The chef, who recently turned 40 and has now been living in Hong Kong for over a decade, is a well-known personality for all the foodies in town thanks to its former Michelin Star restaurant Seasons by Olivier E, opened after he left his role as Head Chef of L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon Hong Kong (3 Michelin Star Restaurant). Michelin Star, something the Chef definitely masters, having gain 18 of them so far. I had the chance to be one of the very first to have lunch at L’Envol and loved it, I had to make this gourmet break last a bit longer so decided to sit with the chef! 
 

Hi Olivier, very lovely meeting you today. Can you tell me a bit more about your background? Who are you? How did you end up here in Hong Kong and what have you been up to over the past 10 years? 

Before moving to Hong Kong, I was the Chef at L’Abbaye De La Bussière in Burgundy, a place where I had been awarded with my first Michelin star in 2007, only 8 months after the opening. I spent around 3 years at this place and knew the second Michelin star was potentially coming which meant I would have to stay at L’Abbaye de La Bussière for another 2 or 3 years. You can’t really leave a place after gaining a Michelin Star … inspectors don’t like that at all. I wasn’t sure this was what I wanted. Back then, my wife (who is today my ex-wife) and I were thinking about moving abroad and we decided it was the right time to do so. At the same time, Pierre Gagnaire was looking for a Chef for his Hong Kong restaurant and I flew all the way here to meet him in 2009. 
 
I had never been to Hong Kong before and had no idea what to expect. For me, Hong Kong was the city from the 1970’s Jacky Chan movies. Needless to say that landing here was quite a shock! But my first few days were so intense that I didn’t really had time to think about it.

 

Are you still in touch with Pierre Gagnaire?
Yes, I am. He was slightly angry at me for leaving him in 2012 when I went to work at L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon Hong Kong but it’s old story now and I am very proud to say he is the one who basically brought me to Hong Kong. 
 

You very openly speak about your Michelin stars. Is it something that you are proud of? Something you’ve always been dreaming of?
Of course it is. 
 
 
Today, being a Chef is quite trendy. Do you see it as a positive or negative thing? 
A bit of both, I guess. I like it that more and more young people are willing to learn and train to become chefs. But I don’t like it that some TV shows have them believe that being a chef is being a star and is something you can achieve in 2-3 months. I’d love those show to focus more on the hard work it takes to be a chef. 
 

Speaking of TV shows, is it something that you would be open to explore?
Never say never. 
 

You didn’t choose the easiest way to make it where you are today, right?
True. But it was my choice. Working with the greatest chefs but also the toughest one was something I wanted. I do not feel at all that I should be hard with my team just because people didn’t make things easy for me. I am not like that. And times have changed! Not to mention I’m not a local so I have to understand how people here work and feel. Something I’ve come to realize quite quickly is that here, unfortunately, people are less driven by passion than money. Being a good captain is about understanding your team and adapting to them. And whenever I find someone who is passionate about what he/she is doing, I definitely make sure to make him/her feel like I’m the right person to help him/her grow! 
 

Not being a local … has it been an issue for you? Or on the contrary, do you think that being French has been an asset?
Being French has definitely been an asset. It’s absolutely not the same being a French chef in France and a French chef abroad. I’m proud of where I come from and I’m doing my best to be a good ambassador. 
 

Has your cuisine changed over the past 10 years spent in Hong Kong?

Chef Alain Passard once said that you only reach culinary maturity around 50. I am only 40. If we were to do this interview again in 10 years my cuisine will again been different from today. Like it is different today from what it was 10 years ago. Of course, Hong Kong has influenced my cuisine. And it has influenced it in a different way than any other country would have only because clients are always different from one country to another. You can’t just say “French cuisine is like that, whether you like or not”, you have to find the little things which make it appealing to local palates. 
 
Is Hong Kong a thought market?
Absolutely. There is such a wide variety of restaurants here, it’s not easy to stay competitive. Take 2 and 3 Michelin stars restaurants here in Hong Kong, you’ll see that the average bill is 30 to 40% lower than the same restaurants in France, but our product cost is 30 to 40% higher. The only cuisine that Hong Kong people feel like it’s ok to pay an expensive price for is Japanese cuisine. But they wouldn’t be ready to pay that money for French cuisine, so we have to understand that and adapt. 
 
Something I am really impressed with is the culinary memory of local people. For example, I went twice to a restaurant with the same people and the second time we were there I’ve heard someone saying “Pecking Duck tonight isn’t up to standards” whereas for me, even as a Chef, the difference with the first time was really hard to notice. They have a very precise memory of what things should taste like, 
 

Is a Michelin star something you are aiming to, here at L’Envol?

Yes. I’ve always had stars wherever I’ve worked, and I am proud of it. I also think this is one of the reasons why they brought me on board. We’ve also decorated the restaurant and built the menu with that in mind. 
 
We’ve been open for a month only and we are already very full, so we are pretty happy with it. Knowing that we haven’t yet done any marketing communications as I first wanted us to be fully operational. People coming at the moment are hearing about us thanks to the word of mouth which is great. 
 

One last question, can you share your favorite foodie places in Hong Kong?
I do love Caprice and Guillaume is one of my best friends here in Hong Kong (editor’s note: follow this link to read our interview of Guillaume Galliot). I was so proud of him when he was awarded with the third Michelin Star! Of course, I love L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon. For Japanese food I think Sushi Mori is great but it’s very expensive, so you’d better have something to celebrate. In a completely different style, I also love heading to Yat Lok on Stanley Street for roasted goose. Simple, cheap and yummy. And to fix my French food cravings, I usually visit one of the bistros opened by my friends Jérôme and Olivier who run French Creations (editor’s note: we interviewed them recently, find the article here). This is what I love about Hong Kong, you can have it all! 










 

by Aude Camus
 
Remember this new series of Michelin Star Chefs of Hong Kong interviews I started recently? (You can find the first interview featuring Guillaume Galliot, Chef de Cuisine at Caprice here). Well, today is the second round and I am embarking on the Star Ferry and crossing the Victoria Harbour for this one. Heading straight to Epure (1 Michelin star since 2016) to meet Nicolas Boutin.
 
Epure … one of the first fine dining restaurant (it didn’t have a Michelin star yet in 2015) I’ve visited when moving to Hong Kong. Been back maybe 1 or 2 times since then but only for lunch outside on the terrace or for private events so thought it was about time to refresh my memory and treat myself to a very yummy interview. 
 
I met Nicolas on a weekday morning, right before the lunch time shift and getting to know more about his background from French Michelin Star restaurants in the 80’s and 90’s to Hong Kong with stops in Ireland, The Grenadines and Bora Bora, was quite inspiring. What a long way to go for the little boy from Poitiers (West-Centre of France) who started his career as an apprentice butcher only because he didn’t really know what else to do. Last thing he told me at the end of our 2h-long discussion was: “you can’t post this interview yet. You have to come back and taste again my cuisine to refresh your memory because in order to know me properly and write about me you need to know and understand my cuisine.”. The kind of thing you don’t have to tell me twice! So back I was, just a few days later, taking my job very seriously (what?) and enjoying a Michelin star lunch. 
 
Hey Nicolas. Thanks so much for meeting me today. Can you tell me a bit more about you? Your background, your story? How did you end-up here as the Executive Chef of Epure? 
Hope you are not in rush! We will have to go quite back in time. School was definitely not my thing, I couldn’t stand having to seat and learn things all day. All I wanted was to go back home as quickly as possible to watch cartoons. It was ok at primary school, but it started to be really hard when I started secondary school.
 
But it wasn’t like I could drop out school and do nothing, so I started working for a butcher whom my father knew and did 2 years with him before starting my culinary apprenticeship. 
 
Did you like it?
Not at all! It was a nightmare. I mean, it wasn’t an easy job and the boss was very old-school style boss. But I did it, I felt like I couldn’t drop out another thing. 
After those 2 years, I want for 2 years culinary apprenticeship. It was slightly better but nothing fantastic either. I didn’t really feel like I was going anywhere in life,  yet I guess I wasn’t too bad since I ended-up major of my promotion and also made it to the top 2 at a culinary competition during my first year. 
 
 
 
 
 
I then started working at Poitiers at Le Maxime, a small but slightly fancy restaurant with a quite interesting boss. Didn’t stayed there for very long as it was time for me to do my national military service (editor’s note: which was mandatory back then) but the boss liked me and once I was back having done my national duties, he decided to help me get in a Michelin Star restaurant like I wanted. He wasn’t the kind to be afraid of anything, so he just took his phone and started contacting at people to recommend me. One of the first person he reached out to was Michel Troisgros (editor’s note: from 3 Michelin Star restaurant Troisgros) who agreed to hire me but not before I trained for an additional 2 years. It really was something big for me to have Michel Troisgros words that he would hire me in a few months! 
 
And thanks to my former boss again, I started with Chef Jacques Lameloise (editor’s note: 3 Michelin Star Chef) in Burgundy. I am not going to lie, it wasn’t easy joining a Michelin Star restaurant. It was a tough world, and we were in Burgundy not even in a big city. I can’t imagine how it would have been in Paris. It took a bit of time for me to feel comfortable and fit in the team, but I think I did manage pretty well starting as a Commis de Cuisine and making my way to the Chef de Partie position in 1.5 years. 
 
In the meantime, first day at Troisgroshad been pushed back and I still had a year to go before joining them. I thought it would be a good idea not too stick to one maison and make the most of this extra-time to discover another place, so I moved to Toulouse and went to work for chef Dominique Toulousy in his 2 Michelin Star restaurant Les Jardins de l’Opéra. This place will always be very special to me because it’s where I met my very good friend Michel Portos (editor’s note: today a Michelin Star Chef). 25 years of friendship, that’s something! 
 
After a year there, it was finally time for me to start at Troisgros. I had to start back from the very bottom as a Commis de Cuisine but I was so proud being there, I would have been happy doing the dishwashing if they’ve had asked me! 
 
I can’t forget my first day with them. They had given me the wrong date and I started 2 days before the rest of the team (editor’s note: restaurant was closed every year during a few months). I walked in the kitchen and Pierre Troisgros and Michel Troisgros were there, shooting for tv and, because I was there, I ended up shooting too. 
I did a month as Commis de Cuisine in charge of cold fishes, then 3 to 4 months as Chef de Partie and then moved to hot starters and hot fishes which was quite a big move in a short period of time. A year after I started with them, the Second de Cuisine was leaving, and they wanted me to take-over the position. My first reply? No! Back then, there was no Chef de Cuisine which meant that Second de Cuisine was right under Michel Troisgros. I was only 24, everything had been going so quickly in my life, I felt like I wasn’t ready for such a challenge. But they asked me a few times and I ended-up agreeing to take the position for only a few months before seasonal closing. Those were some quite exciting months!  I’ve been lucky to travel and do some cooking shows in the US and in Canada … what a big deal for a little guy from Poitiers!
 
In February, came the seasonal closing and I decided to leave and go and see something else. Guess who took over my role? My friend Michel Portos. As for me, I went to work in Tours for 2 Michelin Star Chef Jean Bardet. Not my best memory! It wasn’t easy moving from somewhere perfectly organized like Troisgrosto this. I felt like I was giving, giving but wasn’t receiving anything. I had to leave. I did a few months in the South of France during summer and it hit me: I had seen enough, I knew what was a Michelin star restaurant and it was time for me to train on something else. I wanted to learn English and the only way to do so was by going abroad. I was looking for somewhere where to really settled, wasn’t too excited by the UK and Ireland was quite booming at the time so here I was, moving to Dublin. A friend of mine helped me found a job in a small French restaurant. It wasn’t much about the cuisine, we were only 4 and it was very casual, more pub style, but I didn’t care because my focus was really to learn English. I spent 3 years there. I have no idea how actually! Then, we opened a shop with a friend, importing gourmet products from France. It was an interesting experience thanks to which I learnt some management and customer relationship skills. 
 
After 6 years in Ireland, I felt like it was time for me to be back in the kitchen. In the meantime, my friend Michel Portos had opened his first restaurant and had received his first Michelin Star and he was in the process of taking over the ownership of Le Saint-James, a restaurant in Bordeaux. I joined him in 2002 and spent 2 years working as his right-hand man. Loved it! 
 
My next move, in The Grenadines thanks to my friend Richard Ekkebus (editor’s note: today Chef of Amber in Hong Kong), was motivated by my wish to train myself on management stuffs. Richard contacted me again a year after that to ask me to help him opening the Landmark Mandarin Oriental in Hong Kong. I spent 2 years in Hong Kong and then moved to Boston where I was Executive Chef for the first time ever. But it wasn’t an easy experience working in this hotel and I was happy to move to the Maldives working for underwater restaurant Ithaabefore joining the Four Seasons in Bora Bora. I loved the island life but didn’t enjoy working for hotel groups that much. 
 
I had a great time in Hong Kong a few years before and wanted to be back. This is when I had the opportunity to join Gourmet Dining Groupas Executive Chef. The group had bought Dalloyau brand for Hong Kong, so the plan really was to work on this brand. We hadn’t really thought about launching a restaurant but the idea of Epure came quite naturally. From the very first days of the restaurant the idea was to serve French cuisine but with a modern and fresh twist. It’s very trendy to put a lot of ingredients in a plate but I’d rather like to work with only 2 or 3 ingredients for people to be able to remember what they’ve been eating. 
 
The first dishes I’ve been working on were the mushroom soup, which I had first discovered many years before when working at Troisgros, and the Vol-au-Vent. Two very traditional dishes which I wanted to refresh and make more modern. 
 
My philosophy is to try and understand the products. Where do they come from? It’s really important for me to know the importers and the suppliers I’m working with. 
 
Is a Michelin star something you’ve always been dreaming of?
Not really. I started my career in Michelin star restaurants yes but it was so long ago and back then I was so young. And this was behind me. I had them moved to Ireland and have been living the island life and my Michelin Star days were quite far behind. I had no idea where life would take me. Plus, like I was telling you when I moved back to Hong Kong it wasn’t, at first, to start a fine-dining restaurant. 
 
I was happy to receive this recognition but to be honest I was mainly happy for the team. In 2014 and 2015 the Michelin guide had already invited me to the ceremony but both times I went and didn’t receive anything. So, when they invited me again in 2016, I wasn’t really expecting anything either. I’ve heard that they call you before the ceremony to tell you you are going to receive your first star, but I didn’t receive any phone call. It’s true I was invited to a photo shooting few days before the ceremony, but I was like “careful, don’t get too excited because it doesn’t mean anything, remember the past two years”. 
 
The Michelin Star didn’t really make a difference in terms of business because we had been open for 2 years and a half and had already acquire a kind of recognition. People were talking about us before the Michelin Star. 
 
What’s next then?
Keeping on tickling the taste buds of people trying my cuisine and having them feel emotions while eating. 




 

by Aude
 
Have you read yesterday’s article? The one where I was telling you that us, expats, are sometimes reluctant to try new things? Well, there’s something else we also don’t really do: getting out of our neighbourhoods. (I mean we’re not all the same but judging from my experience and from my friends, we tend to always stroll around the same places). I mean, why go try a new restaurant in the new territories when you can have brunch around the corner, in a place where you know the food and the staff? We’re all being lazy, and there’s nothing wrong about it. 
 
Freshly back from my summer break and full of good intentions (which will probably last no longer than a month I must confess), I have decided to get out of my comfort zone and try new things. Can I take you out with me for dinner? But I’d better warn you, this invitation includes a 25 min MTR ride ... C’mon just joking, I know 25 min is nothing. 

Heading off to Greater China Club, in Lai Chi Kok, an opulent club-style destination serving Cantonese cuisine but also hiding a small hidden lounge venue: Cadenza. Here, the food isn’t Cantonese anymore. Japanese Executive Chef Masahito Kawabata will be serving us French bistro cuisine tonight. So in a nutshell, tonight we’ll be eating French bistronomic food cooked by a Japanese Chef (who has spent 8 years in France) inside a Cantonese restaurant ... that’s something new for you I bet, right? It is for me too! 

The place has a very lounge, jazzy atmosphere. The kind of place where you can drink wine and smoke cigars while listening to old jazz vinyl records. 

But I’m starving. Shall we eat? Bistronomy food come to mummy. Kicking off with the starters, a fresh and yummySouth French Sea Bream Carpaccio Marinated with Herbs and Ravigote Dressing(HKD 178) – ravigote sauce being a vinaigrette based sauce with chopped shallots and onions, capers and herbs – a so French Caramelized Terrine Foie Gras(HKD 218) with a lovely Japanese twist, the stewed eel (which I deeply love) and a perfect Fish Soup in Marseille Style with Garlic Toast and Rouille (HKD 138). 
 
Well, not too bad for a start, right? 
 
Here comes the Roasted French Duck Breast in Cassis Sauce(HKD 238). Love, love, love. As for this Stewed Beef Cheek in Red Wine Sauce (HKD 358) you can have it all for you. Not that it is not good, it’s just that beef cheek isn’t something I like. Nobody’s perfect. 

I’m kind of too full for dessert right now and anyway wasn’t blown away by the Mille Feuille(HKD 68) and the Crumble Seasonal Fruits(HKD 78) both way too sweet for me. 
 
Hong Kong Madame fav: the fish soup, which tested just like the fresh ones I’m enjoying every summer when heading to Brittany (West of France) for a break and some serious seafood tastings. 
 
Well, let me finish my glass of wine before taking the MTR and heading back to Sheung Wan. That was a nice culinary short trip, wasn’t it? 
 

 
Greater China Club
Unit A, 10/F, D2 Place One, 9 Cheung Yee Street – Lai Chi Kok