5 Michelin-star chefs reveal secrets of French cuisine

five top chefs from all around France are about to give us a completely unique view of their cuisine and regions during this culinary journey they welcome us into their kitchens and take us to the very heart of French gastronomy our journey begins in the Alps mahjongg sole piece a two Michelin star chef at the age of just 25 scours the region in search of the very best local produce between the alpine valleys and Lake Geneva he gives free rein to his imagination in order to further enhance these regional delicacies after five years at mark Baja Georgia peas took on the crazy challenge of opening a gourmet restaurant the obsolete at an altitude of more than 2,000 meters he and his team defy the laws of physics [Music] [Music] one will know you had a sinner I jumped at the chance of coming to Beltre on someone said to me we're opening a gourmet restaurant in Beltre on and we're looking for a chef back then I've been working with Mark Weber for five years I was 24 when you go knocking on Bank doors at the age of 24 they don't want to know you they don't trust you they're not going to let you run a gourmet restaurant well then I met some people who gave me that very opportunity to run a gourmet restaurant in about Iran it wasn't easy I got the restaurant but it was a challenge because no one had ever cooked in a ski resort at an altitude of 2,300 meters before I'm always challenging myself with my cooking I always want to do more go further do better it's not good enough when a customer tells me it's good I say no it's not good enough we have to go even further sometimes it's good to have a wife and family who open your eyes to things I'm extra lucky in the fact that my wife is as passionate as me but about wine once a red wine seems strange I don't think it'll clash with the Farah it's a fish with an easy flesh I think it'll actually work better with a red than with a white okay great she'll try it you know the problem with my restaurant is that it's 2,000 meters up we're in a ski resort we have 17 percent humidity levels water that doesn't boil at a hundred degrees and the closest market is 90 minutes away that's why I'm very close to my producers so that the produce they send me is incredibly fresh and of impeccable quality we have to be more rigorous than anyone else because we're miles from everything a short while ago at the beginning of this summer I got a langoustine I saw that my Junior had made some apple juice and I thought that I could do something with it the verbena was just coming in so I infused some in the apple juice and then I wanted to combine the land in the sea object so I made a brunoise r--'s with pure geometry from Italy we're right on the Italian border and I made an apple Brune once I enhanced a wonderful piece of produce I hadn't had it on my menu for years I didn't have a lobster on my menu for eight years but now I have because it reflects Who I am I respected the produce [Music] all of my recipes come from me from the heart sometimes they take a very long time to emerge it can take a day a week or or a year that's why when I'm doing the sport when I'm in the middle of doing something physical I don't think about the pain but about creating recipes about combining flavors it's a great way for me to clear my head while constantly searching for new ideas and recipes [Music] it's very important for me to go and see my producers to go out and meet producers and find new produce [Music] hello are you there line up hi John how are you I'm good I'm good in you you okay if I'm at work I must be okay what are you doing I'm rubbing down the Tom des Vosges these lovely Tom see the yellow broom that's a sign of quality yeah that's how I like patches of yellow here and the Rhine the rind is good and rugged and that's the second sign of quality for Tom David how long do they mature for all these Tom get around five weeks so what brings you here I came to get you so that we can go and see Cedric I'm always game for that oh I'll just put this board back and then we can go okay okay I'll see you in a minute I'll come and join you let's go so how does he get the milk down he doesn't well he makes everything here yes he does it all here I must be very busy yes very I've been living here since 98 that's quite a while now the main reason I came here was for the animals the goats because I only have dairy goats and also for the mountainous because my goats spent five months up in the high mountain pastures they graze here in total freedom as for the constraints well I never get a weekend off holidays I spent five months up in the high pastures too I never come down because I can't see myself coming down I'm very very happy here with my goats I can't see myself doing anything else than being a goat we know the names of all our goats I have 150 goats and I know all their names this one's Aldo she's five and this is deer they're very affectionate you get attached to them our produce is very typical of the region and made entirely in the high mountain pastures the milk doesn't come down both the milking and the production takes place in this Chalet which is at an altitude of 1,600 meters now we're going to extract the cheese it makes up 10% of the milk so 10 litres of milk gives us one kilogram of cheese all the rest is whey which we give to the pigs it is an easy getting to your Hyjal you know it's great to see you we're waiting the chalet are we gonna start with snacks okay yeah go inside we've got some things for you you go on ahead and I'll join you go see you in a minute this is fantastic isn't it great fit for a king I brought everything we need for an omelet do you know what this is it's a jack is very smooth we'll let Cedric try it and these are some steps I picked right do you think he put a log in there will they have germinated what really counts is having a good time that's cooking - that's perfect this is going to be delicious Lionel Cedric ah how are you doing you get in just at the right moment you're miss ready great so what's in your omelets the steps steps I picked in the valley they bill deal are great look at that they're fantastic do you like it running oh yes taste the bit of it cheers Cheers can we try some of your cheese's I'll get you a Shepparton perfect Magali always recommends white wine with ghost cheese right here we are and a little cheese board and what's that this is called Mon now say it's a hard goat's cheese that's matured for six months it's nice isn't it it allows us to store the milk we don't sell in the winter [Music] if you don't know where the produce comes from or what it's like it arrives in the kitchen and it doesn't find my imagination who can't respect it on the plate it's very important to have respect for the produce [Music] [Music] I've been a professional fisherman for four centuries in 23 years because that's roughly how long our family has been living here and fishing the lake I've all been fed on fish after a while you start to think a bit like them the first time I called Eric the first thing he said to me was I'm happy to supply you but you have to come fishing with me first I was really impressed by that I thought he's right I had no idea how they get fish out of the lake it's really about having respect for nature for the produce and liking to eat good things [Music] so it's four o'clock every morning area two o'clock two o'clock every morning even Baker's get up later than that they're lazy the sun's rising it's lovely [Music] after the Alps we set off for the Pyrenees or more precisely the Basque Country where Jean Marguerite Gautier has put regional produce on the menu at the Hotel du Palais in Barents a holder of the title of mayor of the end of horse he's considered to be one of the best chefs in the country as devoted to his produce as he is to passing on knowledge his team and his suppliers are of the utmost importance in [Music] I've been here since 1991 before that I was on the Cote d'Azur I think that the Hotel du Palais when mr. Lamba cher invited me to come and look around it was a bit like Napoleon and Eugenie it was a kind of love story I fell in love with the hotel and the region which is why I'm still here today I really like the architecture of the hotel which is pretty imposing the colors too of the regions of the ocean and also the spirit of the people in the Basque Country who are very warm and welcoming once you get to know them or --then tissa tea about this region whether it's in the produce or lots of good things good evening ladies and gentlemen total over 63 covers tonight we've got room service as well so pay attention to the tables upstairs whenever a customer asked for a table at 8:30 we have to set off five minutes earlier everyone happy all right enjoy your service one things important when a customer comes to the hotel deeper lay and that's when he walked through the front door he says I'm coming to the Hotel du Palais he doesn't say I'm coming to the villa you Janey the lab returned from the moment he walked through the door he expects the best [Music] let's go six curried annuum para trees hello let's go one turbot and one carried on you medium rare let's go also with four pigeon arose a good hurry up now [Music] I can build a boy very good Jeremy thanks chef [Music] imagine you've invited some friends Rosalie you want them to be happy in order for them to be happy you have to be happy yourself you cook for other people but as though you were cooking for yourself when I cook and what I say to the youngsters as well is that you have to cook from the heart a good recipe is good produce you have to go and see your suppliers to seek out the best things I always go and see the producers because I need this contact with them I want to see where the produce comes from how its produced you shouldn't hesitate to travelling fifty a hundred if not two hundred kilometres further even because some produce we have to get from even further afield we know that a producer will have his own working methods which he won't say much about but my parents were farmers they produced poultry beef and pigs it has to be exceptional high quality projects [Music] [Music] in valeted as I'll do that I can leave my work behind I can escape and there are people there who offer me high quality produce they're happy in this space it's great we feed them well up to 80 kilograms on a mixture of series but you have to be patient because Basque pork needs time we keep them here for up to 12 to 14 months so we automatically give them two kilos a day that way they can grow over time but they expend a lot of energy people sometimes say they shouldn't be too fatty but all the taste is in the fat and when the meat has a bit of fat in it you can taste whatever the pigs have been a foraging for you can taste the nuts and acorns chestnuts when it's the season and ash a bit later on it all comes out in the pig what I like is to find this produce which the consumer will then find on his plate because a well-made product is full of flavor it doesn't need to be masked with seasoning it's all in the dish in the meat [Music] they're pretty aren't they yes boss pork has two loves and it grows and then it grows again in the curing which takes place in the drying sheds it's always through time that we manage to get this quality of produce this whole section is for the Hotel de parler they drive for 17 months they stay here for four to five months and then we'll sort them and they'll be fine after that they're boned and they come to us and then they're done they're really nice our friend should be here here it's fine they've started already if that's how it is I love that very much who hasn't had their duck breast with foie gras or [Music] [Music] regional produce where the pork or poultry is honored in this grown Chefs cuisine could be no similar my p.m. what I really like about Pierre is his love of terroir he's very attached to it with his chickens and his ducks you can see the passion that he has for it because it's a real passion we exchange ideas we understand one another just look at the pool odd and Ducks running around outside we understand one another it's a kind of procession with the ducklings so you're feeding the Ducks yes I think it'll give them very nice oh yes it'll give them muscles it's a relationship based on mutual respect and friendship I'm very flattered very proud it's very gratifying I'm over happier today because I'm doing what I always dreamed of doing that's to say creating fine projects or at least trying to create fine projects and then seeing this produce enhanced by great chefs I think it's great I get a buzz out of what I do I really need this contact with the land with the suppliers with the breeders and with these people who are deeply attached to their land and who give all they've got to create really good high-quality beautifully prepared projects is it ready to go up yes we're just missing the goods burry on top like that no it's good there's no gravy we'll leave it like that and now we can send it upstairs yes very good [Music] it's a need for me Smith offical idea to pass on what I've learned done to give back there's no napping where the roadside in life you have to do all you can as soon as possible sick or Polynesian it's when you're young that you can do it not afterwards Marseille on the Cote d'Azur has always been focused on the sea a multitude of fishermen supply the phocians city's restaurants but few were good enough for a three Michelin star chef the Mediterranean Sea is at the heart of the dishes created by Java and Posada the fish from his aquatic kitchen garden take pride of place on the menu of his restaurant Liberty nice yeah the sea the sea is everything here it's it's omnipresent it's that's a part of this is a part of a city it's part of where we feed ourselves it's part of my life and part of my childhood it's it's my kitchen garden in a way my marine our kitchen garden I don't know what kind of fish it is but I smell a fish I don't know we'll see come here [Music] that's a fine fish so how many hooks have you got on there 700 baited with sardines and anchovies looks like we've hit a shoal of mackerel that's great outs I'll change the menu there's a little gala net coming in see it swimming in how beautiful that is we love them it's fantastic and the flavor is the flavors really in compliment a bass look at that a really lovely fish that is an outstanding Mediterranean bass a fish caught in a net will never die the same way as one course on a line it all depends unfortunately on the way it dies it goes to eat something it gets caught and there you are and the fish isn't stressed out when it gets onto the boat it's not stressed at all if there's a nice fish coming in now you are one of the last response herbal fishermen in the world if I can put it that way it's selective fishing - yeah that's right we only take the very best fish we let the little ones go the fish is beautiful it's alive it isn't damaged it's a really fine catch the difference in flavor for me as a cook is indescribable it's great when it's like this it's pure joy [Music] we offended building a friendship and an understanding with the fishermen who work for me you know getting all these artisans back in the saddle because it was a job that was beginning to lose its sparkle we've had to bring them up to date a bit as well as the fish they were catching the the ancestral way which they fish and the responsible way in which they do it means that there are nearly 80 species a year that appear every season on the purtiest menu Thank You Felix see you soon I have a good evening [Music] our cuisine is is pretty sustainable because it respects the Mediterranean that respects the artisans who work with me it's it's a very delicate chain of course but we try to keep it perfectly balanced [Music] I've never wanted to leave this neighborhood I think that it's the place I really want to live I don't want to go anywhere else giving myself away staying here to build my dream which was to have a three Michelin star restaurant in an unlikely city Marseille so Alice Yardley I'm happy here in this exceptional location I'm from here and it's it's from here that my cuisine stems [Music] yeah it's actually a family restaurant my if my grandfather and father did what was needed to get it to a certain level their dream was to get three stars and the Michelin Guide I made their dreams a reality but it also took a lot of persistence the most important thing was to find my own culinary path not something you can only find through your deep roots in childhood memories thus that's what took the longest for me a culinary identity a passion and in the end I turned to the most obvious thing the Mediterranean I was looking everywhere for something that was right in front of me but one thing I know is that what I'm doing now my cuisine it comes from my inner self isn't something I've plagiarized my instinct is to find a way to glorify the fish by setting it against the extreme aridity of the region there's not really a battle everyone thinks it's a battle but but life's a battle in itself every time you try to do better you try to surpass yourself it's a battle it doesn't it doesn't just happen like that you don't wake up one morning you're funny sitting there in front of you yeah every minute every service endless questioning to arrive finally at a meal a lunch where everything's excellent from a to Zed [Music] lovely see sauce there's a lobster to go okay very good see once you get good then you've got two after that you have to consolidate you can't only be got once you got to be good on time after time it's repetitive but that's the price of success [Music] oh the water's cold it's freezing my doubt there [Music] yeah of course I've still got a lot of projects a lot of dreamers luckily because because if you don't have dreams you just stop but for the moment the prettiness is working well I'm trying to give it the best possible chance to achieve excellence and that's you know hard work and a pleasure too of course of course but you have to be there every day for every service and of course I would like it somehow my my son took an interest in the projects as well in central France the Tocqueville family 3 start for 3 generations in a real institution in the world of French gastronomy carry on the tradition of fine produce Michel taco upholds the reputation of the restaurant by staying faithful to traditional cuisine today his famous spread beyond the confines of the law trivia about study Bordeaux and also build up shape up with you I go so market out of pleasure twice a week Tuesday and Friday the Friday morning is that big rendezvous with the producers and the produce are these the only one that's for today yes and they're good I'll take them it's also a meeting point to wander around the market to see and feel smell and sample sometimes to excess that's my I love to try things twice and to choose and imagine because that's where the cooks call me imagination off is fired it's really through seeing all the projects in front of you that you get ideas it looks tempting today [Music] well they're not very sweet yet but they're plump so they just need to write all of these ingredients will appear in the wrong kuzey takes one of your strawberries I think you'll like them a town with no mark X is a town with no soul the twice weekly market gives the heart or away on its beat thoughtfully the one and in a way it brings in oxygen to the town the market we lose the choice of cooking well and eating these strawberries I'm gonna have another one see you tomorrow morning job here [Music] morning gentlemen morning chef the red bustle is for you this small do win La Maison trouble it's my family home it's where I was born it's where I grew up spent my teenage years until I went to catering school for the age of 50 okay floral I'll leave you to do with all this the place is full of memories my dad my mom would also George's brother and my grandfather John Baptists who founded the restaurant in 1930 with his wife so three generations of restaurateurs three generations of cooks so it's a real passion for cooking but also a real passion for the customer for a way of life for an atmosphere hospitality knowing how to welcome so it's 42 years running now that we've had three stars in the Michelin Guide it's a tradition that we grow is an institution thanks to the people behind it it's always been able to evolve and shape Laurel shed the Battuta what's going out with it a poached crayfish one crayfish yes that's all I play with flavors and try and combine flavors that go together textures that resemble or contrast different temperatures different colors too because the rule is very important in a composition it's almost as important as the taste the taste remains the priority in all conditions the look is there to serve the texts Sisko stunned affair it's good to see buff what well that's what I try to do sometimes I succeed but the look is always fairly sober [Music] [Applause] you see welcome out to domestic abusers are those demerit avoir you had at the market yesterday yes these Meredith were exceptional I couldn't stop eating we've just finished picking them by the time I left the market I had none left they were so good farm beasts I've got one here these won't keep long either golden like that these are for German yes they're for Jam they're exceptional we've been working together for 25 years we started at the market I suggested produce the kind of things I could provide they told me they needed this and that and that's how it began now we work hand in hand industrial agriculture isn't my idea of farming it's a choice I thought why not go into market gardening and since I was fortunate enough to have a town nearby Roane the land was suitable and I like doing it we picked them three times a week you get a phone call and we pick them and deliver them there another lovely poet we won't put any more in because they'll damage the ones underneath good a lovely crop the pleasure in the air and is with the customers don't get many comments but I get them 10 times a day [Music] here's some nice ones the texture of that tomato lots of flesh not many seeds it's got a good flavor but it's still not sweet enough it isn't bad it's not looking much the pleasure of waiting and the pleasure of receiving them when they come having said that you still have to be professional you have to be dependable when the produce isn't to my taste or the customers taste like you we won't even pick it we'll leave it like the peas we can take the tomatoes to the Columbia after the Columbia [Music] [Music] where did you plant your turn a true teacher let's stop and take a look is the bulb dip down or is it we'll take a look at this way there should be a nice bulb here let's see splendid there you are and I have another one beside it we lift them like this we don't pick them by machine they're too delicate turn it rose ensure that your chew do you think there's any link with garden chervil no and the Leafs poisonous it's highly poisonous the taste and the texture it's it's like omen carrots oh it tastes mostly of carrot what does it do to them leaving them in the cellar for all those weeks but the idea is that they develop their full flavor they sweeten up that for me it's the king of vegetables we're off on an adventure I hope it'll start again [Music] my ambition is to be able to leave my children or at least a pass on to my children my love of this profession [Music] the oyster beds opposite masa Michel in Hong Kong a part of the local landscape the coarser chef Olivier gave up his three stars to openly Maison Dupree coal and sail the seven seas but he's still very attached to his produce his team and his cuisine [Music] [Music] the usual could had a fee I've known Olivier for a long time we went out fishing together a few times with my father when we were kids we were kids we can never have guessed the one day I'd be a cook and they'd be a lobster fisherman that's a nice lobsters I've been fishing for about 27 years I work with my father for two years and then I started up on my own and bought my own boat 25 years ago I've been fishing with traps for 25 years [Music] but in all infinity the hardest part is when the weather's were Annie bird or when there's no catch we drop our traps and we lift them again because whether we catch anything or not we always lift our traps they weigh quite a bit at the end of the day when there's no catch they seem very heavy they're only one kilogram but you feel like they weigh 40 when there's something in them you only feel the weight of the lobster [Music] I've never given Olivia lobster that I didn't think it was good and he's never asked me to replace anything I only give him things that are good if they aren't good I don't sell them the gossips say that to cook a lobster you have to know the first name a fisherman's father and I do Philippe's father is called Frank we've known each other for years exactly these are for you with lots of good-sized ones here you win I have great respect for the fisherman who faced the elements every day great man [Music] shudders well shuttle features is really a crazy idea John and I had to bring the place back to life the house was built in 1920 it's a bit of Bavarian little big the second Barack it's a crazy kind of house poised between the sea and the sky overlooking conchal Bay and no semi shell it's oriented entirely towards the rising and setting of the Sun it has this big garden above it which surrounds it which has to start off immaculate and then get progressively Wilder becoming and more and more of a natural habitats until finally it blends into the landscape into the fields that all around us when John and I came here was a total wilderness this place made me think like a child it was both the Sleeping Beauty's castle and that's the house in Wuthering Heights in a gardeners the gardens every child's dream come true there are frog ponds there are bees there's the apple tree conservatory the jacques-cartier teepee its animals its donkeys the little whistle sheep the Big Pig come and have a hug if you would mind Hey so you coming out grandpa he's he's a pot-bellied pig he was abandoned in the forest and the wardens brought him to us they say likely he'll be well-fed there oh yes you're very handsome [Music] no jealousy no no no this is the Celtic vegetable garden we've got hyssop we've got to come a mile we've got parsley phenols we've got lovage we've got salad Burnet we've got hairy mint peppermint spearmint lemon balm various Oregon oohs galangal - herbs from Southeast Asia that we planted here we want to bring this house back to life by filling it with happiness and rich encounters [Music] so first of all it's the spices most of which are Fairtrade particularly from India from the north of Kerala we work with over a hundred one hundred and twenty small producers we want to be a link with the Forgotten people on the planet so that they can live a bit more decently through fair trade and to make my cooking which used to be three-star cuisine for special occasions I want to make it available for everyday cooking quality is measured on a human scale your relationship with our people your relationship with your collaborators a relationship with your team your crew me and then the suppliers like a network an immense web the sea people the land people and also all these nameless people from the other ends of the earth and finally with those who come to meet us all the customers who become more than customers they become accomplices for a moment we share together [Music] it's something that goes beyond selling or buying and it allows everyone to feel good again which is much more difficult than having three stars are you using my Sicilian Aragon oh yeah we've started putting it in and succeeding here is setting off for me cooking is a way of casting off and expressing with spirit of adventure thin gun that's why I use and continue to use this range of up to 120 spices we don't use them to create exotic dishes but the way canto Asian is used in literature to give a rhythm or tempo a style to bring things out [Music] we couldn't do anything without the suppliers without the producers without the fishermen and the market gardeners we couldn't do anything either without the people who have appreciate and understand what we need to express I like it when they're like that when they have shells like that it's well balanced it's good and she's lovely well sir yes first of all anak Padang is a woman who personifies the resilient nature of the conch Alwyn her work sincerity spontaneity honesty and hell of a job well done and and then her knowledge of oyster for doing farming we see like that which is hard it's tough it's the expression of a region you get with her with this woman who can only produce good things you can't dissociate con Kyle from oysters when you think of conga you automatically think of oysters and ich is the same age as my sister she's like a big sister with her produce so there's a complicity between us we don't need to talk much and say a lot of things we carry this Bay this place between the sea and the sky within us in the same way we've got the same headings we have our own ways but she expresses her love of this region through her oysters through her life through her family like I do through Jan and the whole crew we expressed the grandeur and the beauty of this place you produce lovely oysters and eek that means remember the things we've learned were someone so hard it's because we keep them longer and we leave them to harden than the oyster beds the shell gets harder we always gloss over the question of Labor today but there's hours of work involved on producing a high-quality oyster and it's up to us the chefs who are the last link in the chain to further enhance the fruit of several years work [Music] it's the energy of the sea we're looking for in a good oyster well I think we should try one don't you they always taste best fresh from the scene [Music] this is the life mind you I didn't want to farm oysters I didn't want to do it here we are almost half a century farming oysters keeps you young though you're the proof you're full of beans and eek we'd better go are the tides coming in at least we had good weather when I'm not in the kitchen when I'm not reading or creating the formulas for blends of spices I'm on the water [Music] boats sailing and cooking it's all the same thing I ride the wave I ride the wind and then in the kitchen I try and create the taste of the wind and the waves and of course there's this element of being transported far away over the horizon with this taste of foreign places the taste of adventure the taste of the spices maybe that's why they call me the Corsair chef [Music] so talk [Music] [Music] yeah like a consulate oh yeah jemelle dealer no no possible Ganga no I believe a written request No [Music] if you like it it's a chimera thoughts about connectivity of the rule and I get a little uneasy [Music] [Music]

Channel: wocomoCOOK

Views: 691,653

Rating: 4.8037419 out of 5

Keywords: Cuisine, Jean Sulpice, Jean-Marie Gautier, Gerald Passedat, Michel Troisgros, Olivier Roellinger, Benoit Bernard, provence, Top chefs, christmas meal, Val thorens, gastronomic restaurant, Oxalys

Id: RF7LoSQHEzo

Length: 52min 3sec (3123 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 12 2017