Chef Gérald Passedat of three-Michelin-starred Le Petit Nice in Marseille, France, recently travelled to Macau to meet Executive Chef Julien Tongourian of three-Michelin-starred Robuchon au Dôme. Despite living and working in opposite sides of the world, the two chefs have much in common. Both are French natives and serve French cuisine to their guests. Both are guardians of important culinary legacies: Passedat cooks in the restaurant that was founded by his grandfather over a century ago, whereas Tongourian is a disciple of famed French chef Joël Robuchon, having worked with him for nearly twenty years, until his passing in 2018.
RELATED: Chefs Around The World Mourn The Loss Of Culinary Giant Joel Robuchon
Tongourian has made it his mission to continue his mentor's work, sharing the great chef’s knowledge with the young chefs in his kitchen, as well as his recipes and impeccable cooking style with guests that visit Robuchon au Dôme in Macau. Conscious that Robuchon prized simplicity, refining traditional dishes to delight diners with their pure, rich, and balanced flavours, Tongourian offers culinary presentations that are neither showy nor contrived. He starts with the highest quality ingredients and prepares them with a deep respect for tradition and provenance, while creating a purity of form and balance with deep, modern flavours.
A seafood expert whose restaurant in Marseille benefits from its seaside location, Passedat works closely with local fishermen to offer guests the truest flavours of the Mediterranean, often using less-familiar fish breeds to introduce his customers to the full spectrum of seafood available in local waters. His extremely delicate cooking style, founded on the premise that food should be highly digestible, avoids cream and butter, and instead, uses the shells of crustaceans to add depth and richness to his dishes. Viewing the marine world as his personal kitchen garden, Passedat gathers sea vegetables to add texture and salinity to his cuisine. Although sourced from the depths, his ingredients have a lightness and elegance that provide his food with an enchantingly ethereal quality.
Passedat and Tongourian have come together to discuss culinary philosophy, and each prepares a dish that best sums up his personal gastronomic approach. Tongourian respects Robuchon’s simple yet luxurious style by serving a rich, refined, traditional dish to his guests. On the other hand, Passedat brings the spirit of the Mediterranean to the South China Sea by taking up the challenge of creating an exceptional seafood dish using shellfish from a local market in Macau.
In the opulent surroundings of Robuchon au Dôme, the stunning restaurant at the top of the Grand Lisboa Hotel, the two chefs confer, sample each other’s dishes, and discover that, although their restaurants are far apart and lie on different shores, there is much they share, both in expertise and in deep devotion to the culinary realm.
RELATED: Read all 4-hands stories
