Q&A
What’s Eating Gilbert? Chef Maxime Gilbert of S.T.A.Y. by Lillian Li
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t’s not every day you come across a French chef who’ll tell it like it is about French cuisine. Maxime Gilbert, who mans the burners at Yannick Alleno’s Beijing restaurant, opens up about snails and cooking for Jacques Chirac.
I just can’t eat them.
PHOTO: courtesy of Shangri-la Hotel
If you weren’t a chef, what would you be? A lawyer. No. [Laughs]. I would be a musician. I would love to play the saxophone or the piano. It’s one of my biggest regrets. When I was Can you seduce someone with seven, my mom put me in a piano your food? class. I was lazy, so I would complain, Of course. When I met my wife, I “Mami, my hands hurt,” and she cooked her many fine dishes. Florian would say, “No, you need to learn,” [Couteau, the pastry chef but after ten times she let at S.T.A.Y.] does the same. “girls me stop. Now every time I It’s usually easier for him see her, I say, “Why did you love because girls love deslet me stop? I would now sert. But it’s true. That’s dessert” be able to play piano.” why you can have a special connection with some very Who was the most famous perimportant people that come to son you’ve ever served? restaurants. The French president. Both Chirac and Sarkozy. It was when I was in In your opinion, what is the Morocco. I ser ved Chirac in my worst thing about French food? restaurant, with his wife and his Thinking that we are the best. Yeah, friend. And the night after, I served French cuisine is good. But Italian Sarkozy, who was with the king cuisine is beautiful. Spanish is beauof Morocco. We really meet some tiful. Chinese, Taiwanese, Moroccan. famous people, and they’ll shake We just have a different culture, your hand and congratulate you. with different produce and different They don’t congratulate people styles of cooking. every day, yet you’re just someone who cooked him a nice meal. That’s If you could avoid eating one the kind of connection I was talking thing for the rest of your life, about before. what would it be? Snail. I cook snail, and my dad makes So you seduced Chirac! them in the best way possible, but And his wife. ever since I was a kid, I couldn’t stomach them. Because where I Let Chef Maxime beguile with his grew up, we’d go into the forest and Sunday brunch at S.T. A.Y. at the grab them live. And you’d see them Shangri-La Hotel. crawling around. They’re good, but
November 2012
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