Even the clouds let down their guard on the evening of Sunday June 23 to cheerfully celebrate the 50 summers of Les Prés d’Eugénie, this countryside paradise imagined by Michel Guérard and his wife Christine, now managed by their two daughters Éléonore and Adeline. 50 years during which, since Eugénie-les-Bains, this village on the margins of Chalosse and Tursan, in the Landes, haute couture cuisine and the essence of good taste have never ceased to shine.
This is the reason why Guillaume Gomez, former chef at the Élysée, now ambassador for gastronomy to the President of the Republic, came to present Michel Guérard with the insignia of Officer of the French order of gastronomic influence. for his commitment to his land and his art.” “A decoration is good, but above all it is everything that it represents and all this progress that makes me proud,” confided the man who has held three macarons in the Michelin Guide for forty-seven years.
A myriad of stars
That evening, he was also proud and happy to see all the chefs he trained flocking from everywhere, these three-star cooks for whom he remains an example of humility and generosity, these faithful producers, these lifelong friends . Olivier Rœllinger, former chef in Cancale (Ille-et-Vilaine) who has become a huge specialist in spices, Alain Ducasse, crowned with 20 macarons, Michel Troisgros from Roanne (Loire), Alexandre Couillon from Noirmoutier (Vendée), Daniel Boulud from New York , Gwendal Poullennec, director of the Michelin Guide, François-Régis Gaudry, gastronomic critic of France Inter, Bernard Magrez, owner of numerous wine châteaux, Fabien Chevalier, director of Lafitte foie gras and even Laurent Dulau, head of Sturia caviar, were there to celebrate “the little prince in the white jacket”, as Christine nicknamed him in a love letter she sent him in 1987.
It was here, in what was still only an outdated spa, owned by her father, that she brought the one she loved. It was in 1974. He had already begun to strip French cuisine of its trappings, prisoner of outdated precepts. In Eugénie, in this peaceful place sheltered from fashion, the little prince overturned the table. Having become one of the spearheads of Nouvelle cuisine, he is today its only survivor.
“I just refined a new recipe, a clown fish”
“You will be inventive”, advocated the tenth commandment of the manifesto of this culinary revolution, issued by the critics Henri Gault and Christian Millau. Fifty years later, this phrase still resonates with Eugénie. Michel Guérard, with his mischievous smile and his enveloping gaze, has not left his kitchen. “I just perfected a new recipe, a clown fish,” he revealed.
Historic dishes from Maison Guérard
At dinner time, served like a luxuriant banquet in a painting by Douanier Rousseau, magnificently executed by its chef Hugo Souchet and a brigade with breathtaking choreography, some of the historic dishes of the Guérard house paraded. As a preamble, the pannequet, a small thin pancake, hid a crab and cucumber stuffing refreshed with a green curry. Passed into the pantheon of Prés d’Eugénie, the famous chicken egg with oscietra caviar, imagined in 1977, remains the pinnacle of elegance, that of a simple product erected and presented in majesty.
Faithful to his passion for embers, the chef has combined foie gras with grilled langoustine, accompanied by an incredible sesame duck pâté. In an INA documentary dating from 1976, Michel Guérard was already cooking whiting with Marthe Mercadier in an episode of La Grande Cocotte! The fish was combined with a julienne of vegetables. On Sunday, he returned to the sea with a divine mousse with discreet aioli and a rock fish salmis. In ode to his grandmother, the one who gave him the taste for cooking, an expert in pastry, a suave and simple apricot tart closed this exceptional moment.
When night came, beauties all in feathers recalled the time when Michel Guérard, hired at the Lido, made girls burst out of his immense cakes. A time when he lived, bohemian, in a barge on the banks of the Seine. A time when he already perceived that a new world was being born and that, behind his stoves, he would be part of it.
Suddenly, the sky was streaked with a thousand colored sparks. A huge cake appeared. Surrounded by Éléonore and Adeline, he blew out fifty candles. The music sounded. The guests and all the staff started dancing. The Meadows of Eugénie are eternal.
