He's running, he's running Jarvis Scott this Tuesday morning.
It's the big day, the opening of Liquide, at 39, rue de l'Arbre-Sec, in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, the second address in the capital of Matthias Marc, semi-finalist still in the running in "Top Chief ".
A new place whose kitchens he entrusted to Jarvis, a big-hearted rocker, solitary candidate eliminated in the second episode of M 6's culinary competition.
Eternal cowboy boots on his feet, tattooed arms and cap upside down, Jarvis is everywhere, goes all over the place, carries and brings from the basement, bones Bresse poultry, opens oysters, prepares eggs ... the juice, but it's going to be fine, ”he smiles.
There are six of them in the kitchen.
The day before, a first blank service “went well”.
A first for Jarvis
A test for the team, for the friends of the show too.
Baptiste, Mohamed - still in the running too - but also Thomas were there, in particular.
“Matthias surprised me,” says Jarvis.
It touched me that they were there, they are guys that I esteem and they told me how happy they were for me.
“Especially since it is the first time that he has taken the head of a kitchen.
This is the first time that Jarvis Scott, aka the cowboy cook, has run a kitchen.
LP / Olivier Lejeune LP / Olivier Lejeune
“When I left
Top Chef
, I told Matthias that I wanted to work for him, at Substance (
Editor's note: his first restaurant, in the 16th, which will reopen on June 9)
or elsewhere, recalls Jarvis.
One day, he called me to meet me here one morning and said,
here it is, this is my new restaurant and I
am giving it to you
.
That was five months ago.
“I took Jarvis because he's a good cook above all, and then he embodies the place well, says Matthias.
It's a place where we promote sharing cuisine and Jarvis loves it.
»A la carte, a farandole of starters to share before everyone takes their main course, then their dessert.
We can also spend the evening there, with a cocktail menu made from Jura herbs, where Matthias is from, and a room where a DJ will officiate live and where we can dance, from June 9 .
Creations from the competition
In the meantime, it's on the terrace, despite the bad weather so far.
In the room, sheepskins await the chilly.
"It's a modern tavern focused on the east of France, the Jura, Alsace, Burgundy", explains Matthias.
He signs the menu with a few creations from "Top Chef", mackerel rillettes by candlelight, breaded fish or even "the qualifying peas" for the quarter-finals.
Jarvis brought ideas to the mill, oysters, stuffed pigeon, JFC or "Jura Fried Chicken".
Read alsoTop Chef: what happened to the former candidates of the first 11 seasons?
Thirty covers on the terrace, therefore, and it is already full for lunch and dinner this week. One must reserve. The venue will drop to sixty on June 9, time to break in for Jarvis, now executive chef. He says more humbly "deputy chief". But it is he at the head of the kitchens, and this is a first. "I shouldn't miss it, but I'm carried by the project, the pressure, I drink it," he says, laughing eyes. "It's beautiful to see you like that chef, I've never seen you so fulfilled", launches a member of the team.
In the kitchen, Sardou's “The Lakes of Connemara” ring out and Jarvis runs over and over again. Despite his cowboy boots which earned him, we remember, some slippages not necessarily very controlled in the show. We remind him. He laughs. “Don't panic, I've just signed a partnership with my shoemaker, he's going to prepare safety cowboy boots for me with non-slip soles and toe caps. There he is, the cowboy not at all lonely.