Romain Lascarides

EAT NOURISHS THE SPIRIT, THE THOUGHT, AND THE FACULTY OF JUDGMENT AT THE SAME TIME

A graduate of the Lycée Hostelier Lesdiguières in Grenoble, Romain Lascarides has the opportunity to gain valuable first professional experience with Christophe Aribert, in his restaurant Maison Aribert, awarded with two Michelin stars, in his homeland, the French Alps.

Healthy, refined and efficient cuisine that learns between mountains is the cornerstone of the race to come.

Later, he crosses paths with Glenn Vielnow France's youngest three-star chef - in the winter resort of Courchevel, for a season.

Glenn urges him to go further, and recommends him to Arnaud Donckelein "La Vague d'Or", from the summer resort of Saint Tropez, who soon obtains the third star. The winter seasons will continue to be held in Courchevel, under the direction of Yannick Allenothe chef who today holds thirteen Michelin stars, in the "1947", which will also receive the third star a short time later.

It is the beginning of a long collaboration with these two Grands Chefs whom he deeply admires. Each one transmits their knowledge and their identity to Romain. Both are passionate about sauces, and so is Chef Romain Lascarides. With them, he acquires the culture of excellence, and learns that cooking has an impact on memory, that the dish engenders sentiments, and that something else can be discovered where one was only expecting to find the same as usual.

He understands that contemporary culinary pleasure originates both in a feeling of satiety and in a psychic sensation, leading to a discourse on pleasure. A great meal associates the search for satiety with the balance between ingredients. The construction of the plate dominates the visual, it is opposed to the design. A dish unfolds a narrative, tells a story.

After having twice experienced obtaining a third star, Romain decides to move to Australia, to complete his training. After two years in charge of cooking in one of the best restaurants in Sydney, he decided to return to Europe, and formed the project of creating his own restaurant in Madrid.

In a recent interview, Chef Romain Lascarides states:

"Certain things have decided my choice for cooking. Cooking is an art of time and mastery. Eat is to nourish the spirit, the thought, and the faculty of judgment at the same time. Human beings can thus eat with depth, choice, reflection and sensuality. Cooking praises science, art, agility and ingenuity. Some of the dishes are true conceptual and minimalist works of art. They signify and manifest a style, a temperament, an era, also. The dish shows what an era is capable of, how a culture is modified, evolved, and how civilizations crystallize. For me, cooking is a means of reappropriating oneself with a work of sensual sculpture, of which each one is the subject and the object."

Team

Interview in spanish by Pierre Couturier, CEO of the Allégorie Restaurant, about Romain Lascarides

La Cocina