The three Michelin-starred French chef Yannick Alléno, who is currently in Dubai visiting his restaurant, Stay, at the One&Only The Palm, has said it’s time we move forward the traditional restaurant concept.
He is happy that UNESCO has declared French cuisine a “world intangible heritage” but believes he can develop the restaurant further while still keeping the traditional gastronomic experiences and values.
“Today, all restaurant overseas, except ElBulli, follow what in the 80s Gault and Millau gave to us. That is amazing,” he said. “The idea of the normal restaurant concept is to follow nouvelle cuisine in your kitchen. For more than 30 years chefs have followed that concept.
“I try to extract myself from that aspiration. I try to put my brain in a bubble. I try to propose to people something else.”
Alléno’s forward-thinking concepts at Stay involve a ‘pastry library’ – a cabinet in the main dining room containing desserts that can be finished by the pastry chef and served immediately – and a ‘sharing table’ – where a group of guests can experience a fine-dining experience together from a personalised menu.
But it’s in his three-star restaurant in France that he said he’s really pushing boundaries: “We do the food there very seriously. We do it in the way of a three star.
“[In Le Maurice, Paris] we have just for the kitchen 74 cooks. It’s completely full and you can imagine we are around 55 people to serve 40 covers.
"Cheval Blanc is different. Le 1947 [restaurant at the Cheval Blanc Courchevel hotel] is a very small restaurant – five tables – for less than 20 covers we have at least 10 people in the kitchen. I do the restaurant around the basis that there are no walls between the kitchen and the dining room. It is very interesting and we really want to find a new way of cooking and serving and French food.”
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