French chef Christophe Hay on working for Paul Bocuse and reducing food waste in his restaurant
- The chef and owner of the two-Michelin-star La Maison d’à Côté restaurant, in France, talks about the challenges he faced in America Hay’s years spent in Bocuse’s ‘silent kitchens’ were the best of his life
What are your earliest memories of food? “I started cooking when I was around eight. My maternal grandmother was always in the kitchen, and living on a farm [in France’s Loire Valley], on the weekend we prepared a big lunch for the whole family. I helped her make tarts using seasonal fruits like plum and strawberry. I also picked vegetables from the garden, like different kinds of carrots and green beans.”
Where was your first kitchen job? “In 1996, I went to Michelin-one-starred Le Rendez-Vous des Pêcheurs [in Courthiézy, in the Marne Valley], headed by Alsatian chef Eric Reithler. I was there for five years. The menu was 80 per cent fish, so it was all new for me, learning how to prepare fish.”
How did you end up in the United States? “Chef Eric was good friends with [Lyon-based French chef] Paul Bocuse. One day, he told me that Paul needed a chef and to speak with him. I went to Lyon in March 2002. After one month, Paul told me to go to Orlando, Florida, in two weeks, to open his restaurant Monsieur Paul, in Disney World. It was a big change for me, because of the language, preparation, everything. My team was 50 per cent local, 50 per cent French. ”
What was it like working for the legendary chef? “He ran silent kitchens. He respected his team and the guest. I was scared working for him as I was only 24 then but it was the best five years of my life. He had lots of love for everyone and everything.”
Tell us about your time in Orlando. “Learning English was difficult for me, but living there was easy. As a gastronomic restaurant, we only had dinner service. I had time to exercise and enjoy the sunny outdoors. My first daughter was born in Orlando. Americans work hard every day. If you don’t work, you don’t have social security. One guy in my team had one job for lunch and then worked for me for dinner, six days a week. If you want to work, there are a lot of possibilities in the US.”
Where did you go after Orlando? “In 2007, my father was diagnosed with cancer and I went back to France to spend time with him for a year. After he passed, I went to Paris and worked at the Hotel de Sers. After two years, the group that owned the hotel, then called Bessé Signature, made me executive chef of three restaurants that had different menus. I had shares in the company, so that gave me experience in owning a restaurant before I opened my own place.”
Did you always want to open your own restaurant? “In December 2013, chef Eric called me and said there was a restaurant in the Loire for sale and that it would be a good place for me. When we visited the place in Bois, we were impressed because you have Château de Chambord and the Loire River. My wife, Emmanuelle, is from a village near Chambord. We bought it in January 2014 and opened La Maison d’à Côté in May. It also had eight hotel rooms.”
What was it like getting your first Michelin star? “Nine months after opening, we got our first star. For a chef, it’s probably the best gift you can receive. I cried and was so happy for the team. We are only eight people.
“In June 2016, we moved to a new place in the same village and it took us a year to set up. It has 12 rooms. In the restaurant, we created a bistro serving simple food, and have an open kitchen. My guys in the kitchen also serve and explain the produce and preparation of every dish to the guest. We got our second Michelin star in January. This time it wasn’t a phone call but an email telling us to come to Paris on a certain day. It was crazy because I got the email two or three weeks before, so I couldn’t eat or sleep.”
Why are you called an eco-chef? “My garden doesn’t have organic certification, but we don’t use chemicals to fertilise it – everything is natural. In the winter, we use hay to preserve the vegetables and harvest lots of root vegetables. We have a big problem around the world when it comes to waste. In the restaurant, there is a lot of produce that ends up in the garbage. If we take the time to separate it, this is for the better. We separate everything – organic vegetables, fish and meat bones, plastic and cartons.”
Do your daughters cook? “I have two daughters, aged 12 and eight. I don’t teach them how to cook because I am already in the kitchen at 8.30am and finish at 1.30am, six days a week. I like it but I don’t want that life for my girls. The younger one likes to touch raw fish and meat; maybe she will learn to cook one day. On my day off I do nothing. I go fishing or wakeboarding. It’s important to find time to relax.”
Christophe Hay was recently a guest chef at Whisk in The Mira Hong Kong.
