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"Iam nervous."

Jean-Georges Vongerichten, the internationally feted, Michelin-starred chef, is working the first lunch service at his new Vancouver restaurant - Market by Jean-Georges - at the Shangri-La Hotel.

Little beads of perspiration glitter on his brow: From just five reservations in the book at 9 a.m., the café and restaurant are filling up with walk-ins and the kitchen is rocking.

But even under pressure, Mr. Vongerichten, known for his love of precision and control, stays calm and collected. There are no outbursts of temper, no pots hurled, no profanities flung. He may be a top chef, but this is no kitchen from hell. Instead, when he spots something not quite the way it should be, he darts forward, pulls a plate down from the rack above and starts to do it again the right way. The Jean-Georges way. "Like so, you see?" he tells the young cook standing on the appetizer line. "I think the dressing is a little thick; let's add some more champagne vinegar."

The vast kitchen has upward of 20 bodies concentrating on pleasing this man, on recreating - exactly - his menu. These are dishes that have been transposed from his existing restaurants - more than 20 world-

wide; eight alone in New York, including flagship Jean Georges - and reimagined with the best local ingredients he could find.

"We took two or three dishes from each," he explains, weaving in and out of his staff, stirring, tasting, checking the scallops on the grill. "Then we blended them with this amazing regional produce, developed new vinaigrettes and redid the recipes."

These recipes are filed in white binders kept on hand. Each dish is broken down into portions of four, with ingredients listed by the gram. At the bottom of the page is a labelled diagram detailing the exact positioning of each component. This is not a kitchen that leaves anything to chance, nor does it ask its cooks to bring their own preferences to the burners.

"How else can it be consistent?" he says with a shrug. "I don't want the soup too starchy or more salty - I want people to taste the dish I created." As if on cue, Denis Bouron, service manager across Mr. Vongerichten's Culinary Concepts empire, comes back to pass on a message: "Table 3 are from Paris and are delighted to find everything here just as good as it is at Market there."

Mr. Vongerichten visibly puffs with pleasure - and we take off around the kitchen again. Spoon after spoon of sauce is thrust my way: "Taste this," he insists, proffering blends of caper and raisin or apple and jalapeno. "Smell," he orders, wafting black truffle and fontina pizza under my nose, or a spice mix of ground hazelnuts, cumin and coriander: "For the fish!"

In his element, the strain around his eyes evaporates, replaced with childlike glee at the bounty on offer. "I went to Oyama," he says, talking about the city's premier charcuterie producer on Granville Island. "I couldn't believe it - I devised a charcuterie plate for the bar on the spot."

He also picked up five kilograms of sauerkraut, a pile of smoked bacon and ham hocks, and made choucroute (a traditional dish from his native Alsace) for the staff. "I thought I was back home," he says, his face beaming.

From a stellar lineup of local talent, he picked David Foot to be executive chef. He brings serious hotel-restaurant chops, including a year at the Shangri-La in Shanghai, and spent most of last December in New York, eating at Jean Georges's and working on menu planning.

"The attention to detail is unparalleled," he says. "I've learned to make infusion-based sauces that are so light and healthy - it is totally different to anything else in Vancouver."

It is also, Mr. Foot says, all about value: Market is offering a three-course lunch at $28; a six-course tasting menu at $65; and bar and à la carte menus that price the restaurant in the more affordable range of high-end rooms in the city.

Tonight, a select group of Vancouver's top chefs is invited for dinner to see what the new show in town can do. "I am scared," says Mr. Vongerichten with a laugh, passing the handwritten menu to me for approval.

Egg on toast. Sounds, um, simple. Not quite, he explains. These eggs have been cooked for nearly two hours at a very low temperature. Shells broken and whites discarded, the egg yolks have become perfect spheres of deep yellow to be presented on brioche with a dollop of caviar on top.

"Aha!" He breaks off, spotting a supplier walk in. "The uni man."

A polystyrene box appears, full of live sea urchins from Haida Gwaii in their prickly purple shells. Wielding a pair of large scissors, Jean-Georges wastes no time getting his hands dirty. The innards are perfect - plump, dark-orange petals of roe.

"Tomorrow we are working on uni," he tells his New York-based creative director, Gregory Brainin. "All day."

In the kitchen right now are five key members of the Culinary Concepts team and, along with Mr. Bouron - and at least four more administrative and operational staff on hand - they make up a formidable machine. Many have been with Jean-Georges for over a decade. "That tells you," a recent addition to the team confides later, "they are paid well, treated well and with respect."

When the local chefs arrive, Mr. Vongerichten is clearly anxious, preparing and plating many courses himself, unable to stand still for a moment. Mr. Bouron is running the VIP service and acts as chief tension-breaker, making jokes and teasing his trainees - all the while jotting down notes in a Moleskine pad.

By 10 p.m., it's almost over and Mr. Vongerichten starts rounding up staff for a post-service dinner - he's become enamoured of a local Japanese izakaya, Gyoza King on Robson Street.

"I am almost ready for a drink," he says with a smile before rushing off to deal with an apple sorbet that's discoloured and must be remade on the fly. "Almost!"