Is there a chef in the house?

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Posted at 2:07PM, 27 April 2009 by Andy Lynes - Food writer

If you want your money's worth from a Michelin-starred restaurant, you need to find one where the chef only runs one establishment and is therefore bound to be in the kitchen sweating over a hot stove. Well, good luck with that, because these days Michelin-starred chefs are just as likely to be touring the world demonstrating their talents at the year-long roster of food and wine festivals.

In March, the 17 day Melbourne Food and Wine festival played host to Heston Blumenthal of The Fat Duck in Bray; Rene Redzepi of Noma in Copenhagen and Thierry Marx of Cordeillan Bages in Paulliac, France. In April, you can catch Thomas Keller of The French Laundry in the Napa Valley and New York's Eric Ripert of Le Bernadin at the Pebble Beach Food and Wine festival in California and in May, you'll find Santi Santamaria of Can Fabes, Spain at the Sani Resort Gourmet festival in Greece. And don't bother eating at a cutting edge, molecular restaurant next January as all the chefs will be hanging out at the annual Madrid Fusion conference.

In February this year, I traveled to Milan for Identita Golose (a version of which will be held in London in May) where local superstar chef Carlo Cracco slow cooked cuttlefish in olive oil to make a savoury créme brulee; the Roca Brothers of El Celler de Can Roca in Girona used a vacuum distiller (more usually found in a science lab) to extract the pure essence of soil to make a sauce to accompany oysters; and Marcus Eaves of the newly Michelin-starred L'Autre Pied restaurant in London made snail sausages and Earl Grey tea jelly.

It was fascinating stuff and gave me the chance to discover the cuisine of numerous top restaurants in a matter of a few days. For the chefs, it's an opportunity to network, swap ideas and promote their restaurants.

It seems harsh to criticise chefs who have worked long days for many years for enjoying their day in the sun (literally - windowless basement kitchens are the norm even in the best establishments). It's also worth remembering that they'll have left their restaurants in the capable hands of a loyal head or sous chef who is probably more adept at cooking the named chef's food than he or she is.

However, that doesn't stop me hoping that the next time I hand over my credit card in a restaurant, it will be to pay for a meal that has at least been overseen by the person with their name above the door.

You never see Ronald McDonald at a food festival do you? Maybe I should give his place a try...

Comments

ku7

5 May 2009, 11:48AM
ku7

Emotion rather than logic makes me feel the same way about absent chefs. I'd like to think that hours of expertise and gallons of sweat have gone into producing those obscenely expensive dishes placed in front of me. They probably have. Colaboratively. A decade of training. Hundreds of hours agonising. A decicated quest for perfection. Trouble is, they get famous and then they sod off. Andy is right. No chef in their right mind would risk leaving their restuarant to an idiot. The trouble is, I want to see the real deal. Paying through the nose would be so much easier to swallow.

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Marianne

9 May 2009, 8:28PM
Marianne

This has also been a polemic in France, but the critics were silenced by Paul Bocuse, THE nÂ° chef for decades (and still going strong at 80+): to the question "who is in the kitchen when Bocuse is not there" he answered "the same person as when I am there" Et voila!

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