The news from France this weekend that Michelin-three-star chef Olivier Roellinger was hanging up his toque brought back vivid memories of one of the best dining experiences of my career. (I wrote about Roellinger and my dinner at his Maisons de Bricourt restaurant in a San Diego Union-Tribune article about the “25 Most Memorable Dining Experiences in 25 Years as Restaurant Critic.”)
"It would take a novella, not a newspaper article, to do full justice to dinner at Maisons de Bricourt in Cancale, France. We dined in the candle-lit conservatory of an 18th-century manse, surrounded by antiques and silver. Outside, the rain made the lush garden shimmer and provided background music that ranged from gentle raindrops to crashing thunder.
Chef-owner Olivier Roellinger was not about to be upstaged by Mother Nature. Our nine-course seafood extravaganza included crab meat trimmed
with tiny periwinkles; turbot with green and white beans; roasted John Dory with Muscadet; and baby lobster tail flavored with spices of the East Indies. Only at dessert time – berries in a pistachio crisp and warm bittersweet chocolate "cigarettes" – did we forget for a few minutes the presence of the pounding Atlantic just a block away."
That was the summer of 1997. I was in the area to explore the extensive coastal walkway called the Sentier des Douaniers or Walking Path of the Customs Officers. I planned to eat in the best restaurants and burn off the calories by walking these enchanting trails. My 17-year-old son, Nicholas, who was living with a French family for the summer, agreed to go along.
Interviewing Roellinger was a high priority. Known for his creative genius in the kitchen, intellect, and self-effacing, affable personality, Roellinger has long been considered an authority on spices. He has traveled the world’s “spice routes” extensively and knows that segment of the spice trade road that runs through his native Brittany better than any other chef.
Nicholas and I stayed at Chateau de Richeux hotel, an enchanting 1920s mansion owned by Roellinger and his wife Jane. Perched on a grassy knoll a few miles from the tiny, cobblestoned town of Cancale, it features large, beautifully decorated rooms from which you can glimpse the coastline and smell the bracing essence of the Atlantic.
The hotel, which offers 11 rooms and two apartments, will remain open, as will Roellinger’s more casual seafood restaurant Le Coquillage. And while Roellinger will give up the demanding day-to-day role of chef/proprietor of a Relais Gourmand establishment – he says his legs, seriously damaged in a brutal gang attack when he was 21 years old, are no longer up to the task – he will continue his involvement with his spice company, Épices Roellinger which specializes in salts, spices, spice powders, herb teas and vanilla beans. According to a New York Times article, he is also considering a cooking school and several cookbooks.
To read about the other 24 dining experiences that made my "Best" list in the Union-Tribune Travel article, visit the U-T’s Web site, SignOnSanDiego.com.
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