At the end of the meal, the chef came to greet the room and, like a young bride tossing her bouquet of white flowers over her shoulder, he threw his immaculate apron to his faithful second-in-command, Franck Leroy.
It was Monday evening, at the Epicure restaurant in Bristol (Paris 8th), the last service of Éric Frechon, 60 years old.
A few tears must have flowed, in the kitchen, over the macaroni and chicken in bladder.
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Éric Frechon is twenty-five years of Bristol, fifteen of which have been awarded three stars.
For this farewell meal, the Oetker family, owner of the Parisian palace which will celebrate its centenary in 2025, had reserved the room for the chef's forty guests, including Maurice Lévy, chairman of the supervisory board of the Publicis group, cooks like Christian Constant - once mentor of Frechon in the legendary era of Crillon -, Yves Camdeborde, the three-star of the George-V Christian Le Squer, Guillaume Gomez, former master chef of the Élysée and now ambassador of the French gastronomy, Gwendal Poullennec, director of the Michelin guide, some gastronomic columnists.
Also read Éric Frechon: “I never would have imagined reaching the record for longevity of a chef at the head of a palace!”
With his handkerchief at hand, his voice sometimes strangled by emotion, the outgoing chef recounts how, as a teenager, he chose to learn cooking
“to afford a bicycle”.
He pedaled well.
“You have to know how to leave when you're at your best
,” explains the Norman, more comfortable with a langoustine than with long speeches.
He thanks the whole team, from the faithful Franck Leroy –
“you are my brother”
– to the divers.
Recounts, with a broken voice, that on July 13, 2007 he met
“the woman of (his) life”
at the Bristol .
The boss of the Melchior communications agency, Clarisse Ferreres-Frechon is there, of course, with their son Franklin, 9 years old.
A French cooking master class
Everyone expects the Meilleur Ouvrier de France (MOF), for once, to dine in the dining room, but no, here is the blue-white-red collar worker who returns to the kitchen to send out his final feast.
On the menu: Provence artichokes with anchovy fillets;
Sologne caviar, fingerling mousseline smoked with haddock, crispy buckwheat filled with sour cream;
royal langoustine with lemon thyme, onion-mango condiment, citrus and coriander claw broth;
macaroni stuffed with truffle, artichoke and foie gras gratinated with old parmesan;
low temperature salmon, tandoori powder, fennel, cucumber with mint oil and rice vinegar;
Bresse chicken in bladder, yellow wine, asparagus and morels;
vanilla bundles in gavote, light vanilla cream, freshly churned vanilla ice cream;
chocolate shortbread, praline, chicory ice cream.
The sommeliers uncorked the bottles suitable for this French cooking master class.
Perfect plates.
Perfect service.
Perfect food and wine pairings.
Perfect desserts.
Christian Constant remains crazy, that's to say, and he's not the only one.
A great chef has just handed over the reins, we don't know to whom for the moment - the name of the successor will undoubtedly be revealed by mid-April, the other MOF of the Franck Leroy furnaces, should also soon leave the house - he had arrived before him.
Éric Frechon will devote himself to other culinary activities, notably as a consultant to the Famose group.
“Every time I won an award, I thought of my grandparents, Raoul and Marthe
,” the former little guy from Tréport (Seine-Maritime) told us one day, referring to those who revealed his gluttony to him.
He surely thought of them on Monday, closing the great book of his epic at Bristol.