Par Nicolas de Rabaudy

Recipes:
[Marinated Oysters] [Saint-Jacques Scallops with Orange Potatoes]

[World of Chefs] [www.thuries.fr]

It was a singular stroke of the fate for the Coast Saint Jacques in Joigny (Yonne) and for its chef, Jean-Michel Lorain: Michelin in 2001 suppressed the third star of the Relay & Castles, awarded to the father and the son in 1986. The shock is harder to accept given that a new Coast Saint Jacques has just been inaugurated on the sides of the Yonne after a work of Pharaonic proportions, at a cost of 25 millions francs. 

Journalist Nicolas de Rabaudy visited Jean-Michel Lorain and asked him some questions. 

To what do you attribute the loss of the third star? 

To the very important works that we accomplished in the establishment over the last year. To the immense construction necessary to the move of the restaurant and kitchens to the other side of the N6, in front of the former Coast Saint Jacques, where we kept about ten of the original rooms. This absorbed my time and my energy. 

Do you want to say that you were less present to the kitchen?

Yes, it is obvious. All year round, I was dedicated to overseeing the work, to the one thousand and one details bound to the reconstruction of the new Coast Saint. One year and half of preparations, of plans, of architectural projects that ended beginning February 2001. I confess to have been less involved in the kitchen team, less motivated by the menu. My mind was elsewhere: in the future of the new Coast Saint Jacques. Little wonder that a crane in the middle of the rubble and that the construction of our new Relay & Castles could provoke complaints about which Michelin took account – that is the feeling of myself and my parents.

Did the quality kitchen suffer from all it?

A three star rating is first judged on the culinary index, on the presentation of the dishes and the demeanor of the hosts. Judging by some by the notes I have seen, the Coast Saint Jacques got in 2000 an exceptional 97% of satisfaction rate for the kitchen. The serenity of the visitors, their feeling of this place, was disturbed by the vision of construction outside.

For you the sanction is unjust?

Yes, for us the year 2000 was a period of transition, of waiting. We have not been judged on our true value. I would have understood the sanction better for the guide 2002. It is Bernard Naegellen who awarded the third star to the Coast Saint Jacques, it is he who withdrew it. And most astonishing is that he knew about all of the work because we had shown him the plans and the future architecture of the place. He had approved us and had encouraged us. He knew that the house would be a lot more welcoming, more iridescent, more beautiful today. We have 32 rooms, of which 22 in border of the Yonne.

Do you believe that the kitchen is influenced too strongly by the tradition of Burgundy?

I fight against the idea that a cuisine of Burgundy has taken over. There are some dishes as the eggs in meurette, the ham persillé, boeuf bourguigon, it doesn't go farther. I kept on the menu dishes of rustic inspiration. But my soil, it is France, and the producers of all regions.

One Saturday, at noon, Jean-Michel Lorain is behind a serving counter. He concentrates on thecaviar sévruga, one of the premiere dishes of the house. The restaurant, bathed by the light of winter, is full: the Michelin effect didn't yet play. 

How long will it be necessary to wait for the return of the third star? One year, as for Claude Terrail to the Tower of money in 1953? In Mougins, Roger Laid, one of the greatest chefs of France, never recovered it: cruelty of the verdict of the Red Guide.

And Marc Meneau in Vézelay, whose kitchen remains one of the most masterly of France: how long will it have to wait?

In mid March 2001, Jean-Michel Lorain got an visit from Derek Brown, chief of the Michelin guide since the departure of Bernard Naegellen. The interview satisfied Jean-Michel Lorain that his new Relay & Castles had already been visited and rated by the Guide's inspectors - favorably.

He is reinvigorated, and the summer menu is in gestation in his head. The hope is reborn for this young chef, who likes to recall that The Coast Saint Jacques didn't make itself in one day, and for that, "in kitchen, there are two imperatives: it is necessary that every day is the same, yet it also is necessary that every day is not the same. Fortunately, there is the side dish!" And, he continues, "the ecology, the water will be the foundation of our new century. It is for that that we moved the restaurant. It is open on the Yonne, and on nature."