Meet The Team

Our team is comprised of more than 100 staff, representing 25 countries, with a shared passion for hospitality. We strive to deliver the highest quality of service to you and ensuring that you enjoy your experience at Bar Boulud. We’re family and treat you like you are as well.

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Johana Langi
Executive Pastry Chef
Joe Stevens
General Manager
Ian Smedley
Head Sommelier
Johana Langi
Executive Pastry Chef

As long as she can remember, Johana Langi yearned to be a pastry chef. Growing up in Queens, she found a passion in baking at a young age and started baking for friends, with friends, for school bake sales, or any other excuse to whip up something sweet. No one in Johana’s family baked, it was something special that set her apart from the rest. Her passion continued to grow, but her parents viewed pastry more as a hobby and encouraged her to get a traditional degree.

She studied English Literature at Baruch College, and during her senior year interned for the Good Housekeeping Test Kitchen. Originally just an editorial internship, Johana turned the role into an opportunity to test recipes and kitchen appliances for the magazine. She has fond memories of testing cookies, baking them in five different ovens, and reporting back which performed best.

Johana finally convinced herself to pursue pastry as a career. She cold-called restaurants until securing a pastry internship at Thomas Keller’s Bouchon Bakery, where she rotated through all the stations. Johana then went on to bake at some of New York City’s acclaimed restaurants, including Eleven Madison Park, Saul Restaurant at the Brooklyn Museum, The Lambs Club, Ciano, and Michelin-starred Indian restaurant Junoon. As her responsibilities grew, Johana mastered her technique and learned how to transform the best seasonal ingredients into something more than the sum of their parts.

In April 2019, Johana landed the job as Executive Pastry Chef at Chef Daniel Boulud’s Lincoln Center restaurants: Bar Boulud and Boulud Sud. There she manages two distinct teams and is charged with developing completely different menus: Mediterranean-inspired at Boulud Sud, and classic French bistro at Bar Boulud.

One of Johana’s creations at Boulud Sud is the “Mousse de Chocolate Oscuro,” a frozen aerated chocolate mousse dotted with chocolate crémeux and crunchy chocolate “pebbles,” finished with Maldon sea salt gelato, lemon-infused olive oil and crowned with mint leaves. Inspired by a sweet-and-savory Catalonian snack that Johana enjoyed in northeastern Spain, it’s a perfect addition to Sud’s Mediterranean menu, complementing the signature Grapefruit Givré.

At Bar Boulud, the emphasis is on the classics, highlighted by her “Gateau Basque,” a fragrant custard-based tart from the Pyrenees in the south of France. In both restaurants Johana looks forward to contributing to Chef Daniel’s spirit of French pride, passion and culture through her pastry.

Joe Stevens
General Manager

On New York’s Upper West Side, General Manager Joe Stevens brings his vast hospitality experience and strong work ethic to Chef Daniel Boulud’s casual French bistro.

The child of a Sicilian restaurateur, Joe started working at his family’s business since the age of 12. From dishwashing and bussing, to cooking and waiting tables, he learned every aspect of the restaurant industry. Having found his calling, Joe enrolled in the French Culinary Institute (known today as International Culinary Center) to learn the art of fine cuisine. Accustomed to a busy schedule, he worked throughout his studies in various high-end restaurants and continued to do so post-graduation.

Gaining exposure and experience, Joe spent five years as the dining room manager and beverage director at Beacon Restaurant in New York. Later moving on to join Colicchio & Sons, he began as a captain and climbed the ranks to bar and restaurant manager in the span of three years. In 2012, Joe landed at the exclusive Gary Danko in San Francisco, where he served as assistant general manager and helped the restaurant achieve the highest-rated service in the country.

Upon his return to the East Coast, Joe joined Daniel Boulud’s Restaurant Group in 2016. Ever adaptable, he started as operations manager at Café Boulud, followed by stints at Restaurant DANIEL and Boulud Sud before settling into his current role as general manager at Bar Boulud. Equipped with his tasting spoon, Joe often stops by the kitchen to taste Chef Dieter Samijn’s cuisine, ensuring both food and service are reaching the highest of standards.

Ultimately for Joe, “every meal is not just fuel for the body, it’s enjoyment.” In his off time, he enjoys visiting his parents, smoking meats and relaxing on the boat. Passionate about food, Joe is always planning what he’s going to cook next.

Ian Smedley
Head Sommelier

Ian Smedley fell in love with wine while majoring in Comparative Literature at Bard College. As a writer, Ian focused on universal interconnectivity, drawing connections between seemingly disparate things. This became a foundation for his thoughts on wine and how a wine could evoke an emotion or a memory of people and places. How coincidental that Ian, with his self-diagnosed “Proustian” interest, would end up working with Daniel Boulud and his signature madeleines.

During college, Ian juggled shifts at the Hudson Valley’s Tousey Vineyards. Upon graduation in 2013 he moved to New York City, and got his foot in the door as a backwaiter at Boulud Sud. During the day, Ian also worked at Flatiron Wines helping cellar and manage bottles in the Rare Wines department. As Ian grew with the team at Boulud Sud, he caught the eye of former Chef Sommelier, Michael Madrigale, who promoted him to the bar team at both Bar Boulud and Boulud Sud.

In 2016, Ian was appointed as Sommelier at DBGB in the East Village. There he learned how to purchase and manage a large program and was instrumental in expanding the wine and beer list to include interesting labels from all over the world. One year later, he shaved his beard and headed uptown. His career took a sophisticated turn working as a sommelier at Restaurant DANIEL under Raj Vaiyda, where he was trusted to open legendary wines almost every night.

Ian likes to recommend wines by telling a story. “Trying to explain the sense perception of fermented grain or grape juice is a challenge. But finding those descriptors – and delving into that space where taste can stop time for a little – that’s what I love about both good drink and great literature.”

In June 2019 he returned to Bar Boulud and Boulud Sud as Chef Sommelier of Daniel’s two Lincoln Center restaurants. In that capacity, Ian offers sincere hospitality and a passion for wine as well as for his guests and coworkers. He enjoys mentoring and looks forward to working with such a large team of professionals, presenting a memorable and diverse wine experience to all guests and growing the impressive wine program to an even more exceptional one. But what keeps Ian most interested is the element of service – and metaphor. “It is easy to lose sense of this, but at the heart of everything is the joyous gift of life, and the beauty of what human hands can craft. To subtly control the chemical process a fruit undergoes, to transform sugar into alcohol that flows so purely through us, is an art.”

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Daniel
Boulud

Chef / Owner

Daniel Boulud, a native of Lyon, France, is today considered one of America’s leading culinary authorities and one of the most revered French chefs in New York, the city he has called home since 1982. Daniel is chef-owner of db Bistro Moderne, DBGB Kitchen and Bar, Bar Boulud, Café Boulud, Boulud Sud and Épicerie Boulud. In all his restaurants you’ll find the warm welcome the chef is renowned for, combined with traces of the soulfully satisfying traditional cooking he grew up with on his family’s Rhône Valley farm. Yet Daniel Boulud is best known for New York’s exquisitely refined DANIEL, the three Michelin-star Relais & Châteaux restaurant. You’ll also discover the chef’s ingredient driven seasonal French-American cooking in Miami and Palm Beach, FL and internationally in London, Singapore, Beijing, Montréal and Toronto. Boulud is the author of seven cookbooks, the recipient of three James Beard Foundation awards, includingOutstanding Chef and Outstanding Restaurateur and was named a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur by the French government, as well as Chef of the Year 2011 by The Culinary Institute of America. He is a generous and energetic supporter of Citymeals-on-Wheels, serving on their board of directors since 2000 and is also co-founder and Chairman of the Bocuse d’Or USA Foundation.

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