Joël De Vivre

Crave meets Joël Robuchon, the chef whose discipline, instinct and passion have made him a living legend.

Text by Jason Spotts

In 1996, Joël Robuchon, announced his retirement at the age of 50.Despite being hailed by French restaurant guide Gualt Millau as “chef of the century”, he was willing to walk away from the career he so loved.

“I retired because it was hard working since the age of 15 without a holiday,” he says, sipping a coffee at Hong Kong’s L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon. “The job of being a chef is extremely stressful, the hot kitchens, the hectic routine. I wanted to enjoy life. I saw a lot of chefs were dying of heart attacks.”

Robuchon spent his formative years in a French seminary. Under ancient stonework and echoing hallways, he cooked for monks, finding tranquility in simple kitchen tasks that others would consider a punishment. “I took great pleasure in working in the kitchen, doing boring things like washing dishes and peeling vegetables,” he says. “It was a great source of relaxation.”

He soon entered the culinary world proper. “I would begin my career as a pastry chef,” he recounts, “which pleased me because the pâtissier’s corner is usually the calm part of the kitchen. My first real sense of achievement was making a strawberry tart, completing the dish from first principles. I enjoyed the discipline, the rigour, the methodology of making pastry. It involved respect and discipline, and the instinct of making a good product.”

From there, his ascent to top chef status was meteoric. By 28, he was leading the kitchen at Hôtel Concorde La Fayette in Paris, serving 3,000 meals a day. Three years later, he was awarded the prestigious Meilleur Ouvrier de France (Best Craftsman of France).

In 1981, Robuchon opened his first restaurant, Jamin. He earned a Michelin star for Jamin in each of his first three years-it was the fastest any chef has gained three-star status in the guidebook’s history. Perhaps it is his all-or-nothing approach that has propelled him to earn a total of 26 Michelin stars to date, the most of any chef.

“This job is something you cannot do without true passion, love of food and love of people,” he says. “Why is it important to love people? Cooking and presenting in culinary terms is an act of love. You give pleasure to people. In order to give pleasure, you actually have to feel it. In that sense, you have to share yourself entirely.”

By 2003, Robuchon was ready to share his art once again. He launched L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon, first in Tokyo, then in Paris. “I went to Japan in 1976,” he notes. “It was at that time when I started to travel that I realized the criticism of French cuisine being too rich and too heavy.” In this spirit, L’Atelier was designed to challenge traditional French haute cuisine with no-nonsense cooking and revolutionary décor.

Robuchon elected to stick to simple flavours, producing a startling purity in his food.

“When you make a dish,” he says with reverence, “you are essentially destroying a life. It is a way of respecting life in itself to treat it simply. One of my philosophies is not to put more than three different flavours into a dish, so I don’t destroy the food I’m trying to present.”

The décor matched the food. The spaces were bathed in black, with bar-style seating constructed around an open kitchen. The effect was that of a neo-futuristic sushi or tapas bar. Diners sat face-to-face with chefs. The restaurants did not take reservations.

“One of the things that diners worry about is they don’t know what they’re eating,” he says. “The open kitchen means the client can see the product, the transparency, the chef and everything else. Once the plate is in front of them, they have peace of mind.”

This approach is backed with a commitment to keeping the ingredients natural.

“I am not against new techniques by any means,” he explains. “Rather, it is these derived compounds, chemical additives, processed powders that I reject. They are fundamentally risky and harmful to people when eaten, and I refuse to put them in my food.”

It will be a sad day when Robuchon retires for good, but foodies around the world need not fret just yet.

“I have no plans for retirement, so I don’t know what I would do if I were to retire,” he says. “Right now, I like what I’m doing and that’s the most important thing. I’m traveling a lot, meeting new people, cultures, techniques and ideas.”

As our meeting winds down, Robuchon begins talking about his mother’s cooking.

“It was her way of doing things,” he recalls. “One of the things I remember the most is the way my mother would hold a loaf before it was baked and mark it with a cross as is the Catholic tradition. When she served the bread, she would still be clutching it to her breast and would cut it close to her.

“This is symbolic because it was an act of love.”

And love, as we learned during the course of the interview, is the secret ingredient needed for any successful dish.”

My Favourite Things with Joël Robuchon

1. 1. What is the greatest compliment for a chef?

Passion is so important to the job, and passion means you give your clients satisfaction and you give them what they want. Ultimately, the chef’s job is to give pleasure. The greatest satisfaction that one can bring to a chef-and I’m not talking about just myself but any chef-is when a client has just finished his meal and he’s reserving his table for the next occasion.

1. 2. What world cuisine do you derive most inspiration from?

Japanese cuisine inspired me most in my earlier days. It taught me the concept of Zen and showed me immaculate presentation and relaxation in the slow pace of the cuisine. Chinese food inspires me with its great variety of technique and the technical mastery you must acquire to do it well. In the West, texture is not a critical factor, but it is crucial to have the right combination of textures in Chinese cuisine. It gives me endless inspiration.

1. 3. What do you think of Hong Kong?

It is very open and experienced in cuisine. For me, Monaco and Hong Kong are the most sophisticated cities in the world where the clients are not only well-dressed, but appreciate good food. They are exposed to the open culture of cuisine from different places so they know good food and they know my style of cooking in particular. They come in and they grace the restaurant with their style.

1. 4. What is your most memorable meal?

My most memorable meal was by chef Charles Barrier. It was a roast chicken that was prepared in a bread oven. Just after the bread was cooked and taken out, the chicken went in and took up all the aromas and flavours from the bread. That was the most delicious roast chicken I had ever tasted. Nothing complicated, very simple, but it was the thought behind it that made it the best ever.

1. 5. Worst kitchen disaster?

When I was at the Concorde La Fayette, it was the night of a special film festival and all the big names in the show business were there. I was to cook a huge dinner for 800 people and the main course was fish. When we defrosted the fish, they simple crumbled and it was a complete catastrophe at the last minute. I phoned the supplier in a panic and said, “This fish is unacceptable, I’ve got 800 guests outside, I’ve got no fish to serve. What am I going to do? Bring me all the fish you have immediately!” It didn’t matter what fish it was at that point. It could be cod, sole, or anything. My staff was frantically filleting the fish last minute while the guests were already outside. After dinner, we were complimented on the brilliant fish that was cooked to perfection. It’s not something I was proud of.