Legendary chef on tweaking trip
Alors, top chef and multiple restaurateur Pierre Gagnaire is back in town for a week. And he's just like your favourite uncle. Well, my favourite uncle doesn't speak French, definitely can't cook and, bless him, doesn't have a sophisticated bone in his body.
But for a legendary Parisienne 3-star Michelin chef, Gagnaire has none of the snobbery often associated with that station. He readily laughs and you have to suppress the desire to hug him.
Gagnaire, renowned for his culinary architecture, is here to tweak the menu of his contemporary French restaurant, also called Pierre, on the top floor of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. Already in the kitchen in his whites, Gagnaire has been trying out some new dishes with his protege, Philippe Orrico, who runs Pierre and is from Gagnaire's Paris-based team.
'When you come in for a week, you may want to give aspects a new direction. But you must respect the team,' said Gagnaire, who will wait until he heads back to Paris to give more thought to any creative additions to the menu.
An interesting note in Gagnaire's biography; in 1969 at the Charbonnieres les Bains: 'He becomes roast cook and learns to spit roast before the clients.' Ah, so that's why diners sometimes wear those big plastic bibs.
