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Trust your guide on this gastronomic road trip of the American West Coast. The kitchen opens onto the restaurant, allowing you to see your dishes as they are prepared by this close-knit team and their inventive and passionate chef.
The menu is reinvented very regularly, with recipes full of diverse influences. From where do you draw inspiration for this “gastronomic road trip”?
Like everyone, I love to travel around the world, go out and taste it all. This helps a lot in constantly reinventing. But above all, I owe this open mindedness to my training with American, Italian, Irish and French chefs. I then settled in California and worked for a boutique-hotel in Huntington Beach. This is the origin of the surfer/West American vibe and the Mexican-influenced recipes that feature on the menu.
The menu constantly amazes with its unexpected associations that are always delicious. Last week for example: lavender flan, roasted coffee and banana cake or cinnamon toast with lemon cream and sweet basil pesto… How do you choose these inventive flavour combinations?
Since my arrival at FR\AME restaurant in 2014, I have really appreciated the freedom I am given here. The team and I experiment with associating different tastes, to create unique dishes that are like nothing else. Creativity when cooking opens up infinite possibilities. At the moment for example, I am working a lot with flavour-infused sea salt to provide a finishing touch to my dishes. The vegetable garden of the restaurant is also a major source of inspiration.
Is this proximity to an organic garden a real bonus in your profession?
This vegetable garden is an incredible asset. Each morning we pick the produce to be served that day, providing unparalleled quality of taste and nutrition. It allows us to respect the true seasons of each fruit and vegetable, no additives required. And, with no transport to worry about, we can work with produce that is extremely fragile, such as edible flowers, heirloom tomatoes or other forgotten varieties.
You talk a lot about your team. What is the atmosphere in the kitchen?
My team represents my greatest satisfaction. It is a real pleasure to have the opportunity to share my passion and see their minds go beyond traditional limits, creating new recipes and finding fresh inspiration together. I hope that our work and our passion in the kitchen is felt in the dining room and that each guest experiences a moment that is delicious in every sense of the word.