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After the ranting Gordon Ramsay and reed-thin, hard-edged Gary Rhodes, Guy Savoy, is, refreshingly, a modern chef cast in an old-fashioned mould.
The jolly, rotund Frenchman, the latest member in the elegant trifecta that makes up the Tiger Woods Dubai project, is here to talk about the restaurant he'll put his name to at the golfing complex.
The big name there, of course, is Tiger himself. It's the first time the champion is designing a course, and the hotel in the complex boasts another big name: Lebanese fashion designer Elie Saab is playing interior designer.
Savoy, chosen as the man to commandeer the signature restaurant at the complex, is in good company - and he knows it.
"I don't have many projects, you know," Savoy offers modestly. (That's like a stamp collector saying he only has a couple of Penny Blacks: Savoy's only restaurants outside France are in Las Vegas and - soon - Moscow. A small but celebrated collection.)
"I've been approached by many different projects around the Gulf. But none of them really seduced me," Savoy says, using the kind of passionate language the French find perfectly natural in conversations about food.
"The first good impression was the Tiger Woods project. I wanted to be reassured about the spirit of the project. It will be fabulous because they live it at 100 per cent, but at no moment do you feel the weight of money. It's about spirit."
Contemporary spirit
Savoy lives for spirit. Every mention of the restaurant's development sets him off: "It will be in the same spirit as my other restaurants - a contemporary spirit," Savoy gushes. "It's about staying true to what I've always defended, to make a real space for living, according to my spirit."
And so this restaurant will, in spirit, be like his signature restaurant in Paris, which he founded in 1980. The menu will be the same, although what that will be in 2010 is anyone's guess.
Right now, the restaurant is closed for the Parisian summer holidays, but the most recent menu was heavy on the classic French, although the execution is famously light-handed. Of 10 starters, five were entirely vegetarian, an ode to his love of legumes.
Highlights? A plate of tomato served different ways - jellied, in a flaky tart case or in a tartare. Or perhaps the freshest tiny peas, pureed, in a salad with mustard cress, raw in jelly and topped with a soft-boiled egg.
"My cooking is very simple. It's one product on a plate, or maybe two or three, maximum. I'm trying to break down a product in different ways, with a couple of other ingredients to support it," says Savoy. "It's cooking of a great lightness. I like to preserve the flavour and texture of an ingredient and just play with those elements."
Main courses on his menu include roast veal, and one of his signature dishes: truffled mashed potato. It's one of the dishes that sums up the chef, and the man.
Mother's cooking
As a child, Savoy began his cooking at his mother's side - she ran a small food stand which grew in size every year, going from serving just drinks to Sunday petanque players to producing simple, one-or-two ingredient dishes like an omelette or a cold meat platter.
It's the kind of honest food Savoy grew up with, and even if his prices are rather higher than his mum's were, the spirit (of course!) is there in the beautifully-executed food focused on a few ingredients.
His mother's cooking plays an ongoing role in his life. "When I went in to the Vegas restaurant for the first time, I thought of my mother and her tiny restaurant. I had a really emotional moment. Her restaurant happened by accident - it was fantastic food and she cooked it for her customers, not for any other reason. I grew up with that.
"I started off by hating clients because they kept my parents busy. But then I understood the happiness my parents were creating by cooking for people." It's that happiness that keeps him as much in the dining room, gauging people's reactions, as in the kitchen, creating that pleasure. "I want to see their faces," he says of his clients. "If they're happy, I'm happy."
Food for everyone
While most of us won't be heading to Savoy's restaurant for a daily dinner given the likely price, the problem of world hunger is something Savoy thinks about a lot.
"Good things are happening in food. Holland was the last place you would go to eat in Europe, now there are great places to eat there. London too. I think that the way that people are more interested in food is proof that civilisation is moving forward. Sadly, there are still many who don't have enough to eat. But I hope one day the whole planet will have access to food.
"But when I see the interest that is given to food in growing places like Dubai, it gives me hope. In France, access to really good food is so normal. Hopefully, it's going to be more democratic everywhere."
What a chef cooks at home
"Three days ago I was in Switzerland in my cabin. For dinner, I made a pea starter, with a boiled egg, just like on the menu at my restaurant. Then I had duck breast. I have found pine vinegar from the mountains, so I made a sauce. The whole house smelled of pine - it was wonderful.
"I served it with some girolle mushrooms picked by a friend nearby. And to finish, an apricot tart, because the apricots from there are stunning. But I went a bit nuts and did it in crazy four steps. I made the pastry, then I made a hazelnut and cream base, then I sautéed the apricots, and in the apricot juice I put a little honey… and that's how I made a tarte. I cook at home as I do in my restaurant kitchen."
Where does a top chef eatin Dubai?
"I'm staying at the Emirates Towers and ate in Nafoorah for dinner. For lunch I went to Vu, where the produce was excellent. I was impressed with the brilliant young chef there."
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