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responsible
for the kitchen during his military service, then returned to La Barriere
de Clichy in Paris, working with Claude Verger. Verger, proprietor of
La Cote d'Or, brought him to the inn in 1975; Loiseau and his wife took
it over in '82 as their own. Enlarging and renovating, they created more
bedrooms and a large dining room with a view of a new English country
garden. In 1991 Michelin awarded La Cote d'Or three stars — worth
a special journey. Loiseau has two books to his credit, L'Envolee des
Saveurs, which won the Brillat-Savarin prize and the award for best gourmand
book, and Trucs, Astuces et Tours de Main, which sold 50,000 copies within
five months.
Loiseau, whose
first trip to the United States, in 1994, took him to The Inn at Little
Washington in a pairing with Relais member Patrick O'Connell (also featured
on Great Chefs), calls his light cuisine "rustic raffine" and
"cuisine d'essences." He uses no spices, no flour, no stocks,
no cream — the better to emphasize the natural flavors of the ingredients,
which he distills to purity. One of his truly unique dishes, Pommes en
Fete, is an entire meal of variations on the potato — and it is among
his most requested dishes.
All the work,
all the refinement of his own special cuisine, all the day-to-day toughing
it out to create the best, came together in 1991, Loiseau's 40th year:
his first son and three stars. Still working every single day, still obsessing
over the quality of his ingredients, Loiseau now has a restaurant in Japan,
where the simplicity and purity of his flavors is much appreciated.
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