“You have to work like a child who plays”: two-star chef Michel Kayser celebrates the 40th anniversary of his house

The master of the place cooks with as much greed and pleasure as ever. Midi Libre – MiKAEL ANISSET

A plant garden to accommodate a variation around shrimp. Midi Libre – MiKAEL ANISSET

En cuisine, une brigade fidèle, menée par le chef Arnaud Bresteau. Midi Libre – MiKAEL ANISSET

Ce dimanche 23 juin, le chef doublement étoilé célèbre les 40 ans de son restaurant Alexandre, à Garons dans le Gard. Rencontre avec un passionné des équilibres et des saveurs.

"When customers come here, I want them to experience a suspended moment, to enter into my atmosphere and for it to be reflected on their plate." 

The atmosphere of Michel Kayser is the love of beauty, of goodness, of balance. It’s art, on the walls of his restaurant and in his dishes, the inexhaustible search for new associations, the desire to shake up the codes, to create. A walk in the pink dunes of the Salins du Midi ? And this is how, after more than a year of tests, failures, and discoveries, a sublime reinterpretation of radish-butter was born.

"They tell you it’s forbidden ? No matter! We have to go beyond that, go further" 

While this Sunday, June 23, Michel and Monique Keyser will celebrate the 40th anniversary of their house, their journey, tinged with two stars, has not always been a long, quiet river: "We arrived here, in Garons, with Pierre Alexandre, in 1983, we signed in 1984. In 1987, we won the first star", remembers, in a smile, the chef, then 32 years old. But heavy tensions with the owner of the place appear. The bank trusts the couple, grants them a loan allowing them to acquire 51% of the restaurant's shares and take over its management. Michel and his wife only managed to manage the remaining 49% in 2000… Before, in 2007, at the cost of hard work, they won a coveted second star in a Michelin Guide including Michel Kayser bought "all copies since 1973. I have no other references…"

Inspiration on the plate

"If a peach falls into a ditch next to a fennel, you know you can marry them." Michel Kayser's cuisine is seasonal, more than 90% local, but imbued with modernity. "We are interested in where the product comes from and who produces it", assures the cook who always finds so much pleasure in creating a recipe, supported by an entire brigade headed by Arnaud Bresteau, present since 2008. A loyalty that also operates in the dining room, like Vincent Mazurier, dining room director, who arrived in 2006 or Lionel Delsol, already present in 1992 before making his return in 2006.

"A nice product, it's self-respecting"

He, the child whose father "never tasted foie gras or caviar in his life"< /em>. He, whose parents could not afford to go to a restaurant, is now sitting at the table of the greatest chefs in France. Without ever forgetting where it comes from: "At home, we ate simple, but we ate good", confie Michel Kayser, remembering, with relish, the recipes of his mother or grandmothers.