Chef Ronan Kervarrec BRINGINGBACKCHILDHOOD FAIRE REVIVRE L’ENFANCE Son of Breton innkeepers, chef Ronan Kervarrec, 2 Michelin stars, creates his recipes with his childhood memories and with an uncompromising taste for fresh produce. Fils d’aubergistes bretons, le chef Ronan Kervarrec, deux étoiles Michelin, façonne ses recettes avec les souvenirs de son enfance et avec un goût sans concession pour la fraîcheur des produits. BY GILBERT DEVILLE PHOTOGRAPHS CLYDE KOA WING Invited in January 2020 to take part in a gastronomic festival initiated by the Beachcomber Group, Ronan Kervarrec was delighted to come back to the island and enjoy the Mauritian mindset based on solidarity, generosity and human kindness. The local cuisine is inextricably linked to the history of the island and the chef acknowledges his love for dholl puris, samosas, and octopus stew made by a Mauritian friend. SIMPLICITY In a spontaneous chat near the beach on theMorne peninsula, he explains his approach to his job, making “each client a VIP”, motivating the teamspirit while decrying “the cliché of the arrogant star chef”. He talks of the intentional simplicity of his cuisine, based on “childhoodmemories, on the echoes of the sea and the land” and the taste of the ocean – which the Bretons crossed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to colonise Mauritius. He was born in Brittany 52 years ago. In the family innnear Lorient, his father passed on his passion for cooking, the discipline required in the job and appreciation of quality produce. His mother managed the restaurant with meticulous enthusiasm. As a teenager he enjoyed the beach, fishing, friends, the countryside where his grandparents lived, and learnt how to hunt in the marshes. His education was complicated by his dyslexia – “they didn’t know how to manage that at school in the 70s!” he adds – and a keen interest in cooking took him to the catering school in Dinard. “There it was different. I blossomed, I was congratulated on my effort. ” … AND EXACTITUDE Ronan Kervarrec gained experience at the Beauvilliers, the legendary restaurant in Paris’s Butte Montmartre – today replaced by chef Antoine Heerah’s Le Chamarré (cf. Beachcomber Magazine N°1). Following a temporary return to the family inn, he continuedhis career with some of the greatest names in French gastronomy. He worked for Georges Blanc and Joël Robuchon, trained the cooks at the Royal Mansour, and contributed to the success of a banquet for the Monaco royal family. The 3-star YannickAlléno conductedoperations there. He appreciated Kervarrec’s meticulous organisation, the fruit of his ten years of top-notch catering. They became friends. Alléno made the connection in 2016 between the Breton chef – then at La Chèvre d’Or, the legendary restaurant on the Riviera – and the Hostellerie de Plaisance, a Relais & Châteaux in Saint-Émilion where Kervarrec worked for almost six years. The restaurant had kept one of the two stars its predecessor Philippe Etchebest had won for the place. Shortly after arriving, Ronan Kervarrec brought back this second star. Since November 2020, he has dropped anchor in Brittany. With his wife Els, he now runs David Etcheverry’s former restaurant, the Saison, in Saint-Grégoire, which already had one star. We are fully confident that, now he’s back in his native Brittany, Kervarrec will soon win a second star for his new restaurant. A STAR-STUDDED FESTIVAL During the gastronomic “Stars in Paradis” festival, seven of the greatest international chefs took turns at the stoves of the Paradis Beachcomber andDinarobinBeachcomber. Chef Kervarrec’s contribution: “Use seasonal produce from the island, for a European taste with a local touch.” Langouste with mango, poultry cooked with octopus. All very simple and all connected to the ocean, forming the link between distant shores, no matter how far apart.
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