H&S Chef Of The Month: Meet Chef Eric Guérin From France
H&S Chef Of The Month
Chef Eric Guérin
Nationality: French
La Mare aux Oiseaux
Interview With H&S Magazine
Who Is Eric Guérin?
After making debuts at the famed Parisian restaurants: La Tour d’Argent, Jules Verne, and Taillevent, Eric Guérin decided to open his own warm and charming hotel-restaurant La Mare aux Oiseaux in Saint Joachim.
Eric’s key strengths are undoubtedly his creativeness and forcefulness, nurtured from his daily life. He has been able to impose his style throughout the years, in 2000 was awarded his first Michelin star, and the National Order of Merit presented in person by President Nicolas Sarkozy the following year.
A fascinating chef with a “rock-star” look has an intimate knowledge of working with produce to bring out the finest in his dishes, has recently opened a new establishment in Giverny: Le Jardin des Plumes.
His cooking inspiration is really large, it comes from his travels, encounters, but also from events from around the world. The chef wants it “alive”, all in relief, with seasonal product, textures, and temperatures… to tell stories, to convey emotions. For him, it is decidedly contemporary and enriched every day. His signature is sour and the texture. He creates today never knowing in advance of tomorrow, he creates more than 300 recipes a year.
His cooking is an islander cuisine (he lives on an island in the Brière Marshland, the Island of Fédrun), as everyone who lives on the islands, he had always wanted to travel, to cross the sea, but like all those people attached to their land, once he is away, their only desire is to go back home.
His kitchen tells the story of these trips, shared between the idea of going away and returning to its roots. It is based on local products to which he adds numerous touches to make it travel far away, however, the product stays essential and reminds us to go back to where it comes from; in his imagination or in the plates, he always uses the birds as support of migration trough the world.
Type Of Cuisine?
Reinvented French cuisine, strongly bonded with my territory. I live on an island in a soft water swamp, surrounded by the sea. My cuisine is constructed around nature and is wildly emotional. Based on very simple or current/daily ingredients I aim at sculpting my dishes like jewels to give them nobles high gastronomy values. I imagine my dishes like seasonal pictures in which my favorite touches are local food, respect, human, harmony, and beauty.
What Inspired You To Become A Chef?
The desire to build a house constructed around an Art de Vivre, a strong lifestyle where nature and arts reunited, and a sharing and transmission spirit. My hotel and restaurant is a living window right open on the passion I have for my adoption area.
What Is The Biggest Challenge You Have Faced In The Culinary Industry?
To start from zero with a little cottage/chaumiere in the middle of nowhere and to be able to transform it with my teams to a beautiful and radiant Michelin Starred restaurant and four stars hotel that attracts people from all around France and Europe.
What’s Your Biggest Achievement In The Culinary Industry?
To be able to keep the human (my team) in the center of my inspiration and to build a blooming team in a very hard industry.
When It Comes To Cooking What Is More Important To You The Technique, The Ingredients, Or The Creativity?
For me, ingredients inspire creativity and I finally need techniques to achieve my dreams.
Recipe Of The Week: Smoked Tuna On Peat
Serves: 10 Bites by Chef Eric Guérin
Ingredients:
• 1 sheet of rice
• 200g red tuna
• 100g fine Guérande (unrefined) salt
• 100g sugar
• 200g sawdust
• 100g of dried peat
• 5 tailed capers
• 1 pear
• 10 goji berries
• 75g rice vinegar
• 75g mirin
Preparation
Mix the salt and sugar together, roll the tuna in it and let it marinate for about 45 minutes – this will help season the fish to the core.
Rinse the fish under cold water and dry it well. Start the smoker by igniting the sawdust and peat. Smoke 1 to 2 hours depending on the power of the smoker.
In a frying pan, pour a good amount of olive oil and when it is steaming, add the rice sheets in it, sprinkle with fleur de sel and drain to remove the excess fat.
Peel the pear, then cut it in 2. Remove the seeds and cut the pear into fine brunoise, then add salt and pepper, add a drizzle of olive oil to it.
Bring the rice vinegar and the mirin to a boil, then pour it over the goji berries, let it cool at room temperature then keep it in a cool place.
Dressing The Plate
Cut 2cm by 2cm cubes of tuna. Place each cube on a sheet of fried rice, then place a little pear tartare on it, a goji berry as well as a tailed caper.
