Senior stories by Cogir: Roland Henin

Transcript

Dave: Hi, Roland. Hello. You have Joni with you. 

Roland: Absolutely. 

Dave: Oh, a double bonus for us.

Joni: He’s the star. 

Dave: So it’s not too often I get to talk to a famous chef. 

Roland: What chef? Famous chef. 

Dave: You’re a master chef. Of course. 

Roland: Okay. Okay. Okay.

Dave: And, Joni, I’ll tell you upfront in all transparency, I can barely make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. 

Dave: I don’t know how I am selected as the one to interview such an accomplished chef, but I’ll do my best. Okay? Roland, how do you become a master chef?

Roland: Oh my god. My god. A lot of suffering, a lot of hard work, you know, and never too much, in  the Slack. I’m always busy, busy, busy, busy. I am always doing something, whatever it is. And I always work with the young people, you know, the young American kids. You know? And everything, you know, those American kids, they are not stupid. They understand pretty quickly what works and what doesn’t work. You know? So over time, it’s fine. It’s fun. And we did some a lot of good stuff, you know, for many years. You know? 

Dave: And, Joni, a woman loves a man that can cook for them. Is that how you fell in love with Roland? 

Joni: Well, I was just talking to Roland about this last night. We met in 1999 and I was working in Sequoia National Park. And he was the culinary ambassador. The fancy term that the company got was that he was their world ambassador. He came to Sequoia, and he walked in the kitchen and we were all a flutter. “Oh my gosh. Chef Roland is here.” And that morning, one of the dishwashers had called in sick, and we were doing breakfast service. We were really slammed. And instead of getting upset and saying, well, who’s doing dishes or whatnot, Roland just donned an apron and got in the dish pit and started– 

Dave: Oh, I love it. 

Joni: Foisting dishes, but cleaning. And he wasn’t trying to prove a point. He just jumped in to help where the help needed to where it was needed at that moment. And I looked at one of my friends, and I said, I’m gonna marry that man. And I was being facetious at the time. 

Dave: Not only a great chef, but very humble. And, Joanie, I noticed that you pronounce it “Rollon,” so I wanna get that right. And Rollon, I hear the accent. Tell me about the accent and 

Roland: Well I get some more money for my accent, so I don’t wanna lose it.

Dave: Is that how it works? Okay. Where is your accent from?

Roland: I was born on the frontier of, what’s the word? 

Joni: Leon?

Rolland: Yeah. Whatever Leon is close to Italy. You know? So my grandparents were Italians. And I think some of this is leaving it came from there. You know? But walking, traveling in so many parts of the world, from France to Italy to Germany to whatever and competing, you change. You change your stuff. You change what you said. You know? You change the way we talk and everything. Now it’s a come back up with Johnny that speaks very, very, very good. You know? But I use it as a I don’t wanna say it as a show, but as a, you know, getting to know some somebody or getting them to be me, you know, to know me. You know? 

Dave: And, Roland, as you were competing, I was just reading up on you about the 1992 Olympics. Were you representing America? 

Rolland: I did so many I don’t even remember them all, but– 

Dave: because you’ve done so much. 

Rolland: I’ve done so much. That’s about it. You know? Maybe my brain is not keeping them off or I would have to go to so much more paper. Well, actually, right now, we’re doing a Christmas show. And Johnny is doing the paper because I can I can I can keep it up? You know? There is too much. 

Joni: I’m only assisting, Roland. We still got it. We still got it. 

Dave: Hey, Joni. You know what I’ve always been curious about? When you get and I know, Roland, you’re very humble, but you are. You’re one of the greatest chefs. There’s very few that are at your caliber. Joni, I’ve always been curious. When you have a master chef and they’re so busy pleasing other people all the time. When they’re on their own, what do they eat? Like, when they’re at home, do they prepare beautiful meals for themselves, or is it more what the rest of us do? Hot pockets or microwavable snacks? Or– 

Joni: I will tell you, Rolland has been eating, I would say, a Mediterranean diet before it even had a name.

Dave: Really? Always healthy. 

Joni: And besides cooking, fishing is his other love, and then I might come in third somewhere in there. But, so lots of, you know, green leafy, crunchy vegetables, lots of fish. But at home, we would eat pretty simple, a lot of salads, a lot of, again, a lot of, seafood. Just clean lines. You know? Rolland does not snack in between meals, which I think is one of it’s just it’s really hard to– that concept not, you know, just walking past and seeing snacks and grabbing them. So I think that’s some of your clean living. 

Dave: Joni, the first time that you cooked in front of Rolland, was it fun, or was it just a little bit intimidating?

Joni: It was not intimidating. I actually have to say that. Like, because Rolland, when you’re cooking with him or you’re engaging and have a start with a little glass of wine and here we chop this or that. Now I did make sure that my knife skills were, you know, up so that he didn’t critique my red bell pepper, you know, because that would just go into stock then if it’s not, you know Anyway but I love to cook. I am of no caliber of, like, Roland, but I have no problem cooking alongside him or baking or I think it’s our, you know, that I also just could listen to him for hours, and I do. So I enjoy it, which is probably, you know, helps keep the spark alive after all these years. 

Dave: Roland, what is your specialty? 

Rolland: I don’t know. I think my specialty is out to wait. One is cooking, and the other one is running after I don’t know why this word, but tough people that don’t do their job. You know? That’s one side. On the other side is me working with those people, some of the good people. You know? And, I’m trying to put some love in what they’re doing. So to do something right better than they thought they could do, you know, whatever. And, it happened. It comes there. I’m gonna tell you something. You know? No BS or anything like this. The American kid is a hell of a kid. They wanted to get competition. They wanted to go to the world competition, go over there. Of course, it was very unusual, difficult, difficult because they are not used to doing that kind of thing, but they learned one, two, three times, and they were pretty close to perfection. But it takes some work. You know? And not everybody is given this, you know, this privilege or whatever you wanna call it. You know? Some of them say, “oh, the hell give me a beer and, you know, I split” or whatever. But there is enough. And I think I remember that I’m gonna say I forget the years of all this, but, you know, thirty years, forty years ago, the American cooks, they were nothing. They had no name. They were nothing all over the world because they never accomplished anything, in terms of something extraordinary. But some of them and we have– She’s helping me whitening the Christmas card account, you know, because there are so many. She’s giving me to do that. And we have them for thirty, forty years. And those guys, they are all chefs everywhere now, and they are almost competing among themselves to themselves and everything. See who’s gonna get the best one for the CEO. Who’s gonna I tell you, they call me and they call Johnny, and now they they oh, god. It’s fantastic. They send me mail, and they are busy. Their family, they have kids and everything. This and they all keep up. You know? They all keep, making sure that, you know, I’m aware. I’ll do some other things in a minute. We went fishing last summer with some of those guys, you know, for the summer. 

Dave: Wow. That has to be special for them. 

Joni: That’s a life of mentoring. We’re live and that’s I think what he’s what he’s talking about and we were we were, discussing some of these people that we’re sending some of these cards to were very young, green students of Roland, and now they are running, you know, food and beverage, programs on big corporate levels or high end restaurants or own their own restaurants. I mean, there’s a whole slew of them that you would actually know their names. And I think that with Roland because people sometimes say, “who? Who’s Roland Henin?” But the who’s who of chefs all know who Roland is because he mentored so many people. 

Dave: Joni, how special is it to give that gift to the next generation culturally as well? Like, when you talk about American chefs getting better and better and coming onto the scene, I totally understand, Roland. Forty years ago, they weren’t even in the game. And now because of mentors like yourself, they’re in the game. 

Roland: Exactly. There is no question. That’s that’s perfection as your knowledge in this kind. So it was a difficult thing to actually, you know, getting them one by one and once or they are in a case of that. Having a person there and having something that was not right and having them accept it, accept the fact that it was not that good. “What do you mean it’s not that good? What does it mean it’s not a gold medal?” Because you know? And I have them to understand it. And I’m gonna tell you 9 out of 10. They understand that game. They are not those American kids, they are not stupid. They’re strong. They’re good. They know what to do. I mean, honestly, I was lucky. I was lucky to get people like this. You know, different from the HBS, but willing to get slapped in order to achieve something that was very good. 

Joni: Not literally.

Dave: RIght. When you watch these popular cooking competitions on television, What are your thoughts? Does it make it hard for you to watch because you’re critiquing going, they should be doing this or this? Or can you watch them and enjoy them or not? 

Roland: You’ve got you’ve got it. You’ve got it. Can you accept this? And, you know, no. Sometimes I can’t and I shut the TV or whatever it is because I can’t take it. Sometimes you have people that try really well that do and they can see. And then so do you know what? I try to take their name. Well, here, I tried to contact them and said, “Hey. Listen. What about that was not too bad, but maybe you can do a little bit better.” You know? You wanna try? 

Joni: I think what he’s also trying to get at, do you mind? Is that a lot of the stuff you have some incredible chefs on TV, and they’re amazing and they do amazing work. But the TV is so much of that is for show. When you actually have true cooking competitions like the Bocuse D’or or the Culinary Olympics, it’s not like the TV show. You know? I mean, it’s not for it, it’s a completely different game.

Dave: Oh, I imagine because they’re produced for television. How about Cogir of Edmonds? Do you get in the kitchen there, Roland?

Roland: Every day, I am in the kitchen. 

Dave: And do the other residents and I know that you’ve made friends at Cogir of Edmonds. Do they realize who you are? Do they understand your level of accomplishment being a chef? 

Roland: No. Because I’m not doing that much of it here. This is because – this is not ready for what I am here. You know, I’m here to correct my health and all this kind of stuff. But sometimes it happens. But among ourselves, not including some time the people.

Dave: And you’re so humble, Roland. Joni, can you imagine being one of the chefs at Cogir and Rolland is one that you’re serving? 

Joni: I feel for them. 

Roland: I’m like In a in a sense in a sense, I am a friend with all of them, with the four or five of them. We are good friends, but because I took it easily, and I didn’t come, critic them or anything like this. In a concrete, I gave them help. I gave them ideas. Maybe it worked better or whatever, you know, something simple that they could achieve and recognize it and was and and today, they’re doing almost every day. But I didn’t, you know, I didn’t say, good. I’m a big guy or anything or whatever it is. 

Dave: You know what role lines with all of your accomplishments? And, Joni, I sincerely mean this. I’m politely surprised at how humble you are because you’ve done an awful lot. Let me ask you this. Edmonds, Cogir, why Edmonds? Is that an area that you have a lot of friends and that you’re just comfortable in? 

Roland: I don’t have a lot of friends, but I don’t have any enemies to speak of either. So that’s 

Dave: Congratulations. That’s an accomplishment. Not many people can say that. 

Roland I’ve I’ve I have ate every food that they send me.

Dave: And your community there is absolutely gorgeous. Joni, why Edmonds? 

Joni: Roland has worked and traveled all over the world, but he’s had a house here in Edmonds. For about forty years. And he has another house kind of down by the coast where fish camp. But so this is his area, the Northwest. He’s always said, you know, when people ask them, why don’t you move back to Europe or France or which France is in Europe, but it’s somewhere else. He’s always talking about the bounty of the Northwest. You know? I mean, it’s really all about the salmon and just the beauty of this country. It’s gorgeous. And, just to throw a little thing in for Cogir, when we were looking for a place for Roland to live, we met a gal from another place here in town and she told us about Michelle and Cogir of Edmonds, and we feel very proud and happy that Roland is here at Cogir. The people here are incredible, the care coordinator, Michelle, the director, John, everybody here, Sabrina, Kiara, the whole staff here has just been incredible. And Roland has a lot of fun. And he called and we talked every single night. I don’t live here. But, he does talk about the food a lot, and he enjoys it. In fact, you’ve just had a holiday buffet, and he was saying how hard Michelle was working and the chef and the food and everything. So he’s in a really good place here. But, yeah, the Northwest is his home.

Dace: I love that. And I’ll tell you, we’re in Arizona. We’re in Scottsdale, Arizona, and I am lucky enough to have a couple friends that are chefs. Maybe not at Roland’s level, but they’re 

Roland: That’s okay. 

Dave: Pretty well known chefs, and I can’t wait to tell them, hey. You know who I interviewed? I talked to Roland Henin, and then I’ll score some points with them. 

Joni: Where in Phoenix there, Scottsdale? 

Dave: We’re in Scottsdale. Yeah. And I have a couple of friends who are chefs that own restaurants, and I just respect them so much. And I love going to visit them, but I can’t wait to tell them that I talked to one of the stars in the industry. This will be fun. Yeah. I’ve been living in Arizona, and I’m moving up here full time in February. 

Dave: Oh, Joni. Where were you in Arizona? 

Joni: I’m in a little teeny place in Northern Arizona. 

Dave: Where at? What city? 

Joni: I manage Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the gate.

Dave: Gosh. Gosh. That’s heaven. Are you kidding me? 

Joni: That’s secondary compared to what he does.

Dave: Oh, Joanie, that Phantom Ranch is legendary. It’s just unbelievable. And for those of you watching, if you’re not familiar with Phantom Ranch, just for the fun of it, since Joni brought it up, just Google it, and I think you’ll see a slice of heaven. And, Roland, the gift that you’ve given to the next generation from your experience and your expertise is really heartwarming. And I think it’s appropriate that we’re doing this interview during the holidays, and I wish you and Joni the merriest of Christmas.

Roland: Thank you. Thank you. Very kind. Very kind. 

Dave: Come to Arizona and cook for me sometime. I’m ready. 

Joni: He would. You would love to do that. You wanna go to Arizona and cook? 

Roland: Why not?

Dave: I imagine you have that special touch on everybody you meet, and I love the Christmas tree behind you. So You guys have been terrific. Merry Christmas, and happy holidays. Thank you.

Roland: It was a pleasure to have you on board.

Summary

Master Chef Roland Henin, a resident at Cogir of Edmonds, shares his extraordinary life journey in this heartwarming conversation alongside his partner, Joni. With a career that spans decades and continents, Roland has mentored some of the world’s top chefs, competed globally, and helped elevate American culinary talent to an international level. Known for his humble approach and high standards, Roland’s influence reaches far beyond the kitchen.

Joni shares how they met in Sequoia National Park, where Roland’s willingness to step in and wash dishes during a busy breakfast service left a lasting impression. Their story blends deep mutual respect, humor, and a shared love of good food and meaningful work.

Now living at Cogir of Edmonds, Roland continues to inspire those around him while enjoying the beauty of the Pacific Northwest—a place he’s called home for over 40 years. With praise for the community’s care team, cuisine, and connection, Roland and Joni reflect on a life rich with experience, generosity, and purpose.