Michelin-Starred Chef to Create Gourmet Meal at Cote Jardin
By Galina Stolyarova
Staff Writer
|
|
For The St. Petersburg Times
Chef Marc de Passorio
|
Marc de Passorio, a distinguished chef with extensive international experience, is bursting with pride over his restaurant’s first Michelin star, which was awarded in March this year. “They woke me up at five or six in the morning with the news about the award and I just jumped out of bed and exclaimed I could not believe it,” Passorio, who runs “M de Passorio” restaurant at Hostellerie du Vallon de Valrugues in Saint-Remy de Provence in France, told The St. Petersburg Times on Tuesday. “Then I met my staff in the kitchen and told them we can really be proud of this star — it is ours and ours alone; it is not because we were involved with any of the big names.” In addition to the prestigious Michelin star, Passorio’s restaurant has been awarded 16 points by the respected Gault&Millau restaurant guide. “It is much more challenging indeed to create your own cooking style, your own team, your own venue — but the success, when it comes, is so much more enjoyable when you know you have never exploited anyone’s name or ideas,” Passorio said. Passorio is in St. Petersburg this week to treat the city’s gastronomic community to a gourmet dinner at Novotel’s Cote Jardin restaurant on Friday. The chef, who once prepared a formal dinner for Vladimir Putin back when Putin was president, will serve up an exquisite menu, including tartare of fresh sea scallops from Mont Saint-Michel’s Bay with grilled hazelnut oil and coconut emulsion, homemade lightly smoked duck foie gras, Mediterranean red tuna “a la Plancha” and shoulder of Alpine lamb confit. His signature style fuses regional products with a touch of exotic flavor to create a unique and inspired dish. “This is how it works: I take an aubergine [eggplant] thinking what they would have done to it in Russia, India or Italy, and then an association gives me an idea,” Passorio explains. The chef’s favorite ingredients include zucchini, eggplants, tomatoes and other vegetables. He does his own shopping at his favorite local market, and his restaurant’s main supplier is a trader from that market whom Marc has known since his childhood. “We both remember the times when I shopped there with my parents,” Passorio recalls. “Sometimes he would greet me, tongue-in-cheek, with something like, ‘Oh, nice to see the little one again.’” The cooking bug hit Passorio during one such fondly remembered food shopping pilgrimage to the market that he recalls well. “I wanted to be a cook when I was seven years old,” he remembers. “I was very curious about playing with flavors and ingredients, and it occupied much of my time in my childhood.” “It is very good for business — any business, come to think of it — to have these old connections dating back many years,” he continues. “You know they won’t cheat you and you can rely on them 100 percent.” For Passorio, true success in the kitchen depends on one’s hands and creativity. He believes a good chef will always come up with an excellent meal using the ingredients available to them at any given moment, regardless of the country in which they are in. “For example, four or five years ago I served cold borshch with tongue and foie gras at a dinner at the Kremlin with Vladimir Putin and some 250 guests,” Passorio recalls. “My idea was to offer a fresh twist on a traditional and much-admired local dish.” The big names on the French gastronomic scene have been generous to Passorio. “Marc is a unique chef who has had a passion for cooking from a young age,” says renowned chef Joel Robuchon. “His inventive cooking is linked to the memories of his grandmother or discoveries from his travels. Marc achieves a perfect blend, combining traditional basics and exotic flavors.” Born in Cameroon, Passorio followed in his parents’ footsteps by studying at a Hotel Business School on the French island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean. After spending some time in India, Vietnam and other exotic destinations, he came to France to train in Nice, Toulouse and the Loire until he settled in Provence. Passorio also has two years of experience at the Moscow restaurants Le Nostalgie and La Maree, but his strongest link with Russia is undoubtedly his wife Tatyana, who also works in his restaurant. Every year, the couple invites guests to a Russian-inspired dinner on New Year’s Eve.
|
Ïåðåâåñòè íà ðóññêèé
Print this article
