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Place of birth:
Lunéville, Lorraine. Date of birth: 10/1/1966
Where are your restaurant/boutiques?
We have twenty international boutiques: from Paris, Cannes, London, New York to Tokyo and Hong Kong.
What is the most exiting, receptive city for today’s executive chefs?
In terms of places where there are a lot of great restaurants and top chefs, Paris is really interesting, as are Tokyo, London, and Hong Kong; New York, especially for its madness and its gastronomical diversity.
Would you steal a special recipe from another chef?
Of course! Those of my grandmother and my mother
If you could cook for anyone, dead or alive, who would it be?
Nelson Mandela.
Who is the first veritable modern culinary equivalent to Coco Chanel?
Alain Passard; he is a real artist, a taste creator.
Using fashion as a social index, what is the range of designer labels one finds from people that come to establishment?
We see ladies wearing Chanel, to Lanvin to Sandro….
I believe that a chef will be and has to always be influenced by his origins.
What do you price the most money cannot buy?
My 1984 degree, officially naming me a pastry chef, chocolatier, confectioner, and ice cream producer.
What was the single most shocking incident to happen in your restaurant/boutique?
The retirement announcement of Robert Linxe, the founder of La Maison du Chocolat.
How does eroticism feature in some of your dishes?
In the subtle balance of flavors, in the finenesses of textures and in the elegance of my creative decorations.
What is the food equivalent of a drug high?
Dark chocolate cakes
Do you agree that National boundaries or identities no longer inform or define a chef’s style?
I believe that a chef will be and has to always be influenced by his origins.
To what extent is Escoffier important to a contemporary chef?
Escoffier is to chefs what Robert Linxe is for chocolatiers. Both great contemporary and classic chefs have at least one thing in common: a keen understanding of Great Master Escoffier.
Is Spain’s Farran Adria displacing France #1 position in culinary supremacy?
I don’t necessarily think so. Adria has become the first chef that has revolutionized the new cooking of the 1980s, through a new style that is (or was) “molecular gastronomy”.
Are you orthodox about using natural ingredients as opposed to synthetic ones?-
I could never use synthetic or artificial products.
What would be your last meal?
A Quiche Lorrain prepared by my mother followed by my grandmother’s Lorraine flambéed.
