Quality

FOR Max Renzland, 1999 is turning into an exceptionally good year. On Monday this week his restaurant, Monsieur Max, in Hampton Hill, west London, scooped the Renault UK Award for Best French Restaurant in the Carlton London Restaurant Awards, beating Le Gavroche, the Oak Room Marco Pierre White, Gordon Ramsay, La Tante Claire and the Square - the other nominees for the title.

And this latest award comes only two months after Monsieur Max won a Michelin star, becoming the first of Renzland's restaurants, in a career spanning a quarter of century, to achieve the accolade.

Renzland admits to being "bowled over" by the sudden recognition. Indeed, when a friend from a two-Michelin-starred establishment rang him in January to tell him that his restaurant had won a star, he initially thought they were joking. "I thought it was a wind-up," he says. "In 25 years in the business, I haven't strived for a star or any other accolades, or even given them much thought. I've been in the business primarily for fun.

"But," he adds, "now I've got one, it's wonderful."

Renzland's recent success is all the more sweet because of the terrible lows he has also endured. In 1991 he lost his then business - the Chez Max restaurant in nearby Richmond, Surrey - and all his money. Far worse than this, in November 1995 his twin brother and partner, Marc, died following a drugs binge.

The pair had worked together for the best part of two decades, first in hotels in Germany, then jointly running the Richmond Chez Max, followed by Le Petit Max in Hampton Wick, London, and another Chez Max also in west London. The partnership was arranged so that Max prepared the starters, desserts and mise en place and took care of the front of house, while Marc was the "genius" in the kitchen and concentrated on main courses and cooking during service.

Renzland explains that the relationship was extremely close. But, as with most sibling relationships, it was also very difficult. "Our life together in cooking involved lots of screaming, shouting, ranting and raving at each other because," he says, "like lots of chefs, my brother would seem to forget that we're here to serve customers. He didn't give a monkey's what something cost, as long as it tasted good. So, the thing worked by me being the steadying influence behind him."

Renzland adds: "When he died, one life ended for me too. But the last thing I thought of doing was to leave the industry." Instead, he decided to make a fresh start, giving up the restaurants he had shared with his brother and finding a new site in Hampton Hill, which opened as Monsieur Max in September 1996.

Here, over the past two-and-a-half years, Renzland says, he has recovered and focused again on creating the "bourgeois" food and environment that he loves. "I think that, for the first time since my brother's death, I've begun to concentrate again over the past year or so," he says. Monsieur Max is certainly developing quickly. When it opened, it had just six staff - both front and back of house - serving about 200 diners a week, whereas today some 20 staff are employed and they serve 600-700 customers weekly.

Instrumental in achieving this popularity, as well as the recent accolades, has been the new relationship Renzland has struck up with his two head chefs, Alex Bentley and Morgan Meunier. The team has been together for almost two years now and each man's skills complement the other's, says Renzland. "I recruited Morgan and Alex because of their backgrounds and their professional skills - Alex was trained at the Connaught and Morgan has worked in some three-Michelin-starred restaurants in France. With my experience, everything seems to have come together," he says.

During most services it is, in fact, Bentley and Meunier who run the kitchens, while Renzland says he is more "the executive chef", deciding on menus, trying out new dishes and experimenting with garnishes. When it comes to service he likes to be out front, as he always has done, to "cosset" his customers.

But it is, perhaps, Renzland's days off more than anything else that influence the restaurant's style and food. At least once a month, often more, he heads to France for two or three days, to tour the markets of Paris, Lyon, Nice and Boulogne, sourcing ingredients and checking on existing suppliers. He does this because, he admits, he is "totally obsessed with the quality of ingredients" and he believes that the finest produce comes from France.

"Most suppliers in England are bad at best and appalling at worst," he asserts. "But at the market in Boulogne, for example, you'll see beautiful, plump, fat pigeons that still have a bloom on them because they haven't even oxidised yet. And you look at the watercress and the leeks and they have still got damp, smelly mud on them. Everything is fresh."

The obsession with quality runs so deep for Renzland that when it comes to his favourite ingredients, such as poulet de Bresse, he will, from time to time, tour the region that it comes from, eating at various restaurants to taste which serves the best. "I'll then ask who they use to supply their chickens," he says, "and will go to meet their producer."

The same regimen also applies to choosing spring lamb from the Haute Provence region, or charcuterie in Lyon. Even beans come under scrutiny. "A couple of years ago I had a cassoulet in France which I thought was outstanding," he says, "so I asked the restaurateur where the beans came from, and he said Tarpes. I went the following day to source the same beans and we've been using them ever since."

Renzland says the supreme nature of his ingredients means most of the dishes at Monsieur Max are very simple and require little preparation. The anchovy starter shown here, for example, is the restaurant's signature dish and can be assembled in minutes. "With this dish, as with all our dishes, we respect the ingredients and let them speak for themselves. We don't mess around with things," he says.

Daily-changing menu

Other starters on the daily-changing menu might include tartare of two salmons, cru and smoked, with herbs and spices, lemon and olive oil vinaigrette; or rillettes of pork and duck maison, haricots verts, cornichons, pain poilane grillé.

When it came to deciding which main course he was going to reproduce for Chef, Renzland immediately chose the roast poulet de Bresse because "there's nothing better than a simple roast chicken - that's been properly reared and had a decent life - set off with a morel sauce". He stresses that anyone reproducing this recipe should merely rub a little butter and salt on to the chicken before slow-roasting it. Again, it is important not to overdo the preparation, he says.

Current main course alternatives could include smoked artisanale Morteau sausage, haricots verts, crushed potatoes, roast garlic, red wine and peppercorn sauce; or south coast sea bass roasted on its skin, with curly kale, celeriac cream, glazed button onions and red wine sauce.

At dessert, Renzland's usual principles of excellent ingredients, lightly handled, apply. For example, his favourite dessert, the cräme brñlée à la vanille, is made "simply with the best Madagascan vanilla, double cream, free-range eggs and sugar".

His menu also generally offers diners baba au rhum with cräme chantilly, and rice pudding with Madagascan vanilla, Agen prunes and Cognac caramel. With these, as with all desserts, Renzland says he is very light-handed with sugar because he believes desserts should be refreshing and not too sweet.

Hearty portions

At all courses, diners at Monsieur Max are assured of one further factor - a very hearty portion. Renzland says that people who come to his restaurant are "hungry people", rather than people celebrity spotting or getting a quick bite before the theatre, and he will not disappoint them. "As a restaurateur," he says, "I believe the most important thing is to be generous. I'd rather give too much to my customers than too little, because I want them to go away satisfied and feeling they've had a happy day." n