Chef Michel Jacob  will be handing the keys to Le Crocodile colleague Chef Rob Feenie

After four decades, one of Vancouver’s most celebrated and acclaimed chefs, Michel Jacob, will hang up his apron at his venerable Le Crocodile one last time on April 30, 2024. Jacob will hand the keys to his long-time friend and colleague Rob Feenie, whom he considers family. Feenie will take the reins and re-open the restaurant as Le Crocodile by Rob Feenie early this summer.

“It is time for a well-deserved retirement,” says Jacob. “I am so happy to have found a remarkable successor — my dear friend — who is like family to me and shares my passion for French cuisine – Chef Rob Feenie. I know the next chapter of Le Crocodile will be just as incredible. I feel extremely grateful and content for the career I’ve enjoyed. Thank you to my staff, customers and all those who have believed in Le Crocodile since day one.”

Le Crocodile has long been considered one of the city’s best fine dining French destinations, renowned for showcasing the best of French cuisine, with a focus on Alsace classics. The restaurant opened in 1983 and was originally inspired by Michelin-starred Au Crocodile in Jacob’s hometown of Strasbourg.

Throughout his career, Jacob has received numerous accolades, including Vancouver Magazine’s Lifetime Achievement Award, being inducted into the BC Restaurant Hall of Fame, and most recently, being named an Officer in the Ordre du Mérite Agricole (Order of Agricultural Merit) by the French government for highlighting the finest Alsatian food using ingredients from France.

“I got my start at le Crocodile as a sous chef, working alongside Michel, who I long consider my mentor, dear friend, and family,” says Feenie, who worked at Le Crocodile from 1992 to 1995. “Simply put, I love to make great food; I could not think of a better place to represent who I am as a chef and what I love to do. I am deeply honoured Michel is entrusting me with continuing the legacy he has started at Le Crocodile and look forward to sharing more details in the coming weeks and months.”

Le Crocodile will close briefly and re-open as Le Crocodile by Rob Feenie in late May 2024.

–About Chef Michel Jacob
Upon his arrival in Vancouver, it was no surprise that Michel Jacob would open his own fine-dining French restaurant, named it after the finest restaurant he had ever seen and dined at in his hometown of Strasbourg, the three-star Michelin restaurant Au Crocodile. As a young apprentice in Strasbourg, France, under Chef Johnny Letzer of Zimmer, Michel and his fellow chefs were often taken to restaurants for first-hand experience of the local dining scene. Chef Letzer took the entire brigade to Restaurant Au Crocodile one momentous day. The chefs were served a meal “like nothing they had ever seen or tasted before”.

Everything was under the expert hand of Emile Jung, who came out personally to explain his cooking philosophy. At that meal, Michel Jacob set the standards for his own culinary path. Chef Emile Jung became his ‘inspirational culinary mentor’.

Following his apprenticeship, Michel worked with Pierre Gaertner at the celebrated Aux Armes de France in Ammerschwir. Further travels took him to Ireland at the famed Ashford Castle (then owned by the Guinness Family), Lausanne, Switzerland, and a stage in Belgium and Corsica.

Upon his arrival to Vancouver, Michel realized that Chef/owner Emile Jung had instilled a quality and service that he had to duplicate for himself and Vancouverites. Michel’s main goal was to open a restaurant that could match and achieve the level of culinary standards and service that are still present today at Au Crocodile. Forty years have passed, and it is safe to say that Michel has surpassed all expectations. Vancouverites are pleased Michel followed his dream.

About Chef Rob Feenie
Chef Rob Feenie is an award-winning, internationally acclaimed Chef. A winner of Iron Chef America, four-time Iron Chef Canada winner, Rob has authored cookbooks, is a mainstay of Canada’s Food Network and has worked with some of the world’s top chefs. His last restaurants, Lumiere and Feenie’s, garnered critical and public success, including the prestigious Relais Gourmands designation, Traditions & Gaulité, four stars from the Mobil Travel Guide and the AAA Diamond Award.

Rob’s interest in cooking began during a high school exchange program in Europe. He attended Dubrulle Culinary Institute (now part of The Art Institute of Vancouver). After graduation, Rob worked as a sous chef at various restaurants, including The Rim Rock Café and Oyster Bar in Whistler, British Columbia and The Cherrystone Cove and Le Crocodile in Vancouver. While at Le Crocodile, he worked stages in France and the United States. Later, Rob opened Accolade Restaurant in the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Toronto.

In July 2004 he was invited to New York by the Canadian Consulate to create a signature lunch and dinner at the famous James Beard House in celebration of Canada Day. In February 2009, Rob also became the first “Hokanson Chef in Residence” at NAIT.

Rob has published four cookbooks, starred in New Classics with Rob on The Food Network Canada, and in 2005, was the first Canadian to win on the popular television show Iron Chef America by defeating Chef Masaharu Morimoto. Additionally, Rob spent several years as Cactus Club Café’s food concept designer and Executive Chef. He was instrumental in transforming the menu into one of Canada’s top casual dining experiences.

Rob was most recently a judge on several Food Network shows, including Canada’s Wall of Chefs and Top Chef.