48hrs with the Quietest Michelin Chef in France
Hello, all!
I hope everyone is staying cool and having a wonderful summer. My absence from this Substack has been longer than anticipated, but I am back to present the project that has been taking up all my writing time. Given the hours and focus that this video required, I will also touch on what I have planned for this newsletter moving forward.
I invite you to watch (ideally on a screen larger than your phone, but whatever you have is fine) and return to this post when you’ve finished.
48hrs with the Quietest Michelin Chef in France
Is the title I chose in deference to the YouTube algorithm.
You may remember my post from March, entitled “Onions, Artichokes, and Alexandre Dumas,” about our experience in the old port city of Roscoff, France. That essay is perhaps my favorite piece of writing I’ve produced for this blog. I’m partial to it simply because Eva and I were so enchanted by the mild climate, rugged coastline, and the cooking of Loïc Le Bail in his restaurant NORI at the Manoir Brittany and Spa.
Even after sharing that essay, I still had a tank full of inspiration to portray some of Roscoff and NORI’s magic. Right around that time, my Instagram videos had taken a sort of “documentary style” direction, in the vein of Rob Martinez, or David Gelb’s “Chef’s Table,” or Alvin Zhou’s YouTube channel. I built some confidence making those short videos and felt ready to finally take on a bigger project.
Like many of you, the less time I spend on Instagram (or any short form video stream for that matter) the better I feel, so I had been itching to make the transition to long-form.
Details Beyond the Final Cut
A team of Japanese Cooks
You may be curious—even after viewing the video and learning of Loïc’s familial connection to Japan—about all the Japanese cooks in the kitchen. When I asked Loïc about it, he simply replied “J’ai fini de travailler avec les Français… terminé.” (“I’m done working with the French… Done.”)
He eventually elaborated, explaining that his close Japanese friend, with whom he worked in the 80’s at L’Archestrate in Paris, started connecting him with a network of Japanese cooks eager to learn French cuisine. Most of these apprentices remain for a minimum of three years. His sous-chef, Kazu (the slender man with short hair shown in the early part of the video) has now been with him for thirteen years. Were Loïc to staff a kitchen of French cooks, his turnover would be much higher.
He further explained how he fell in love with the Japanese way of working—their careful attention to detail, their respectful manners, their consistency and dedication, and their calm, positive energies.
The Fraternity of Roscoff Onions
At Maison Quéméner, the first farm we visited, only the vegetable garden made the final cut, but the Quéméner family’s main business is Roscoff onions. During our shoot, Eric Quéméner, whose father was an Onion Johnny, recounted the rise and fall of the onion merchants of Roscoff and their journeys through Great Britain. He also took the time to braid a beautiful bundle of onions by hand, using centrifugal force to twirl the tip of each new onion into the braid. Eric gifted me that bunch. Eric and Loïc both belong to the Confrérie de l’Oignon de Roscoff. I’ll post some short videos of this demonstration in the coming weeks.
If you’re wondering what I did with the onions, I caramelized them slowly and added them to some croque-monsieurs.
The Future of This Blog
Writing essays for this blog had been my greatest challenge and my greatest pleasure this past year, until the making of this video surpassed the essays on both fronts. But more than being personally motivated to make more of them, the videos are also my best bet at achieving my goal of finally living off the food stories I’ve been telling. For the remainder of this year, they will be my primary focus.
As you may be able to imagine, making such videos takes many, many hours, especially for a guy who doesn’t quite know what he’s doing. That means that while the blog will live on, the essays will be put on hold.
Instead of my musings and critiques, you can expect a Substack post with each new video, providing context and behind-the-scenes details.
What does this mean for paid subscribers?
To my absolute surprise, some of you have decided to pay for your subscriptions, and I am incredibly grateful to each one of you. In doing so, you have given me some very helpful euros in my pocket, but more importantly, a big boost of motivation to keep going.
That said, perhaps you had some expectations for your subscription. Maybe you enjoyed the musings you were reading, and wanted regular installments of more of the same. If that’s the case, this change of direction would understandably come as a disappointment.
I don’t take your support or your money for granted. If you prepaid for an annual subscription, and would like a partial refund for the remainder of the year, please send me an email at max@clubdesmeal.com and I will get you that refund one way or another.
Thank you!
To all my readers—family, friends, strangers—thank you so much for taking an interest in my work. I hope you will stick around for the next chapter!
See you soon,
Max