Ma maison patrick terrail restaurateurs

Home / Celebrity Biographies / Ma maison patrick terrail restaurateurs

It was about people. Terrail shares vivid anecdotes about the opening years, the challenges he faced—including an infamous bad review—and how he returned to his French roots to refine his vision. Its spirit endures in every trendy LA restaurant with a patio dining area and in every star who still believes that dinner can be an event. Chow (1974-present)
“On the night of the Beverly Hills opening in 1974, Olivia de Havilland, Eartha Kitt, Clint Eastwood and Robert Wise showed up.

In pioneering this unique atmosphere, Terrail introduced to the world what he called California nouvelle, a concept that seemed radical at the time and would come to dominate California cuisine for decades. “It doesn’t matter what business you want to be in, and success isn’t the right word for what you’re working for,” he said.

The perennially warm LA could now foster the smell of fantastic, fresh cuisine, the sound of laughter and conversation floating into the street. His words echo everything Ma Maison stood for: passion, rather than pretense. In walked Wilt Chamberlain with four basketball players, all 7 feet tall. Johnny Carson joked on The Tonight Show, ‘You just can’t get a table at Ma Maison.’ So I sent him a table.

Ma Maison’s now-legendary head chef, Wolfgang Puck, helped turn the menu into a revolution, combining classical French training with Cali soul, but Terrail was always the conductor of the orchestra.

Behind the glamour, was a perfectionist obsessed with the details that made Ma Maison come alive. His name? Patrick Terrail, and he’s just welcomed you into his home, or “maison” in French.

You’ve been fortunate enough to score a reservation at a restaurant whispered about for its supposedly unlisted phone number and A-list clientele, with regulars like Orson Welles, Morgan Fairchild, and Ed McMahon.

Listen now! “If you work hard, good things will happen, whether that’s money or anything else. This tone proves to be hypnotically investive and, when paired alongside the singularity and frankness of the stories and the star-studded photos that douse the reader in a tidal wave of nostalgia, no unsuspecting reader is safe from wishing to be a part of the mythology of such an incredible place.

“I always had the mentality in the mornings that no one was going to show up,” Terrail told me. The grandson of the legendary restaurateur behind Paris’s La Tour d’Argent, Terrail carried both the burden and blessing of legacy.