“I was born in Mayenne [in northwest France], but my parents split up when I was young, so my mother took my younger brother and me back to her home region of Normandy. My maternal grandmother cooked a lot, she had a garden and grew vegetables, including green peas and potatoes. She made casual food like gratin and roast chicken. “I helped my grandmother make cakes, pancakes – more sweet than savoury. By the time I was eight years old I knew I wanted to become a chef.” How did you start on this path? “When you turn 14 in France you have to choose what you want to do. I wanted to become a chef, but my teachers tried to dissuade me, saying it was hard work, and also because I was good at maths. “I started an apprenticeship for CAP [Certificat d’Aptitude Professionnelle], the first basic qualification for cooking. I would attend culinary school for one week, then work three weeks in a restaurant. I did that for two years in a small brasserie near Normandy. I learned a lot, especially how to cook fish and trim fish and meat. “After two years I moved to another restaurant in Normandy that was more gastronomic, for BEP [Brevet d’Études Professionnelles], the highest certificate for cooking, for another two years.” Where did you go afterwards? “When I turned 18 years old I moved to London, even though I didn’t know any English. My ex-chef from BEP had a good friend who was the chef at Jöel Robuchon Las Vegas and he wanted me to go there, but the restaurant was in a casino and you needed to be at least 21 years old to work there. “Instead, this chef helped me get a placement at Robuchon London. It was not easy, we had to measure everything with a ruler, and do plating using a toothpick, which was tedious. Everything had to be really precise when we put things on the plate. This was before we used tweezers. But it was a super good experience working there for five years. New Hong Kong restaurant Best Chiu Chow – super soups “I started as a commis chef and bit by bit got promoted to demi chef, chef de partie and then senior chef de partie. That’s where I met my wife, Aurelie Altemaire [now chef de cuisine at Odyssée, in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong]. She was sous chef at the time and then got promoted to head chef. “I decided to learn something new – Jöel Robuchon is a French company and 90 per cent of the people there are French, so it wasn’t easy to learn English. I started to speak more English when I went to work at Hélène Darroze, in The Connaught hotel, in Mayfair. My chef at the time was the American Alex Dilling, who used to be head chef of The Greenhouse in London.” What did you learn from him? “A lot about ingredients, the importance of precision. I started out as a chef de partie, then senior chef de partie, sous chef and then senior sous chef. We created all the dishes for the menu when the restaurant had two Michelin stars [it now has three]. “Chef Alex, the sous chef and I designed menus and created dishes for Hélène to try. She is very focused on ingredients from southwestern France, such as fish, because that’s where she’s from, as well as other premium products. I spent almost five years there.” Then where did you go? “I was ready to become a head chef, but when I quit Hélène Darroze, there weren’t many of those positions available, so I did a six-month stage , or internship, in pastry at The Lanesborough London. I enjoyed learning pastry, it gave me a better understanding of savoury and sweet; they are two completely different worlds.” How did you come to Hong Kong? “In late 2018, Xavier Boyer was promoted to executive sous chef of The Peninsula Hong Kong and he was looking for someone to replace him at Gaddi’s. Aurelie and I knew him from Robuchon London. He used to work with Aurelie and asked her if she was interested in the position, but she wasn’t, so he asked me. “We thought about the offer for a while because it was a big move for us, even though we had visited Hong Kong before. Five years earlier, when I was with Hélène Darroze, I had come to Gaddi’s to cook for an event put on by Van Cleef & Arpels. I did not expect to come back to the same hotel.” What’s it like cooking in a place known as an institution? “It’s challenging to take over Gaddi’s, but it’s a good challenge. The restaurant is very classic, but I always try to do a little twist in the presentation, or add some subtle spice, something you don’t expect in the dish, for example, Challans duck breast with orange sauce, baby turnips, Christmas spices, lavender and honey.” Do you have any favourite ingredients? “One I use all the time is butter. I’m from Normandy and we love butter, while in the south of France they use olive oil. Although I prefer to eat meat, I like to cook seafood, such as fish, scallops, shellfish and lobster, because there is more skill involved, and also, in Normandy, there’s lots of fish.” When we were able to travel, what did you like to do? “We would always take a cooking class, which we did in Thailand and Laos. We want to see different ingredients, learn new techniques. Also, I love spicy food. When we take these classes, the instructor can tell we are trained chefs because we chop the shallots so fast. But for us it’s fun to learn how to make different dishes. “Sometimes I incorporate Asian ingredients in my cooking like Japanese products, lemongrass, galangal – ingredients you don’t see in France, but something you see everywhere in Asia.” ‘How can you copyright scrambled eggs?’ Chefs face recipe plagiarism How do you create your dishes? “I change the dishes according to the season – mainly vegetables in France. My cuisine is simple, I choose the main product, for example, beef from Kagoshima, and then work with seasonal vegetables. I usually use three or four ingredients to make one dish. This is something I learned at Robuchon, where the dishes are sharp and focused on the main ingredient and then have something to elevate the dish.”