

L 1 tablespoon canola, grapeseed or other neutral-flavored oil

1/4 cup roughly chopped mint leaves, plus more for garnish

1/4 cup roughly chopped cilantro leaves, plus more for garnish

Combine the vinegar, chili and garlic in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Cover and let cool while you prepare the other ingredients.

Trim 1 stalk of lemon grass (see note) and chop it roughly. Place it in a saucepan with 1/2 cup water, cover and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat and let cool. (Do not discard water.)

Trim the other stalk of lemon grass, then peel off enough layers to expose its tender core. Finely mince enough to make about 1 tablespoon.

Combine the cucumber, bean sprouts, jicama, carrot, minced mint and cilantro, nam pla, oil and the roughly chopped mint leaves and cilantro in a bowl.

Add the minced lemon grass, the cooled vinegar and 1/4 cup of the lemon grass water. Toss together, let rest for a minute, then remove to another bowl with a slotted spoon.

Garnish with chopped mint and cilantro leaves and serve.

Note: Lemon grass is available in the produce section at many supermarkets these days; or look for it in Asian specialty food stores. The outer layers are tough; trim as directed before using.

Scallops and Cauliflower With Caper-Raisin Sauce

Serves 4

1/3 cup capers, drained of all but 1 tablespoon of their liquid

1/3 cup golden raisins

1 cup water, divided use

8 to 12 cauliflower florets

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter

4 tablespoons canola, grapeseed or other neutral-flavored oil

salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons minced parsley leaves

12 large sea scallops (at least 1 pound) cut in half through their equators

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg, plus a little more

1 tablespoon sherry vinegar

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. Combine the capers and raisins in a small saucepan and add 3/4 cup water; simmer gently until the raisins are plump, about 10 minutes. Do not cook rapidly; you don't want to reduce the liquid. Let the mixture cool a couple of minutes, then puree it in a blender. Return it to the saucepan.

Meanwhile, use a sharp knife or mandoline (see note) to cut the cauliflower florets into 1/4-inch slices; you will need a total of 24 slices. Place 1 tablespoon each butter and oil in a large skillet and saute the cauliflower over medium-high heat; do this in 2 or more batches to avoid crowding (add another tablespoon of butter and oil when necessary). Season it with salt and pepper as it cooks. Don't turn it too often; you want it to brown nicely. Total cooking time will be about 10 minutes, after which the cauliflower should be brown and crisp-tender. Remove and keep warm in a bowl in the oven.

Deglaze the pan by heating [ cup water in it and scraping the bottom over high heat for a minute or two. Add the parsley and pour this juice over the cauliflower; gently stir and return the cauliflower to the oven while you cook the scallops.

Place 1 tablespoon each butter and oil in another large ovenproof skillet and turn the heat to medium-high. When the butter foams, add the scallops and cook on one side only until nicely browned, 2 to 3 minutes. Again, do this in batches to avoid crowding (adding another tablespoon of butter or oil when necessary). Remove the scallops from the pan as they brown and season with salt and pepper; keep warm in the oven.

Reheat the sauce, then add the nutmeg, vinegar, and pepper and salt, if needed. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Spoon a little of the sauce onto each of 4 serving plates. Place 6 scallop pieces, browned side up, on each plate; top each scallop with a piece of cauliflower. Finish with a tiny grating of nutmeg.

Note: A mandoline is a long, flat slicing device. It can be found at specialty housewares shops and in catalogs. While not essential kitchen equipment, it makes very short work of precision slicing, and is nice to have around. The metal ones, most of them !B imported from Europe, can be expensive, $150 or more; plastic ones, mostly imported from Japan, are less versatile, but cost around $50.

Simmered Carrots With Cumin and Orange

Serves 4

1 pound carrots, the fresher the better, preferably about _ inch at their thickest and about 6 to 8 inches long

1 teaspoon cumin seeds (not ground cumin)

1 tablespoon grated or minced orange zest

1 tablespoon minced garlic

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

pinch salt

1/8 teaspoon sugar

1 cup orange juice, preferably freshly squeezed

1 teaspoon lime or lemon juice

2 tablespoons chopped cilantro

Trim and peel the carrots; leave them whole if they are the size recommended. (If your carrots are bigger, peel them and cut them into chunks or in half the long way.) Select a saucepan large enough to hold them, and place the cumin, orange zest, garlic, oil, salt, sugar and orange juice in it. Turn the heat to medium and bring to a boil, stirring.

Add the carrots, cover and turn the heat to low. The mixture should be bubbling gently, not vigorously, whenever you remove the cover.

Cook, virtually undisturbed (you can check the progress if you like), for about 1 1/2 hours, or until the carrots are very tender but not yet falling apart.

rTC Gently stir the lime juice into the carrots. Sprinkle with cilantro, stir once, and serve.

Pub Date: 10/07/98