For the cuisine of the restaurants of Maradiva Villas Resort and Spa, the former chef of the Kremlin, Jerome Rigaud, will be responsible. For the cuisine of the Maradiva Villas Resort and Spa restaurants, the former chef of the Kremlin, Jerome Rigaud, Jerome Rigaud, will be responsible.
A titled French chef about his work in the Kremlin and the peculiarities of Mauritian cuisine.
He first came to Moscow in 2004 and worked as a chef at two eminent metropolitan restaurants, El Dorado and Nostalgia. The owner of the Nostalgie restaurant recommended Jerome to organize a presidential banquet - and five months later, in 2008, Maestro Rigaud joined the Kremlin, where he worked for three years. Jerome's duties included cooking for the president, prime minister, patriarch, and organizing banquets of national importance. It was at this time that the Kremlin cuisine was enriched with French specialties: the place of piglets and sturgeons was taken by dorado, turbot and foie gras.
Today, Jérôme Rigaud leads the restaurant kitchen at the Maradiva Villas Resort & Spa in sunny Mauritius. But Jerome returns to Russia with its harsh climate with pleasure.
At Chin-Chin Cafe, Maestro Rigaud presented a special dinner menu, which felt both the solidity of the Russian approach to cooking and the sunny lightness of Mauritius.
For example, beef carpaccio was accompanied by a spicy salad of fennel, cumin, Parmesan and capers. Quite active and original taste of smoked sword fish was complemented by fresh notes of fried asparagus and cherry tomato ratatouille.
And, although Jerome Rigaud assured that he adapted the dishes for the Russian guest, namely, he made much less spicy sauces and dressings than they are served in Mauritius, hot dishes were accompanied by quite “fiery” sauces: for example, Creole sauce was served with turbot fillet, binder quite neutral pumpkin gnocchi served as a link between fish and dressing; and tender lamb curry paired with a textured side dish of saffron rice and black lentils. The meal was rounded off with a fluffy frozen yogurt terrine topped with rich mango and strawberry puree.
The maestro did not expand on his Kremlin experience, explaining that he had no right to do so even after several years had elapsed, but Jerome spoke about his current work with pleasure.
Monsieur Rigaud, after such hard and responsible work as cooking for the first persons of the state, you left for a resort island, practically a paradise on earth. Is this a kind of career downshifting or something that you were striving for from the very beginning?
“Downshifting is like an eternal rest, right? In that case, my current work cannot be called that word! I have never worked in a hotel before, and at Maradiva Villas Resort & Spa, I found that a regular restaurant is very different from a hotel restaurant. Guests come to the hotel for several days or even weeks, and they eat at the same restaurant almost every day. Even if I cook incredibly delicious food, but every day it is the same, my kitchen will leave an unpleasant impression. Therefore, it is necessary to constantly come up with something new, surprise and maintain the interest of guests.
Tell us what is interesting about Mauritian cuisine.
Thanks to the mild climate, fruits and vegetables grow here all year round. By the way, our hotel has its own garden where we grow food for the restaurant. Naturalness, in general, is in vogue lately, people tend to monitor what they eat and what they feed their children. In Mauritius, it is easy to get fresh fish for every taste. Even fish sticks, so loved by all the kids, are made from freshly caught fish.
It sounds amazing: mild climate, own garden, lots of fresh fish… You probably don't miss Russia?
- Of course, there is nostalgia. It was interesting for me to work in Moscow. I also had to face some difficulties. First of all, “translation difficulties”, Russian is an extremely difficult language, and in the kitchen it is necessary that all team members understand each other perfectly. Especially when it comes to cooking for the first persons of the state. The second problem for me was the weather: a whole six months of winter, unbelievable! By the way, many Russian tourists come to our hotel, they often ask to cook something Russian, so we serve any Russian dishes in the restaurant.
And yet, isn't it cramped for you, having lived in the metropolis for so many years, on a beautiful, but still an island? Is it drawn to a noisy big city?
- To be honest, sometimes you want that very “boiling life”. I have a goal, I would like to open a small restaurant of my own, for example, in Australia. Or in Barcelona - I have a house on the border with Barcelona. The Spaniards are in many ways similar to the Russians: they come to the restaurant late, eat and drink a lot, and have a lot of fun. I love these kind of guests.
Photos: Pavel Litvinov
For the last three years he has worked as a chef in the Moscow Kremlin. Jérôme Rigaud is a graduate of the famous French Lyceum François Argo and has won numerous culinary awards. He began his career in 1995 in the restaurant of the French four-star hotel La Villa Duflot.
In 1997, he moved to work as an apprentice chef at the Michelin-starred Almandin. After that, he worked as an assistant chef and then as a chef at another Michelin-starred restaurant, Astor. From 1999 to 2001, Jérôme honed his skills at the famous Troisgros (3 Michelin stars), where he worked on fish dishes and sauces.
After working in one of the best restaurants in the world, Jerome became the chef of the French The Yaca, and later The Balthus, located in Beirut.
In September 2004, Jérôme Rigaud came to Russia, where he headed the kitchen of the famous El Dorado restaurant. He also worked as a chef in the capital's Nostalgie, after which he became a chef in the Kremlin in 2008, where he served for three years.
Now Jerome Rigaud will delight guests of the Maradiva Villas Resort & Spa with his gourmet dishes.
The French chef of the Kremlin, Jerome Rigaud, has been feeding the Russian president since 2008, and has been working in Russia for 9 years in total, and even with an interpreter, he prefers to speak only Russian ..
website: Jerome, what question bothered you the most?
Jerome Rigaud: Of course, about Medvedev's favorite dish. If I answer it, then the President of Russia will be served the same dish everywhere.
website: Is your job very different from that of an ordinary chef?
Jerome Rigaud: Yes. You are at work all day, even when there is no work. You act like an attendant. Because at any moment a call can follow, and you need to cook dinner - back and forth. And you came to the restaurant, there are 80 guests in it, you fed them - and finished the job. And our work - today there may be no one, and tomorrow 100 or 200 people. I don't know this beforehand. It's not a restaurant, but it's interesting.
website: What is the technology? They just call you and say: Medvedev wants scrambled eggs?
Jerome Rigaud: No, you can't (laughs). Beforehand, there will be a letter in which it is written: there will be a reception. Under this, a menu is thought out, products are purchased, in addition, it is determined what dishes, tablecloths will be, where there will be dinner, how many waiters, cooks, etc.
website: On the one hand, the president's chef is, in fact, the main chef of the country. But on the other hand, there is a Michelin guide, even if not in Russia, but we already have Michelin chefs. Who is higher in the hierarchy?
Jérôme Rigaud: It's different (laughs). The restaurant serves many different people every day. It's not the same as feeding the same ones every day. At all official receptions and banquets, at least half of the delegations are Russians. You can't feed the same people. That's why we have different dishes every day. In addition, we do not have any guide control, I made a mistake - that's all. You can't make mistakes.
website: There is no chef who would not like his own restaurant. What do you want?
Jérôme Rigaud: I want to open one small restaurant - 40 seats, like a brasserie: no gastronomy, patisserie - nothing like that. Why? I want quiet work, so that everything is just delicious, there are few cooks. It's almost like a vacation.
website: Everyone says that Russia is bad with food ...
Jérôme Rigaud: I already know where to buy the best products, where to buy good lamb. It's my job to find the very best products.
website: Where do you want to open a restaurant? In Russia or in France?
Jérôme Rigaud: I don't know about Russia, but definitely not in France. France is my home country and I want to look even further. For example, I don't know Spain, Australia yet... Spain is like Russia: all people walk in the evening, eat - there is something similar.
website: You have been in Russia for 9 years. How has the Russian restaurant environment changed during this time?
Jerome Rigaud: You can't change the mentality quickly. Slightly changed, and the products changed a little. But you still come to the market, take two tomatoes - and they taste different.
website: How expensive are restaurants in Russia, from your point of view?
Jérôme Rigaud: The problem is the markup on products. I bought beef from America, and when it gets to Russia, the price already doubles, and then you still need to cook it. And further
300% are added.
website: By what external signs do you determine whether a restaurant is good or bad?
Jérôme Rigaud: No, I never choose like that. I choose a restaurant, knowing the chef or on the recommendation, when they say: go there, it's delicious, try it. I have very little time, I can't test restaurants from outside. When I have time, I call, find out where to go.
website: What Russian specialties do you like, what do you like to experiment with? After all, when preparing ceremonial banquets, do you somehow need to present Russian cuisine?
Jerome Rigaud: What is Russian, Italian, French cuisine? Here are Russian dumplings - it's the same as Italian ravioli. Russian cuisine - what is it, borscht? So this dish is Ukrainian. I don't share kitchens, I cook what I love. I think all chefs are cosmopolitans. I have not seen such a chef who would say: I cook only Russian.
website: Now everyone is talking about healthy eating. And what is it?
Jerome Rigaud: Calories, diet - it's just fashion. You need to eat like a normal person: breakfast, lunch, dinner. Yes, now all the girls are very thin, but tomorrow, maybe everyone will like it the other way around. So it's just fashion.
website: Do you count calories in the Kremlin?
website: You worked for Robuchon and Troisgros, what did it give you? At Troisgros, the most famous dish is salmon with sorrel sauce. Are you preparing it?
Jerome Rigaud: No. Only Troisgros knows where to buy such salmon, such cream. If there are no products, you need to change the menu. The most important thing is that in the kitchens of such restaurants all the chefs are professionals who do not just go to work, but love it and work together.
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20 chefs of the heads of state came to Russia at the invitation of the Kremlin's French chef Jerome Rigaud. They told how Putin starved in Israel, who milks Prince Albert's cow and what the king of Thailand eats for breakfast
Gilles Bragard, a manufacturer of chef's hats and jackets, once invited the chefs of ten heads of state to dine together at the restaurant of the French "god of cuisine" Paul Bocuse. This is how the Chefs des Chefs club was born, which has existed for over 30 years. Now it includes 30 chefs of the first persons of the states: one each from 26 countries and two each from China and Italy (an exception was made for them, since the two largest teams of chefs work for the heads of these states).
Now, in order to receive a royal person at the highest level, chefs do not need to study cookbooks of a foreign country - just “call a friend”. But it would be a mistake to think that during these calls the chefs share secret recipes and secret ingredients with each other. “Almost all the heads of state are elderly people, and they all have health problems: someone has high sugar, someone has a heart ... We don’t talk about what they like to eat, we just tell each other that they can and what diet they are on now,” says the chef of the King of Thailand, Norbert Kostner.
In general, the question of “what does a crocodile eat for breakfast” is the most popular among journalists. Gilles Bragar and members of the club explained that they could not reveal this secret: it is likely that after that their wards will be fed only with this dish, and they will simply get tired of it. However, in interviews separately, some secrets were revealed. For example, Barack and Michelle Obama prefer vegetables grown in the garden near the White House, Silvio Berlusconi is crazy about pasta with olive oil, and Prince Albert eats vegetables and drinks milk produced on his own farm near Monaco. Christian Garcia, president of the Chefs des Chefs club and Prince Albert's chef, also said that after Prince Albert's marriage to Charlene Wittstock, he had to learn how to fry an antelope leg and, with the help of club colleague Hilton Little, begin to master South African cuisine, which the crown prince's wife loves. And the Kremlin chef Jerome Rigaud admitted that Dmitry Medvedev prefers fish dishes, while Vladimir Putin prefers meat and game.
As Bragar says, the chef of the head of state is the "ambassador of the national cuisine." Its task is not just to treat everyone who gets to the government table at the highest level, but also to show all the best that is in the country's cuisine and wines, and create a special atmosphere at this table. “Politics separates us, but food unites us,” he says. Sometimes, however, the country's culinary traditions remain misunderstood. For example, Shalom Kadosh, the chief chef of the first person in Israel, told how Vladimir Putin, while visiting Israel during Passover, remarked to him that “they forgot to bring bread to the table.” “I had to tell the president that these are the traditions of our country. We keep kashrut and do not eat flour on Pesach,” says Shalom Kadosh.
Another important task of chefs is to ensure the safety of dishes on the tables of the first persons. Jerome Rigaud admitted that there is a special laboratory in the Kremlin where he has to hand over all the ingredients before cooking. Christian Garcia said that in this matter, Prince Albert relies on his choice, and he only cares that the products are fresh: "and this is the best guarantee of their safety."
In search of new recipes and tastes, chefs travel a lot: the summit is held every year in a new country. In Moscow they were received yesterday by Dmitry Medvedev, for lunch in the Kremlin they were served kulebyaka and borscht. The cooks noted that everything was cooked perfectly. “They are afraid to invite us over, they think that we are incredibly demanding, but in fact, for example, I generally like to cook more than eat,” said Hilton Little, the chef of the President of South Africa.
Focusing on the topic of cooking, in a conversation with Shalom Kadosh, I kept trying to extort a “crown” recipe from him. He talked about how bit by bit, according to the stories of living eyewitnesses, he restores idish cuisine - the culinary traditions of Jews who lived in Europe in the 20th century. “This cuisine is not very relevant now, too heavy for modern people, but this is our history, our memory,” he says. We argued about the correct recipe for gefilte-fish: my Odessa grandmother, who supplied the Soviet nomenclature in Eliseevsky from under the floor, believed that Yubileynoe cookies should be put there, and Shalom Kadosh insists that challah. But we agreed with him that the fish should be fresh and without bones.
French chef Jérôme Rigaud has lived in Russia for almost nine years. Arriving in Moscow to work in famous restaurants, in 2008 he headed the kitchen of the Kremlin, becoming the chef of the President of the Russian Federation. Only recently, Jérôme Rigaud left Russia to become the head chef of the restaurant at the Maradiva Villas Resort and Spa in Mauritius. However, not forever: from time to time, an easy-going chef comes (flies!) to Russia to conduct master classes. He recently visited St. Petersburg to hold a gastronomic tour at the Chin Chin restaurant, presenting the cuisine of the Maradiva hotel.
Jérôme Rigaud is a graduate of the famous French Lyceum François Argo and has won numerous culinary awards. He began his career in 1995 in the restaurant of the French four-star hotel La Villa Duflot. In 1997, he moved to work as an apprentice chef at the Michelin-starred Almandin. After that, he worked as an assistant chef and then as a chef at another Michelin-starred restaurant, Astor. From 1999 to 2001, Jérôme honed his skills at the famous Troisgros (3 Michelin stars), where he worked on fish dishes and cooking sauces.
After working in one of the best restaurants in the world, Jerome became the chef of the French The Yaca, and later - The Balthus, located in Beirut.
In September 2004, Jérôme Rigaud came to Russia, where he headed the kitchen of the famous El Dorado restaurant. He also worked as a chef in the capital's Nostalgia, after which he became a chef in the Kremlin in 2008, where he served for three years.
Now Jérôme Rigaud delights guests of the Maradiva Villas Resort & Spa with his gourmet dishes. A special pride of the hotel is the 750-meter-long white-sand beach: after the Moscow snowy winters, it was hard for Jérôme to resist it…
I consider the continuous operation of the restaurant wrong: it is difficult for the chef to feed guests around the clock
Jerome, you have been in Russia for several years now. How did you then, having arrived from France, see the Russian market and what has changed today?
Then it was tough! (Laughs.) I remember the incredible difficulties with meat ... It was impossible to buy either French meat, or Australian or New Zealand meat ... I remember that we got it with great difficulty. Now, of course, you can buy everything - really a lot has changed. The cook has the opportunity to get fresh food, and any fresh food is very important for people in my profession. When I arrived, it was very difficult for me to understand that it is in the order of things to say to a guest in a restaurant when he orders a dish from the menu: “No, there is no ribeye today, and we cannot cook this dish. Order something else!" Now it's hard to imagine.
Difficulties with products and difficulties in their delivery - yes, we can say that we have overcome this. What else have you seen on the Russian market?
When I arrived, I worked at the El Dorado restaurant. I remember that I lived in Moscow for 11 months without a break, I didn’t fly to France, because I had to see and understand everything - culture, mentality, I had to understand what kind of food is here, learn the language. It was hard, but interesting, interesting! (Smiling.) It was surprising to me that your restaurants are open from 12 to 12 - the whole day. In France, people come to restaurants only for lunch and dinner, and the rest of the time they are closed.
It must have been hard for you to get used to the new routine?
No, it's not hard - I love my job. Just curious, because it was a different concept for me. The Frenchman eats at 12 o'clock in the afternoon and at 7-8 o'clock in the evening - that's all. Here everyone eats all day long! I believe that it is not right for a restaurant to work in the mode of constantly open doors, because the chef needs to prepare all the products in the morning - for the whole day and for the whole evening. It's very hard! In France, the cook knows: at 12 o'clock in the afternoon 50 people will come to him, in the evening, for example, 60. At two o'clock in the afternoon he has finished feeding the diners and can calmly prepare for dinner. Here the work goes on continuously: people come and come, come and come. I've been rebuilding!
The chef is a leader, father, friend and helper
Jerome, you worked in premium restaurants, then in the Kremlin kitchen. That is, in theory, you should not have had any special problems either with products or with staff. However, was your work with staff different from what you are used to in France?
You know, everywhere there are problems with the staff, and it does not depend on whether you work in a democratic or haute cuisine. You work with a team, and you are not just a boss, a leader - you are also a father, friend, assistant and all together. Your team is like your family and you are in charge of it. I leave home at 9 am and return at 1 am.
That is, when you arrived in Russia, you began to create a team? ..
Yes. And even now I can invite one of them to work with me - for example, I called two chefs from Moscow to help me spend gastronomic evenings at the Chin Chin restaurant in St. Petersburg. And they went with me! Because it is difficult to create a team, but when it works out, you can be sure that you have found reliable assistants and friends.
- Probably, this is the main task of the chef - to create such a team.
Yes, just like, for example, in sports.
Well, the chef managed to put together a team of chefs, but there are still huge problems with the waiters ...
And these problems are everywhere - in Russia, and in America, and in France.
In Mauritius, I adapted my food and cuisine knowledge to the new culture
You don't work in the Kremlin now...
Yes, I moved to Mauritius - 11 hours by plane! (Laughs) Near South Africa, next to Madagascar. I feed the guests of the Maradiva Villas Resort and Spa. Five-star hotel, inside - two restaurants, I work there - on the beach!
After Russia!
After Russia, where it is winter for many months, - in plus 30, in summer! But I come here, I give master classes.
Jerome, what kind of cuisine is on the island of Mauritius, what do you cook?
There is a mix - Indian, Japanese, Asian. But originally it is Creole cuisine with a lot of French influence.
That is, completely different cuisines are mixed there: how and in what do you find points of contact between them?
You know, all cuisines - Japanese, Italian, French - are built primarily on products. And in all these cuisines they use fish, tomatoes, onions and so on. And then we look: some cook more soups, others - pasta, others prefer spicy dishes, and so on. We see different cultures. And when you start working in a different culture, in a different country, with a different cuisine, you can use everything that you already know, and you only need to adapt your knowledge to this cuisine. Do not change everything: came and radically changed the food! And all the guests left. And to adapt your knowledge, your cuisine to a new culture for you, to make your cuisine understandable to guests, and therefore close. Then they will love it too.
What do you like in Mauritius?
In Mauritius, they now eat spicy dishes, curry dishes - I offer them. Some of them were also tried by the guests of the Chin Chin restaurant in St. Petersburg - for example, lamb curry according to a special recipe of the Maradiva hotel. It is served with saffron rice, black lentil fricassee and Creole vegetables. Or a salad of smoked swordfish - smoked marlin - with fried asparagus, tomato confit and caraway ratatouille with a light balsamic dressing.
When chefs from abroad come to us, they often say that they have to change something in the initially planned menu, because they may not find all the products of the quality they are used to here ...
And I brought all the products from Mauritius!
For the entire menu?
Yes, smoked marlin there, cooked everything for the curry - where would I get the ingredients for it here? I loaded all the products on the plane - and here they are! (Laughs) For restaurant guests today, the time has come when the chef can take any products, bring them with him and cook dishes of any cuisine - and guests in St. Petersburg will try the same dishes as guests in Mauritius. It's so interesting!
Today, people all over the world need to be taught that food can
enjoy!
Jerome, how do you feel about the fact that people today are very little interested in new dishes, new technologies, preferring the fast food industry to good restaurants?
I don't agree with this. I don't see people at fast food places in the evening. During the day, yes. Because people have a lot of work, the break is short, they don’t have time - they have to eat somewhere very quickly, and it’s better to take it with them. They go to fast food places, buy food to go and go back to work. It is the system that forces them to do so. But in the evening they all go to restaurants and eat with pleasure, no longer in a hurry.
This is in France, but we have not yet formed the habit of dining in restaurants.
Everything has its time. All the same, people understand that eating fast is wrong. And for the cook it is unpleasant! When the chef prepares a dish - he washes vegetables, peels them, cuts, fries or stews, prepares a salad, adds greens and so on, and then he sees that the guest has come running to him, quickly grabbed everything and ran away ... It's terrible! I don't want to work like this. We need to teach people that food can and should be enjoyed, it can be savored, tasted, enjoyed!
Precisely our people, Russian guests?
No, the people of the whole world. Now there are fast food establishments everywhere, and many have a problem with excess weight, cholesterol. Therefore, today everywhere it is necessary to teach people how to eat right - at breakfast, lunch and dinner.
And it's up to the chef to do it?
Including. A person who eats every day in a restaurant will have less weight than someone who dine at home. Because the restaurant uses less fat in cooking, counts calories, and the guest is advised to take a light salad and dessert for a heavy meal. And at home he is left to himself!
That is, in theory, a person should have his own doctor, his own lawyer and - his own cook, who will make sure that he eats right!
Yes. It would be right.
The engine of modern culinary art is new technologies
Jerome, do you know Russian cuisine?
Oh sure! (Smiling.) There are Russian people in Mauritius now - Russian guests who ask me for borsch, or Kiev cutlets, or Olivier salad: yes, I'm ready to cook all this!
In your opinion, which cuisines are developing most actively today, moving forward most actively?
You know, it's an endless process. Any kitchen evolves endlessly! End products. For example, meat: beef, lamb, pork, something else - even exotic positions, but that's all, this list will be closed sooner or later: in fact, it is already closed. Another thing is how to cook this meat, in what proportions with other products, with sauces, how to serve it and how to serve it. Just a question of assemblage. We fried this meat in a pan and on the grill, now you can cook it at a low temperature - that's it, it has changed the taste, in fact this is a different dish! Made from a former limited product.
That is, the products are practically all mastered, the time has come for new technologies.
Yes, new technologies - they are the engine of culinary art today.
And how do you feel about the fact that now Scandinavian chefs are moving forward very furiously and confidently? They're pushing the French, aren't they?
I don't know where they put them...
On Bocuse they take first place.
Yes, of course, but this is a competition. It's not the restaurant that wins - it's the person in the competition. What you see on Bocuse you will never taste in a restaurant. These are completely different things.
Okay, but the Danish restaurant Noma, for the second year in a row, takes first place in The S. Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants list - the list of the best restaurants in the world? ..
And who decides that this restaurant is the first? You know Alain Ducasse - he's French. He has been building restaurants for almost 30 years, several of his establishments have three Michelin stars: not one, not two (as in Nome), but three. And what is the name of the chef of the Noma restaurant? You don't remember - and I don't. And few people remember! But everyone knows Paul Bocuse, Alain Ducasse... I'm not saying that that restaurant is not worthy of taking first place, I'm saying that people decide it. Okay, maybe there's an interesting concept, but we've only known about it for the last two or three years. And Paul Bocuse has been open to the world for many decades! People come to him to study, they come to him to compete, they come to see something new. I think he's number one! Because it helps cooks and kitchens in general a lot. Alain Ducasse also helps a lot. And remember, there was a molecular cuisine restaurant near Barcelona?
El Bulli Ferrana Adria…
Why isn't he number one now? And after all, too, was on first! And now what? You see, it's just a fashion: here, we found such and such a restaurant - hurray, first place! And Paul Bocuse - always, Alain Ducasse - always. Not only they - there are Joel Robuchon, and Pierre Troisgros, and cooks not only in France.
Michelin-starred restaurant works for image
Whose cuisine do you like the most?
They all have very different cuisines. Robuchon is a lot of cream, butter, ham; Troisgros is more of an Asian cuisine; everything is different. It was very interesting for me to work for Troisgros. Robuchon is also interesting, he is a very good cook, but he still has a somewhat heavy kitchen. But delicious. Delicious!
Of course, everything heavy is very often just delicious!
Highly! He makes his signature mashed potatoes, which are known all over the world. I am ready to eat it every day, but it is oh-very hard: for a kilogram of potatoes, he takes a kilogram of butter with ham!
Wow! It's strong!
But so delicious! And all these chefs have their own schools, their own shops, because, you know, a restaurant with three, two stars does not generate income: it works for the image.
But why?
Because you need to maintain a very large staff. When I worked for the Troisgros restaurant, we had at least 20 chefs and at least 20 waiters come to work every day. This is already 40. And there are 80 places there. So, in addition to these people, there are a bartender, a sommelier, a head waiter and others. How can I get money? No way. Because three Michelin stars - and the chef must, for example, fry the meat, trimming it in a certain way - having received a square, but where to put the trimmings? A lot goes into the trash. And it's very expensive! Therefore, in parallel, you need to have something else. Troisgros, for example, has a cafe, a school, a hotel, two or three Japanese restaurants - and that's fine. It's the same with Alain Ducasse and Paul Bocuse - there's no other way.
For a chef, the main thing is to change jobs in time, and the chef can grow up in the kitchen of one institution.
Monsieur Rigaud, what advice would you give our chefs on how to navigate this complex culinary world?
I don't think you should work 10 years in the same restaurant. Two years is enough! In two years, you can already study the entire menu, see the work of the chef, understand his system. And then you have to change everything! Go to another restaurant, to another chef, to understand his system, to see his work, to learn something from him. I worked for Robuchon for three years, for Troisgros for three years, for two more years for a restaurant with one Michelin star, and I saw different things everywhere. And in Russia, it is in the order of things when a person sits in one restaurant for 10 years - and in fact ceases to develop.
And if he travels, studies somewhere?
Then he should go further, become a sous-chef, a chef - grow. With a chef, of course, a completely different demand. He himself must teach, be a master. He thinks over the concept of the institution, develops dishes, he does not stand still even in one restaurant. The chef just can't change restaurants often. You can’t work a year in one place, a year in another and look for something somewhere else. Over the course of a year, guests will just begin to understand your cuisine, get used to your presentation. And they just get used to it - and the boss has already left: you have to accept another. It is not right. A chef can develop and grow in the kitchen of one establishment.
Not bored on one thing?
What does "boring" mean? Interesting! I can't say that I'm going to work: I'm going to do what I love! Otherwise, you can not be a chef!
To survive in Moscow or St. Petersburg, you need to earn quite a lot, and a waiter working in the city center is set a salary rate of 20 thousand rubles - sorry, this is very little! Maybe it's worth looking at how much someone is paid, and those who know how to work, pay a lot - so that they don't even think about changing establishments? And then it will be good for both people and the restaurant, because an experienced waiter will sell more, present the dish better, guests will know it. And an experienced cook will prepare this dish correctly every day, decorate it the same way, and give it to the waiter in the same time. And it often happens that the owners save on cooks and waiters; they leave because elsewhere they were promised 500 rubles more; and we are left to solve the problems that arise with their departure, look for new people, and then teach them, hoping that now the problems have been solved. And again we are mistaken, because we stubbornly do not change our attitude towards people.
The second reason for the departure of cooks is the inconvenience of working in the kitchen. Yes, I have come across this: the owner caught fire - I will have a restaurant here! And construction begins. He has great ideas in terms of concept, design, design, and now, in fact, everything is lined up - bam: he understands - but where will my kitchen be? And they forgot about the kitchen. Yes, let's rebuild it in the basement, we'll carry out ventilation here, we'll open a window here - wonderful! And you work in this kitchen, where it’s always hot, stuffy, or drafty all the time. But, you know, in nine years a lot, a lot has changed - be that as it may, the owners began to realize what the restaurant business is, what people are, what a team is.
I worked in the Kremlin, I was responsible for the food of specific people, now I work in hotel restaurants - I am responsible for the food of guests who change daily, weekly. And these are different works, with different - but very high! - the degree of responsibility. It was impossible to make a mistake in the Kremlin: come on, cook something not very tasty for the president, so that he would not be very pleased! But you can't go wrong with the hotel either. You cannot tell a person: “Today my dish failed, but come back in a month - you will lick your fingers!” - he will not be able to come in a month, and in a week, and in a day, maybe he will not be able to: he will already leave. And he will leave with the feeling that the hotel chef cooks tasteless.
In addition, a person lives with me for a week - and for a week I have breakfast, lunch and dinner. He shouldn't get bored with my kitchen! So, I am obliged to make it very diverse, tasty, to surprise the guest every day! It is very difficult. And that means that a chef working in a hotel must understand the responsibility and complexity of his work.
