Chef & Owner Bernard Althaus

Following in the footsteps of his family, who have owned and operated Restaurant de La Gare, a Hotel-Restaurant in Faoug (Canton de Vaud, a town in the French-influenced part of Switzerland) Bernard says that his desire to become a chef came the day he was born; "I was born in one of the rooms above the family restaurant. My first smell was that of food. It has been in my blood to become a chef since the day I was born."

Born and raised on the west side of the Alps, Althaus brings an earnest French/Swiss sensibility to his cuisine. Educated in Lausanne, he then served his apprenticeship there working at Chalet Suisse, before coming to the U.S. where he served as the chef for French team of the 1970 America's Cup. He then continued this journey as a private chef on charters in the Caribbean before returning to Switzerland.

In 1990, Bernard and his wife, along with their two children, came to Newport Beach for the wedding of a family uncle. With plans of traveling the U.S. they purchased a motor home and traveled the country for a year. Like many, they found the combination of beautiful weather, ocean, and nearby skiing irresistible and too good to leave behind.

After the relocation to Orange County, Althaus began cooking alongside fellow Swiss, Ernst Zingg at Le Celler in Fullerton, spent almost two years at Newport Beach's Pascal restaurant, then spent over five years at Mezzanine restaurant before opening Basilic in 1997. Althaus has since been spending most of his time perfecting his exquisite dishes and pleasing his clientele five nights a week on Balboa Island. At home he harvests his own garden to produce the fresh herbs used in his dishes (the name Basilic is actually the French word for basil- Althaus' favorite herb for seasoning) and grows the yellow and red, organic, heirloom tomatoes found in the seasonal Special Salad. Bernard also stops by the local Farmer's Market everyday to pick up fresh and organic (preferred) produce. In the kitchen, he prepares each dish and every dish to order, making sure each plate is served to perfection from the Swiss Onion Soup, the John Dory Filet, to the creme brulee!

Bon Appetit,
Bernard