Virus won鈥檛 stop high life, says French chef
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The ebullient French chef Frederic Anton is having none of the talk that the world will not be the same again after the coronavirus.
From the kitchen of his Jules Verne restaurant, perched high on the Eiffel Tower 125 meters above Paris, the combative cook is determined that it will make not one iota of difference to the cultural glories of French gastronomy.
鈥淣othing is going to change,鈥 Anton said, 鈥渃ertainly not on the plate.
鈥淭he whole world loves to eat. The first day after the lockdown in Paris, restaurant terraces everywhere were full of people eating out.
鈥淣o one thought twice about it. France is the land of food after all.鈥
The three-star Michelin chef took over the Eiffel Tower space last year after locking horns with its previous tenant Alain Ducasse.
The superchef 鈥 who holds more Michelin stars than any other living chef 鈥 did not take well to Anton swiping the lease for the dining room, with its panoramic views, from under his nose.
Especially as it was there that Ducasse cooked for Donald and Melania Trump and the French first couple after the US president鈥檚 2017 trip to Paris, where he was guest of honor at the Bastille Day celebration.
While many top chefs worried about whether their restaurants would ever open again because of the coronavirus, Anton said that for him the lockdown was a 鈥渉oliday.鈥 As well as dreaming up a summer menu 鈥 courgette and almond tarts, artichoke poivrade, crab with cavier and langoustine ravioli with smoked cream 鈥 he caught up on the whole eight seasons of 鈥淕ame of Thrones.鈥
Not for him the soul-searching or the need to reinvent haute cuisine for the post-virus world.
鈥淚 am not going to question how a gastronomic restaurant works,鈥 said Anton.
Unlike some top Paris eateries, he never seriously considered the possibility of doing takeaway meals.
鈥淲e thought about it for two minutes 鈥 it鈥檚 not necessary,鈥 said Anton, whose other Paris restaurant, the three-star Le Pre Catelan, will not reopen until September.
Nor is he following the lead of other chefs and toying with simpler and cheaper menus.
The very best ingredients do not come cheap, Anton argued.
鈥淲e are never going to debate about whether to buy the best langoustines or lamb from the Pyrenees, we will buy them. And if it takes a lot of people to transform them, we will do it,鈥 he insisted.
The Jules Verne鈥檚 multi-course tasting menu is just as sophisticated and as expensive as it ever was 鈥 between 190 (US$215.38) and 230 euros, without wine.
鈥楲ockdown did me good鈥
Seasonality is the great buzz word of the moment but Anton plays it down.
鈥淲e have done that since the dawn of time,鈥 the chef said.
That said, all is not quite as it was before the virus.
Diners arriving in the private lift are separated from other clients by Plexiglass panels, though they can let their mask slip as soon as they are ushered to their table by the maitre d鈥 who, like the waiters, will be wearing a natty black mask.
There are also 12 fewer tables than before to ensure social distancing.
Unlike some, Anton has not reemerged traumatized into the post-lockdown world.
Despite his restaurants being closed from one day to the next, he said that he rather enjoyed the lay-off.
鈥淚 kicked back, I rested, and it has done me good,鈥 the French chef said.
鈥淚 cooked whatever I found around me. I don鈥檛 think I鈥檝e ever spent so much time in my kitchen at home.鈥
And he wasn鈥檛 for a minute tempted to neither invent new recipes 鈥 鈥渁bsolutely not鈥 鈥 nor give cookery classes on social media, like lots of other chefs.
鈥淚 was like everybody else. I tidied up at home, threw out 25 bags of stuff that I didn鈥檛 need and I watched the whole of Game of Thrones,鈥 he said.
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