oohlahlah! Eat & Drink
SACREBLEU FRENCH CAFÉ By Melissa Walsh Photos Garry Sissons
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rowing up in France in a town close to Geneva in the Alps, Alain Mathieu was surrounded by delicious fresh food. His father had a vegetable garden and everything was natural and full of flavour. It was not a wealthy area but a place where food was a focus with his family always creating delicious and hearty meals.
For Alain it was a natural progression to become a chef with his fondest memories around the aromas and taste of homecooked food. With over forty years of culinary experience, Alain continues to offer French cuisine on the Mornington Peninsula with Sacrebleu French Café. “We opened the café in December 2014 and straight away went into the summer rush,” he says of the café that is right opposite the Rye beach. “Our food is traditional French cuisine with my own changes thrown in. I am all about flavour and
balance and sometimes make dishes a little less rich while still having the traditional French flavours.” Reminiscing about life in France as a child, Alain says he remembers the flavour of his aunt’s rabbits or poultry. “You could smell them a kilometre away. Food was a big part of my life growing up; my mum had a great palate, good technique, and she could get flavours out of everything. Dad grew the most delicious vegetables in a small vegetable garden which we lived on throughout the year, and cooked the most incredible roast potatoes which my children still talk about to this day. I was 15 when I went to boarding school and started to learn to be a chef, and when I came to Australia in 1986 my cousin was a cheesemaker and I worked around the country, learning more about flavour and balance.” continued next page...
August 2018
E ssence | 63
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