Journees Gastronomiques

As the French Spring 2003 gracefully descends on Manila this month, a venerable French chef comes to town to give discriminating diners the rare experience of tasting his culinary artistry, an experience enjoyed by French presidents Francois Mitterand, Giscard D’Estaing and Jacques Chirac, and international celebrities like Madonna, Paul McCartney and Sophia Loren.

Master Chef Bernard Guilhaudin, currently Le Cordon Bleu’s Vice President for Culinary Development in Asia, is in Manila to lord over The Tivoli at Mandarin Oriental, Manila, from June 4 to 17 for the duration of a distinct promotion dubbed Journées Gastronomiques. The journey’s highlight will be a gala six-course dinner on Tuesday, June 10 at The Tivoli, which will showcase the heights of Chef Guilhaudin’s culinary artistry.

The 50-year-old Chef Guilhaudin boasts a culinary background of great distinction. He had been chef of France’s top restaurants, from the legendary Alain Chapel to the highly acclaimed and historic La Tour d’Argent in Paris where he was executive chef from April 1996 to December 1999, before joining Le Cordon Bleu. He has also made his presence felt in the kitchens of other Michelin-starred restaurants–the Vivarois and the Laurent, both in Paris.

Born and raised in Lyon, one of France’s gastronomic capitals, Chef Guilhaudin began his career under the tutelage of Alain Chapel at age 17. He received critical acclaim for his dessert creations at the Restaurant Vivarois where he was Pastry Chef working with the renowned Claude Peyrot. Following that, he traveled exrtensively and expanded his culinary knowledge when he became the private chef for six years to art dealer and racehorse owner Daniel Wildenstein. He afterwards poured his culinary passion into the family-owned Parisian restaurant Le Chat Grippé until he returned to Alain Chapel for "improvement training". This was followed by three years with the restaurant Laurent, and then the restaurant Oréade, and then with Hotel Royal Monceau’s restaurant Le Jardin. He also served as Chef Consultant for Hotel La Mamounia in Marrakech, Morocco for two years before becoming Executive Chef of La Tour d’Argent.

Thanks to the French Embassy, Le Cordon Bleu, and Mandarin Oriental, the celebrated chef will soon add the Philippines to the list of countries where he has hosted successful gastronomic festivals, namely the US, Brazil, Argentina, Turkey, Singapore, and Japan.

In April 2000, Chef Guilhaudin joined the 107-year old institution, Le Cordon Bleu, the acknowledged worldwide leader in culinary education, as Head-Teaching Chef, and concurrently as Vice-President for Culinary Development in Asia. Like Chef Guilhaudin, most of Le Cordon Bleu Master Chefs come from Michelin-starred restaurants or are winners of prestigious competitions. The Master Chefs pass their expertise each year to students in 22 international schools in 12 countries, attended by more than 9,000 students. Nine months is all it takes to obtain Le Grand Diplôme Le Cordon Bleu. Recently, the institution launched associate and diploma courses, as well as Bachelor and Masters Degrees.

Restaurants, bakeries and coffee shops have been developed under the Le Cordon Bleu trademark, and the institution has published cookbooks, the most recent of which is Le Cordon Bleu Home Collection, translated into 17 languages. For a more intimate culinary interaction with the dashing celebrity chef, aficionados can look into registering for any of the two Thursday cooking classes that Chef Guilhaudin will be conducting, on June 5 and 12 at Mandarin Oriental. The privilege to learn from Chef Guilhaudin comes with lunch at The Tivoli.

The question undoubtedly uppermost in everyone’s mind–and palate–would be what Chef Guilhaudin will be creating for diners. Whet your appetites with the likes of Crevettes croustillantes, sauce Bahiannaise (crispy shrimp with Bahiannaise sauce), Foie Gras de Canard à la mignonnette de Poivre noir, Asperges cuites et crues (Duck liver with cracked black pepper and asparagus), Rôti de thon au jus d’huître, gnocchi au parmesan (roasted tuna with oyster sauce and Parmesan gnocchi), Pigeon farci en cocotte, galette de pommes de terre au cerfeuil (stuffed pigeon casserole with potato pancakes and chervil). For dessert, he proffers among other delightful creations Croustillant de pommes au sésame, crème à la cannelle (crispy apple slices with sesame seeds in cinnamon sauce), Gâteau tiède au chocolat et au café, glace à la vanille (warm chocolate cake with coffee sauce and vanilla ice cream).

It isn’t everyday that an experience like Journées Gastronomiques beckons. Whether you are a food lover, a true-blue Francophile or simply besotted by Gallic charms and its gastronomic allure, this is one epicurean experience that is not to be missed, for it will surely linger on, perhaps as vividly as the last time you saw Paris.