A Guy named Savoy
On Tuesday 12 February Derek Brown, director of Michelin, put a call in to Guy Savoy to tell him he had earned a third star. Savoy, preparing for another routine lunch service, answered the phone but straightaway thought someone was joking, playing cruelly on the fact that Savoy had languished - if that is possible - at two-star status for 17 years.
"He started explaining who he was, and that made me suspicious because every chef knows who Derek Brown is," says Savoy. "Then something told me I'd better shut up and listen." Asking how he felt on hearing of his third star is unnecessary. The pleasure is written all over Savoy's face as he remembers the moment.
"I had always had a deep desire for a third star but I kept telling myself it mustn't become a life obsession, because what if it never comes? So my obsession became a concrete one, to do my job well so that my guests are happy. But the day the third star came… " Savoy shakes his head, reliving what he calls an "extraordinary sensation", one that saw emotions spilling over as staff celebrated. Passionate about rugby, he likens it to a team winning an important title.
Now, five months into his existence as one of Paris's elite - he is one of nine three-star chefs in the capital - Savoy can think back with serenity on the years that the accolade eluded him. What was it that tipped the balance in 2002? Was it a tweak to the menu or a new member of the brigade? No, there's been no change in either. Was it the open letter to Michelin penned by the International Herald Tribune's renowned restaurant critic, Patricia Wells, questioning Michelin's apparent oversight and urging them to put matters right? Was it the work of interior designer Jean-Michel Wilmotte, who used stone, wood and leather, warm, neutral tones and subtle lighting to offset Savoy's striking collection of modern art and sculpture? Possibly, but that was all finished in summer 2000.
Savoy gives a Gallic shrug. He has clearly pondered the question at length but appears to harbour no grudge and even smiles at the fact that his protégé Gordon Ramsay (see below) pipped him to the three-star post by 12 months. "I would analyse the situation every year, but what could I do? Lots of French chefs have had three stars for a long time, but there haven't been any new ones recently. Then this year there were three - me, Christian Le Squer at Ledoyen [Paris] and Jean-Georges Klein at L'Arnsbourg [in Untermuhltal, Alsace]."
Savoy now intends to hold on to his status by not rocking the boat. The only difference since February has been that lunchtimes in the 70-cover restaurant are now as full as the evenings always have been, and that people are eating as seriously at lunch as in the evening. There's been no price hike - the average … la carte spend is a130 (£83) without wine and a nine-course menu prestige, taken by an astonishing 70% of diners, is a185.50 (£118) without wine - and the 20-strong brigade remains the same, led by head chef Michel Roncières.
Most importantly, Savoy will continue to offer his well-heeled clientele the same repertoire of dishes. "I have had people coming for 20 years just for the oysters," he says, referring to his signature starter of huitres en nage glacée (oysters served on a lightly creamed oyster purée with a clear jelly made from oyster juice). "C'est la mer, tout simplement," says Savoy with a genuinely warm smile in response to a guest's compliment.
Truffle butter
And there would be uproar if Savoy abandoned his bar en écailles grillés aux épices douces. The sea bass is cooked with skin and scales on and served with Swiss chard, shiitake mushrooms and a delicate foaming sauce flavoured with vanilla, coriander and ginger. Ditto the soupe d'artichaut à la truffe noire, brioche feuilletée aux champignons et truffes. The soup comes with slivers of black truffle and Parmesan and the brioche is spread at table with a truffle butter. "Dip it in the soup," a waiter hints with a grin.
So what has led Savoy to create such dishes? The seasons are his biggest inspiration and, signature dishes aside, the menu changes four times a year. At the moment he is using morels with his suprême de volaille de Bresse; the rognons de veau come with young broad beans; and the pigeon is served with tender salad leaves. He confesses to a preference for fish, mushrooms and vegetables - Savoy is credited with being one of the first of his generation to use vegetables in abundance rather than just as garnish. "I feel less at ease with meat," he says. "There are fewer ways of being innovative; you're more confined to tradition. Roast chicken is wonderful, but there aren't 36 different good ways to cook a chicken. Fish you can do raw, cooked, part-cooked… My sea bass is grilled; the red mullet [filets de rouget-barbet poêlés, jus au foie, beignets d'herbes et pommes Maxim's] is pan-fried; the turbot is roasted whole."
People have inspired him, too. Born in 1953 and brought up in Bourgoin-Jallieu, a small town south-east of Lyons, where his mother ran the local caf‚ and his father was a gardener, Savoy decided at the age of 16 to become a chef. Apprenticeships at some of France's leading restaurants began with a stint with the Troisgros brothers in 1970. "I was there between the ages of 17 and 20 and it was a revelation. It's very important at that age to be around people who make you dream. They did that for me. Could I, one day, be like them?"
Nouvelle cuisine
He stayed with Michelin-rated restaurants, with periods at Lasserre in Paris, L'Auberge du Lion d'Or near Geneva and L'Oasis at La Napoule before becoming head chef at Claude Verger's Barrière de Clichy, Paris, in 1977. He was part of the band of fresh young talent that included Alain Dutournier and Jo‰l Robuchon, who were honing their skills during the years of nouvelle cuisine. Rather than dismiss that style of cooking, he insists that it was a very influential period. He rejects the minute portions and some of the crazier combinations of nouvelle cuisine but argues that it taught chefs to value the intrinsic taste and texture of an ingredient rather than smother it in a heavy, all-purpose sauce. "It heralded the end of uniformity," he says.
Savoy took his light, modern version of classical cooking into his own restaurant in Paris in 1980. Restaurant Guy Savoy in the rue Duret quickly earned a Michelin star. A second followed in 1985, and in 1987 he moved to the current, larger premises in rue Troyon.
While his cooking style has, naturally, been inspired by the French tradition, Savoy cites Sir Terence Conran as a major inspiration in matters of design. "In France we've always said the cooking is enough," he says. "The Anglo-Saxon view was that cooking was not enough and that food should be eaten in beautiful places. Conran understood that perfectly, and I've always been impressed by how his restaurants combine good design and good food."
So what of the future? Savoy rejects the popular opinion that the French are drifting away from fine dining towards more informal eating and that places like his are, therefore, under threat. "I don't agree. I believe people in this country are eating better and better at every level. You can have a good meal spending 150 francs, just as you can if you spend 1,000 francs-plus. Customers have an exceptional choice." He himself offers that choice with his four brasseries; but the fact that his flagship restaurant is full to capacity every lunchtime and every evening is testament to the enduring appeal of three-star food such as his.
The Savoy empire
Guy Savoy has kept the focus of his culinary attention on Paris, with his flagship restaurant a stone's throw from the Arc de Triomphe. Three of his four brasseries - he has no plans for more - are in the same area, though he ventured to the Left Bank with Les Bookinistes. Each of the brasseries is run by a chef and manager trained at the main restaurant.
Restaurant Guy Savoy 18 rue Troyon, Paris 75017, France
Tel: 00 33 1 43 80 40 61
Web site: www.guysavoy.com
La Butte Chaillot Opened in 1992 as a mix between chic brasserie and neighbourhood restaurant, La Butte Chaillot has 120 seats, a brigade of nine and average spend of €38 (£24) without wine.
Les Bookinistes
Savoy's second spin-off opened two years later. With 70 seats and a brigade of six, the à la carte menu attracts an average spend of €42 (£27) without wine, while two daily-changing lunch menus are €23 (£14.50) and €26 (£16.50).
Cap Vernet Savoy's 190-seat seafood restaurant opened in the shadow of the Arc de Triomphe in 1995. It has seven chefs and an average spend of €45 (£28.50) without wine.
Version Sud The newest brasserie has a menu inspired by southern Europe and the Maghreb. Its three dining rooms evoke a Spanish, Provençal and Moroccan ambience. A five-strong brigade feeds diners in the 80 seats, who spend an average of €38 (£24) without wine.
Gordon on Guy
For London's newest three-star chef, a year in Guy Savoy's kitchen was a turning point. Encouraged by his then employer, Albert Roux, Gordon Ramsay started as a commis under Savoy in 1991.
His memories of the year seem as fresh as ever: the 10 ice-cream machines that turned out ice-creams and sorbets just half-a-litre at a time; Savoy's immaculately trimmed beard and polished shoes; his blunt management style; the use of vanilla in a fish stock; his Earl Grey sorbet served with crème anglaise; the crème de lentilles, which has since inspired Ramsay's own signature cappuccino of haricots blancs.
"I didn't speak a word of French, so I used to go to the park with a Linguaphone every morning. Sometimes I was glad I couldn't understand what Guy was saying, he was so strict," Ramsay remembers.
The two clearly have great respect for each other. Savoy wrote the preface to Ramsay's first book, and the pair recently cooked at a charity dinner at Daniel Boulud's restaurant in New York. "I did a mosaic of foie gras with poulet Bresse," Ramsay says. "For a moment I thought I was back in Guy's kitchen when he came over and said, ‘That's delicious - but no more seasoning, Gordon.'"
Marcus Wareing, head chef at London's Pétrus and, in turn, a prot‚g‚ of Ramsay, spent a year with Savoy in the mid-1990s. "Gordon sent me there to prepare me for the opening of L'Oranger. I remember Guy as a quiet man but very strict. I admired his stamina. I liked his classical cooking best, such as fish cooked whole or braised rabbit."
An Englishman in Paris
2002 Roux Scholarship winner André Garrett will be spending his prizewinning stage with Guy Savoy. Watch out this autumn for a full report.