Igor! The Epitome of Upper West Side Hospitality

By Andrea Sachs

When Igor Segota went for an interview for a job in 1992 as sous chef at Café des Artistes, he was nervous about his prospects.

As a recent immigrant who had gone to culinary school in Yugoslavia, it was hardly a sure bet that he would get a job at such a venerable establishment. After all, it was once the West 67th Street hangout of such cultural icons as Rudolph Valentino, Marcel Duchamp, and Isadora Duncan.

Igor figured he could use all the help he could get that day. “My mother and I went to the Church of the Blessed Sacrament on West 71st Street. We went to Mass to do a little prayer and my mother said, ‘you’ll be fine.’ She was right.” Igor got the job.

Igor, as he is universally known, now cuts a memorable figure as the energetic general manager of Harvest American Bistro, the popular restaurant on Columbus and West 73rd. With a hug or a pat on the back or a warm handshake, he has the ability to make a guest feel like the most important A-lister who has ever eaten there. With his artistic ponytail, Slavic accent, and glowing smile, Igor is the epitome of UWS hospitality.

Regulars like Terri Baker, an entertainment lawyer and longtime Upper West Sider, extol Igor’s virtues. “He welcomes everyone who passes through Harvest’s doors like family. He remembers everyone, asks after them, and always makes them feel at home. It’s a joy to watch him work the room.”

Igor is a whirlwind in the back of the house as well, supervising the staff, perfecting favorite dishes, working on different menus, creating specials, and the like. 

Hospitality and cooking have been Igor’s passion and ticket through life. He was raised in a religious Roman Catholic family in Rijeka, Yugoslavia (now Croatia), on the coastline of the Adriatic Sea. His mother, who worked in a government bank, and his grandmother, were expert cooks, while his father worked in the hotel industry, often abroad. “Starting at an early age,” Igor  recalls, “I loved to be behind the stove and look at those arugulas and tomatoes and calamari from the Adriatic.”

At 14 years old, Igor went to culinary school for four years in Opitja, Yugoslavia, a resort town. There he studied classic French cooking. “We learned pastries and we learned sauces, soups, stews, and all different aspects of cooking.” Immediately afterwards, Igor went into the military, which was mandatory. Soon he was helping cook breakfast, lunch and dinner for 4,000 hungry soldiers.

After his service ended, Igor came with his parents to the United States in 1988 as a green card holder. (He became a U.S. citizen in 1994.) Soon, he got a job in Rye Brook with the Hilton Company. “Then I took a train to New York, to Grand Central and I fell in love right away.”

After spending four years at Café des Artistes, Igor hopscotched professionally from the Upper West Side to the Upper East Side and back again. Among his various roles, Igor was the part-owner of Bouterin Restaurant on East 59th Street, part-owner of Gina La Fornarina on Broadway and West 70th, and general manager of Good Enough to Eat on Columbus Ave and West 85th. “I always come back to the UWS,” he says. “It’s my to-go place.” (Not for living though—Igor settled on the UES when he got to Manhattan and has never moved.)

At the same time, Igor was becoming an integral part of the faith community at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. “I give a hand cooking there and helping clergy and it’s also a very rewarding part of my life.” Igor currently cooks regularly for Cardinal Dolan, the Archbishop of New York, at the Cardinal’s residence.

That has also meant cooking for some illustrious visitors from the Vatican, including Pope Benedict XVI. “It was such an uplifting experience just to be in the presence of such a divine person.”  And what did he cook for the Pope? Filet mignon, wild mushroom risotto, and apple pie. 

Some things never change. Igor is still going to church with his mother, though she lives more than 4,000 miles away in Croatia. He goes to the 7 a.m. Mass at St. Patrick’s almost daily and his mother, who is 87, watches the livestream on YouTube. “We discuss it afterwards — what was the scripture about and what was the reading?” Then he laughs. “And we discuss if I was appropriately dressed.”

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