“You’re having dinner here tonight, and bring a friend,” he said. I didn’t dare argue or tell him I was supposed to be on a train to Paris that afternoon and a flight back to New York that evening.
It was 2008 and the man who summoned me was French chef Paul Bocuse. We were sitting at his iconic flagship restaurant in the village of Collonges, just outside Lyon. Since 1965, he’d held three Michelin stars, the highest gastronomic accolade in the world. At 82, he was still a charismatic leader who’d been named the “Pope of French Cuisine” by fellow chef Alain Ducasse.
I stayed for dinner, of course, and loved every minute of it. I loved the old-fashioned service that reminded me of road trips through France with my parents, a truffled Bresse chicken — the European bird also known as the French White Gauloise (no relationship to the cigarette) — cooked in a pig’s bladder, the gratin of blue lobster, and some of the dishes he’d learned with La Mère Brazier starting in 1946 and Fernand Point in the 1950s at La Pyramide. Truly, Paul Bocuse was royalty. When he passed away in 2018, many gourmands and naysayers wondered whether his Auberge du Pont de Collonges would close.
It didn’t, but in 2020, Michelin announced it had lost a star.
L’Auberge opened in 1924, exactly 100 years ago, when Paul Bocuse’s grandparents took over what was at the time a hotel. Bocuse’s father first turned it into a casual country eatery where Sunday lunches, frogs’ legs and local cheeses, were served in the courtyard by waiters wearing white aprons and wooden clogs — quite the leap to the starched-tablecloth era of the man who would become known as Monsieur Paul. Over the years, he mentored cooks, chefs, and restaurateurs, and toward the end of his life, brought in hospitality expert Vincent Le Roux to run the restaurant for him.
“Today, the kitchen is run by Olivier Couvin and Gilles Reinhardt, who have worked there 28 and 22 years, respectively,” said Le Roux. “Bocuse told them, ‘When I’m gone, cook your own cuisine. Let the diners savor the menu of your time.’”
They are both Meilleurs Ouvriers de France, meaning they have attained the highest level of culinary expertise in the country. Surprisingly, once the third star was spent, the chefs felt liberated, free to revise the menus, bring in seasonality, lighten certain dishes and modernize presentations.
“The dining room was completely renovated and the kitchen brought into the 21st century,” said Le Roux. “We have evolved toward a more modern service, less uptight, friendly but not casual, and our diners love the tableside action such as flambé or intricate carving.”
Executive Pastry Chef, Benoit Charvet, 2018 world champion of fine frozen desserts, has rethought the entire list of sweets. With his colleague Frederic Truchot, he now offers an all-you-can-eat dessert cart divided in two distinct parts: creative contemporary pastries and traditional cakes.
Even though Paul Bocuse always said, “A restaurant is supposed to be open,” L’Auberge, where 80 staff members work, is now closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.
Far from being a museum dedicated to the memory of Paul Bocuse, L’Auberge is shedding its old skin and emerging as a convivial and unique destination, where on one hand, one can choose to stay in the present, or plunge into the culinary traditions of yesteryear. The nostalgic diners will choose the centennial menu, a list of Monsieur Paul’s greatest hits.
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