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feature TEXT Suzanne lazaroo

PhoTogRaPhy Mott Visuals

In the house of Pierre Gagnaire

The World’s Best Chef is carving out

another home for his culinary truth

and his global family of colleagues

– at the impossibly beautiful La

Maison, InterContinental Danang’s

home of ine dining.

DREnChED in white and light,

the dining salon of La Maison

1888 overlooks the Technicolour

waves washing up on Bai Bac beach in

Danang, Vietnam – as does pretty much

every room of this gorgeous restaurant

at the InterContinental Danang Sun

Peninsula Resort. But for once, the attention in the

room is focused away from the lure

of surf, sun and inspired design; it is

squarely on the igure in the middle. arguably, Pierre gagnaire is the

world’s most famous chef – voted

World’s Best Chef by a jury of his peers

this year. Yet in person, he is self-effacing, almost shy.

For 40 years, he has marched at the

head of the fusion cuisine movement,

but the ire which drives the 65-year-old gagnaire is a matter of epiphany, rather

than birthright. “at the beginning, I didn’t make

the choice to do this work, so I did it

for many years without any passion,”

he said. “But one day, I understood that through food, one could create

emotions and build a story, like a poem. In my work today, I always have the

impression that my life is at stake! It is

exciting and dangerous and tiring, all at

the same time.”his culinary poem is an epic, its

stanzas including the capture of three

Michelin stars in St. Etienne, France (he cites this moment as one of his life’s

most important), and the expansion of

his restaurant empire across continents. There have been diicult moments:

Gagnaire left St. Etienne for Paris in 1996, when he went bankrupt. But it remains a tale of hard work paying off,

as he opened a new restaurant in the

same year, with the support of friends,

and regained that three-star position in two short years.

“In everything, you must be yourself…

but also give the best of yourself. With talent, you have it, or you don’t – and

thank God, if you do. If you have talent, but don’t work though, you have

nothing,” he says.

facing page:Pierre gagnaire, in the doorway of Le Boudoir de Madame. above:Anchovy illets with fennel conit and grilled squash.

gagnaire is always most comfortable in the kitchen.

Creativity is impossible to explain, he

says, but he does spend a lot of his time

alone – thinking, wondering, wandering. and always, with paper and pencil – “not

a pen, I may need to erase,” he says.Today, gagnaire is ensconced

in the luxurious conines of the InterContinental Danang, at La

Maison – “the house” – now his latest

global outpost in a family of 14. He is taking over from fellow Frenchman

Michel Roux, who helmed La Maison

for three years.The World’s Best Chef smiles a bit

more than he speaks (he is not silent, but rather, very charming) and his tall

frame seems less so because he stoops

slightly. But his charisma cannot be hidden – although his power lies in quiet

determination, artistic and spiritual

contemplation and creative power and

pride in his team. His secret? “It is just to be myself,” he shrugs.

gagnaire speaks in a language of

simple, lyrical philosophy (“I love this light. Is it old or new? It is beautiful, that is all”) but shies away from calling

himself an artist (“I don’t like to say I’m an artist – an artist is dangerous, he is

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not bankable!”). In the kitchen though, he is a

different man. The smile is stilled, although he seems more serious than

stern. Intensity and focus coalesce. There is no shouting, no drama apart

from a lock of his long hair, which lies around with each energetic gesture. “This is not about having a TV show,”

he says. “This is about a team. It is not drama, but about building something,

day after day, step by step. My team is the translator of my passion, and my job

is to build that team.”We know of gagnaire’s kitchen

demeanour not only because La

Maison’s kitchen has a large viewing

window – but because he is completely

welcoming of this small parcel of

journalists from across the Asia-Paciic region, not even blinking as we station ourselves in what we think are

inconspicuous corners of the kitchen.We’ve travelled from across the

Asia-Paciic region to witness Gagnaire making this house his own – and to

experience the very irst meal at La Maison, cooked by these most famous

French hands, and a team comprising

both local chefs and his own senior staff

who have travelled with him. Being a chef transcends food. It is all

about people, according to Gagnaire. “I spend a lot of time explaining

what I wish, and understanding the

personalities of people around me,” he

says. “The human aspect is as important as the act of cooking.”

What he cares about more than

anything else, says gagnaire, is his

relationships, with his team and guests. “That man has cooked with me for 36 years,” he says, pointing at one of his

chefs who has travelled with him. “And I have seven people like that.”

“The most important thing is that

when my guest inishes his dinner, he has had a nice evening. It is simple to say that, but it is not so easy to offer! – it

is about the food, the service, the quality

of the air! It is, in the end, just details. My job is to create the details.”

Clockwise from top left:The outdoor Plaza area; through the doorway, a display window looks into the heart of the kitchen. The beautiful La Maison is set on a hill, nestled within the InterContinental Danang resort itself.

a vibrant tomato soup with eggplant caviar.

THIS HOUSE

Styled after a French colonial bungalow,

La Maison is built around a beautiful,

imaginary story, populated by a French

Eurasian family. “It is an open house with a luxurious

nature, on an always-changing ocean,” says Gagnaire, looking around the room. “Black and white, and a range of colours

to create an impression of rigour in this

shimmering atmosphere.”Each room is very different in

personality and style, dedicated to

a different family member. Vintage counting machines are stacked to the

ceiling in the accountant’s Room; a

rainbow of old banknotes papers the

ceiling of the Traveler’s Room. Possibly the most risque room in the house is

Le Boudoir de Madame, festooned with

startlingly pink feather boas, its lighting

kept suggestively low. La Maison is a house of details, and

therefore, the very place in which to

“create the details”.When the InterContinental

approached gagnaire with the

suggestion that he take La Maison over,

there was little hesitation on his part. “For me, Vietnam is a country full of

scents, colours, with a subtle cuisine,

beautiful landscape, and a culture with a

real personality,” he says. Six months later, this is gagnaire’s

irst visit to Vietnam after eight years. “Yesterday, when we arrived at Danang airport, I smelt the perfume of

citronella and jasmine and immediately

recalled the memories of my last visit,”

he says. His affection for Vietnam is palpable, an echo of the long historical

ties between it and his home country

of France.The lures of La Maison itself lie not

just in its aesthetic appeal but in its

strong story-roots, in this homage to history. “La Maison tells the story of the country, the Chinese and French

inluences, the way the old is the now. There is a real spirit in this house,”

says Gagnaire.To evoke that spirit, his menu at La

Maison has an elegant French

identity, with Vietnamese ideas

and produce studded like jewels

throughout. A meal here is an “elegant, intimate experience... but still simple, unpretentious”.

ginger and coriander perfume a

poached lobster, banana blossom adds

local appeal to seafood Carpaccio.That night, gagnaire serves his

inaugural meal at La Maison. “We are here to pay homage to the relationship

between France and Vietnam. We are at the beginning,” he says, by way

of introduction.here at the beginning, there are

prawns a la mariniere, spiked with

turmeric, and eggplant caviar with

Vietnamese black pepper and tomato

declination. A fricassee of spiny lobster is cooked with ginger, leeks and the

ubiquitous morning glory, serve with

jasmine rice and lobster rillettes with

kair lime.Seabass illet comes very fresh and

swimming in a clear, concentrated broth

infused with local herbs. The main is a roasted suckling pig in a classic Bigarade

sauce – the orange classically served

with canard a l’orange – with dots of

avocado, pomelo, lemon and chilli

sauces on the side. and The Pierre gagnaire grand

Dessert is positively festive, an

unabashed celebration of Vietnamese

lavours: sweet dragon fruit syrup

with mangosteen, mango and vanilla;

pomelo sorbet scattered with tiny, bright

meringues; sheets of pineapple with

creamy tapioca and coconut milk;

in colada sorbet with coconut

pannacotta and candied Buddha’s hand

(ingered citron); a very-rich chocolate and coffee cake.

When the meal is done, he enters

the dining salon to loud applause – but

is emphatic about introducing the team

he has worked with, sweeping the credit

onto their shoulders. “The star is not me – it is the

guest, it is everybody who works here,”

he shrugs.The Father of Fusion, gagnaire is

renowned not only for his creativity,

but for the consistency displayed by

his restaurants around the world. At La Maison, he has created a menu that the

team may produce with alacrity, even in

his absence.“Cooking is irst a craft, and the craft

industry is based on regularity, rigour

in fabrication, a reliability on a taste

that will always be the same. And then there are chefs who live their work in an

artistic way – but these two sensibilities

should not necessarily be opposing,”

says Gagnaire. “And once again, it is all about my team – it is only through

them that the standards worldwide may

be maintained. “To be a leader is to love and respect

people. Otherwise, you will be alone.” F