Gastronomy choice: Charles Coulombeau
They're barely in their thirties, and have often acquired extensive experience in large, beautiful, multi-talented establishments. Today, they have opened or are running their own restaurants, making the choice of gastronomy. Gault&Millau offers a series of interviews with young chefs whose approach proves that haute cuisine is still a dream, but also that rigor and ambition are also a driving force for some of those who launch themselves into this profession. Let's continue with Charles Coulombeau, of the 3-toque restaurant La Maison dans le Parc, in Nancy.
It's said that haute gastronomy is being shunned by the younger generation - chefs and customers alike - but some are trying to renew the genre. They are opting for bold, technical, French cuisine, with a return to white tablecloths in the dining room, refined table settings and attentive, diligent service. In addition to being fully committed to their profession, these teams intend to practice it with the human, social and environmental values required today.
Taking over a gastronomic institution without being from the town or even the region can be a challenge. Charles Coulombeau and his wife Roxane came to Nancy by chance. After an initial failed offer, and just before the first confinement, the chef had no choice but to send dozens of CVs. Which contained solid references: experience with the Ibarboure brothers, Michel Guérard's Aux Prés d'Eugénie, Maison Lameloise, then as head chef at Gravetye Manor in the UK. Not to mention the Taittinger prize, which he won in 2020.
When the offer of La Maison dans le Parc came in, the couple thought: why not? They found the location beautiful and accepted the offer. A little later, they even decided to invest their nest egg in the restaurant, restoring the Nancy institution to its former glory. "We had to give the restaurant a new identity while maintaining continuity. Having never worked alongside Françoise Mutel, who was the previous chef, there was no point in me continuing her signature dishes," explains Charles Coulombeau. People only knew me as 'the chef who lived in England' and who, during the lockdown, was doing takeaway sales. We were expected to deliver. Here, everyone knows what La Maison dans le Parc is, everyone knows where we are. We had to be very respectful of those who had been here for a long time. In the beginning, we may have gone a bit hard on the com, in bulldozer mode, but that enabled us to quickly get good marks."
To set himself apart, the chef sought out and built up a network of local producers. "It wasin England that I realized the importance of digging around. Because, over there, with a French chef's preconceptions about English cuisine, if you don't play the game, you can quickly think you're only going to make roast beef! But as I searched, I found new producers, a fish farmer, a small pigeon breeder, a mushroom picker... And that's what we've reproduced here."Charles Coulombeau is also committed to eco-responsible, waste-free cooking, and participates in the town's social life by preparing soup every week for the Restos du cœur.
"We now have a regular clientele, and more and more people from outside the town, from Luxembourg, Paris, Alsace, Champagne...Alsace, Champagne... We're delighted because these are regions where there's a lot of gastronomic activity."They come to La Maison dans le Parc for an experience that's both fun and technical, the result of meticulous sourcing and a precision that the chef has inherited from his past contracts.To cook gastronomically is to choose rigor," explains the chef. It's a discipline we impose on ourselves. For example, the labels on our plastic boxes, well, I force my team to scratch them off and stick them on straight. It's the little details that contribute to this discipline. It's also what allows us to take a slightly more technical, advanced approach. I've always been motivated by that. When I was at Michel Guérard, I remember being told from one day to the next: now you'll be a fishmonger. And, for two years, I came in every morning before everyone else to work on my fish...".
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