The Price Is Wrong, but "Come on Down"

[robert brown]

Yesterday's Gastronomie. com reports some potentially tasty culinary developments in Cannes, Nice, and Monaco. Gualtiero Marchese, the best-known post-war, modern-style chef in Italy will have a restaurant in the Noga Hilton in Cannes. Michel del Burgo, who recently was the head chef at Taillevent is taking over the kitchen of Restaurant Chanteclair in the Negresco Hotel in Nice, replacing Alain Lorca who purchased the Moulin de Mougins; and Joel Robuchon is to oversee the kitchen of the Hotel Metropole in Monaco in May, with his former employee Christophe Cussac, now at the two-star Hotel La Reserve in near-by Beaulieu, as Chef de Cuisine.

On the surface it sounds very tasty, but with these half-assed arrangements famous chefs make more as consultants than chefs as we traditionally know them to be, only time will tell. Right now the Negresco situation seems the most legit. I'll try to dine there and pass along my impressions. Meanwhile, after my watching it sit and fester for many years in a barely-built state, the reincarnated Palais de la Mediterranee is opening January 5. It will have apartments, a 188-room hotel, a casino and a restaurant or two or three. Maybe I will give that a try as well. Regardless, it sound like some you pan-France gastronomic nomads will at last have to stop avoiding the Cote d'Azur.

[Jonathan Day]

I stopped at the Moulin last week, but it had its fermeture annuelle until 10th January. It will be interesting to see the new "run of the mill".

[menton1]

Alas, alack, poor Robert-- sounds like you will be suffering along on your mandatory winter journey to the South of France.....

How's the weather?

[robert brown]

menton1, I'll report back when I get there. It's cold in New York, though.

[degusto]

The weather has been glorious for a few days.

When I heard about the Robuchon/Cussac venture first time it was said it may be opened in late February or March. Now it is May. I have my doubts on that as Metropole looks like a big construction site right now.

Also, one could add to the list that Cap Estel is likely to reopen this spring after two years of heavy renovation. The setting of this hotel could challenge Hotel du Cap. It was in an appaling condition. What they will do with the restaurant could be interesting. I have heard nothing as of yet.

[robert brown]

Jellybean, thanks for those updates. We stayed at the Cap Estel about seven years ago. It indeed was somewhat down at the mouth, but, as you say, the site is wonderful. It is on a little "cap" with, of course, the sea on three sides. It doesn't have the surroudings or milieu of the Grand Hotel du Cap-Ferrat, but affords more intimacy and privacy. It could be good. I don't see Americans patronizing it, though. My guess is lots of Italians and maybe some Brits will stay there. It will be a nice spot for a meal, too.

[vserna]

The Negresco was already very good under Alain Llorca, Robert, and he will help revitalize the Moulin de Mougins. (Ah, the Roger Vergé heyday, 30 years ago...) Alain is in Madrid in two weeks, and I'll try to see what his plans are...

[degusto]

Robert,

You are quite right that Cap Estel will not be for Americans, but for Italians and people from North Europe. Being a European I would prefer it to the Cap if it was made they way I wanted...

By the way, it if I don't remember wrong it was sold to an Italian. The previous owners tried at first for years to sell it as a villa and there were rumours that Bill Gates of the Evil Empire had looked at it but that it didn't suit him for security reasons.

vserna,

I have not so high thoughts about le Chantecler under Llorca. I do however think that he is immensly talented and has an enormous spirit and that maybe, just maybe, he might blossom at the Moulin. I just hope that he will try to create his own style (which he hasn't today), and that I know is extremely difficult.

As for del Burgo, well we'll see how long he stays. His track record suggests that he may be gone before the summer. Maybe I was tough on him there, but he did leave Gordes very quickly and has never stayed very long at the two previous places to that. I have mixed feelings about what I think is his style of food. Maybe he too can blossom now. Let's hope so.

I wonder who will cook at la Reserve as I believe the owners of that place have very high ambitions.

Another thougth I have is how will that many restaurants be able to thrive on the Riviera? Chibois is a goldmine and Le LouisXV is full for dinners and lunch most weekends (but no closed for lunch due to renovations) but others seem to be doing well only during the high season. Cannes is a proven no-place for gastronomic restaurants (Liquidation of Neat, closure of Belle Otero and rumours that Villa le Lys is doing so so). Surely the palace hotels on the Riviera are doing well but in Monaco one new luxury hotel is being built and one has been extended and two more will be extended so competition will get fierce when including the one in Nice mentioned by Robert.