Twenty years after the suicide of their father Bernard Loiseau, a culinary star, Bérangère and Blanche take over the family establishment, under the watchful eye of their mother Dominique. One assumes the vice presidency of the group, the other in the kitchen. An inheritance not always easy to bear.
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Let’s go two zanders, a scallop and a sweetbread. One sea bass, one scallop. In this world-renowned Michelin-starred kitchen, we can find hot foie gras cooked in yellow wine, quince and rutabaga, or scallop carpaccio with caviar flavoured beurre blanc. Yeah, I’ll be done in five minutes, then I’ll leave you alone.
Blanche has been learning her trade here for two years. She started at the bottom of the ladder, despite her prestigious surname. Seasoning, salt, pepper, flour on both sides, just right. Blanche Loiseau follows in the footsteps of her ever-present father, the star of the kitchen, Bernard Loiseau. She was six when he died.
Since then, she has attended the Paul Bocuse Institute and worked in restaurants abroad. That’s why they have to be estilated as well, because otherwise, if there’s any moisture in the fat it explodes! Yes. Guided by chef Patrick Bertron, today she would like to embody the next generation.
And then, if you see that it’s going further and starting to make blackheads… A little butter. Well, listen, I’ll let you handle the little bit of butter. Of course, my dream is to come back home for good. A chef? Yes, yes. One day, yeah. How soon?
Well, there’s no date for that. I don’t have a date to tell you, because even I don’t know. Are you ready or lost? No, I’m not. Are you ready or not? No! Not at all. You know, being a Michelin-starred chef isn’t something you can improvise. And
You need a lot of experience and time. You have to give it time, I think. And you have to feel ready yourself. I love doing it. I couldn’t see myself doing anything else, it’s terrible. Let me ask you this. What’s your hobby apart from cooking? Nothing. I’ll let you finish.
That day, Blanche rehearses on a restaurant classic invented by Dad. The frog legs with garlic purée and parsley juice, one of the most emblematic dishes of this cuisine. It’s Mr. Loiseau’s signature dish. We say it like that now, but it’s the totem. It’s a three-star gastronomic dish.
Lost in this Morvan town of three thousand inhabitants, Saulieu, is a top-of-the-range restaurant, the Côte d’Or and a five-star hotel, created in 1975 by an icon of French gastronomy, Bernard Loiseau. A media star and defender of local produce, he had only one obsession in life: to earn three stars in the Michelin Guide.
Mission accomplished in nineteen hundred and ninety-one. I lived above, in a little pad, with a wardrobe and a sink. Just that. And every morning, I get up, I put on my socks. And then I said, I’ll be the best, I’ll be
The best, I’ll be the best, I’ll be the best. And I applied that to my whole team. And then for twenty years, I put that into practice. I had just one goal at the end of the day, three Michelin stars, that’s all. And all the stuff, I
Was chopping away, everywhere, get out of the way, get out of the way, three Michelin stars. And I got three Michelin stars, that’s all. The story came to an abrupt end on the twenty-fourth of February two thousand and three. Depressed and bipolar, Bernard Loiseau took his own life.
His wife, Dominique, decided to continue the business. His two daughters, Blanche and Bérangère, filmed here in one thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine, decided to take over, twenty years later. Inherited cooking: a blessing or a burden? Gentlemen? Well, that’s it! Finally, the mirror. So, how does it look?
Bérangère, thirty-two, is the eldest daughter. She’s never in the kitchen; she’s the head housekeeper. With her, no customer can be disappointed by their five-star experience. So wait, don’t move, because the lady will be sitting right here. And so, how We can lower it a little, if you like.
Well, I guess we’ll have to, because… The hands are… Because now, Madame, she has to get up. Okay, light is good. It’s a good size. I’m fine with it. Oh boy, we’ve been waiting for this one. There’s a bit of blue sky here, it’s nice.
After a career in advertising and finance, in New York and Asia, Things are clearing up. Bérangère returns to the family cocoon, after the confinement. With many renovation projects in mind. It was she who put her personal touch to this Japanese-style suite, priced at
Seven hundred and fifty euros a night. The old room had remained in its original state since Bernard Loiseau’s death. We really created this little nest, a bird’s nest, with cane and oak, always the markers, after all, of both the countryside and Burgundy. And it’s true that
Once you’re inside, you’re carried away. It’s as if you’re taking off into the clouds, and then it’s gone. Bérangère grew up in this house. At the age of two, her father put her on the pass, in the kitchen, amidst customer order forms. Give Daddy a kiss, Bérangère.
Orphaned at the age of thirteen, she still lives with the ghost of her famous father. I found some pretty good stuff, though. Yeah, that’s pretty original, though. Her role today is to maintain the myth. She’s preparing a tribute exhibition, twenty years after his death. He was nothing.
This is him as a young man. This is beautiful. And this one with Alain Delon. Not bad, though. Ah well, it’s perfect. Berangère, what did you inherit from him? A bit of a punch, don’t you think? Well, yeah, that zest for life that he had on
A daily basis, that’s what he fed us. On the rare occasions when he took me to school, he’d put me down on the doorstep and say, “Bérangère, be careful, it’s three stars at school. Three stars. Yes, yes, yes, yes. That was the front page of Paris Match, the day after the tragedy.
It’s quite a responsibility, because I couldn’t bear not to live up to everything my parents have built up, because they’ve given their whole lives so that this house could develop, this transmission could take place, this whole heritage could be there. So if, because of me, things don’t go on, or don’t go
On as well, I’ll never get over it. Bérangère has become vice-president of the family group. She manages one hundred and twenty employees, two hotels and four restaurants. Yes, I asked for a Diet Coke. But the president is still Dominique Loiseau, sixty-nine years old, Bernard’s widow. Thank you very much.
You can turn it around. There, you can see the earth. If you turn it a little, you’ll see. No, the other way around. Turn it again. And there, at ten centimetres. Ten centimetres counter-clockwise. There we are. Perfect. Perfect. That’s it. That’s it. Very nice. It’s the eye of the house.
So, we’re still waiting for our bulbs. A queen mother who’s a little reluctant to leave the regency. Excuse me, I’m pulling weeds here. Dominique started out as a nutrition teacher, then became a journalist for a professional hotel magazine. In mid-nineteen-forty-six, she met Bernard in Vichy. He was already a young Michelin-starred chef.
This Alsatian says she was enchanted by his warm voice. After her husband’s suicide, it was she who took up the torch. In the trade, I was given six months. They said, in six months, it’s closed. For me, that was
Dramatic, because I didn’t want it to be over. So I said to myself, now we’re going to have to go. When you fall into a body of water, you also have a hell of a lot of strength to fight back and keep your head above water. Yes, that’s a survival reflex.
Today, it’s not difficult to work with your two daughters. I watch them. The day something goes wrong, I’ll tell them. But for the time being, they’re doing well. Really, really well. You can tell they’ve both had a good education. I do get some good ones sometimes, though.
Oh, yes, let’s say that I’m… Let’s just say I’m very, very attentive to aesthetics, in every sense of the word. It was a customer who said to me, ah, you’re a PA like me. Well, PA, I didn’t know what that meant. I thought it was a
Verb. Anyway. And then he said, PA, pain in the ass. Which means we’re perfectionists. We don’t let things get out of hand. But it was a hard blow for Madame PA. The loss of the third star in two thousand and sixteen, thirteen years after the death of Bernard Loiseau.
We’re taking in the beautiful truffle here, because the piece is useless. His second-in-command at the time, Patrick Bertron, now head chef for twenty years, set out to win back the precious macaroon. Ok, so Louis-Philippe, here we have the… the soup Did you see the… We reloaded with oysters, like we said? Yes.
Ah well, that’s it then. It’s the oyster that does it. With his thirty-six year old assistant, Louis-Philippe Vigilant, they want to surprise. All the while respecting the golden rule of the great chef. Never more than three outstanding products on the plate. As with these lobsters, accompanied by a nettle soup sprinkled with oysters.
First to finish wins. Ah well, you’ll have won first, Chef. This dish, inspired by an old Bernard Loiseau recipe, but dusted off, will be on the next menu. The price: ninety euros. That was in the mid-nineties. This is today. Now,
Now, that’s simplistic. I’m never going to say to myself, I’m going to go on that plate. But right now, I feel like, as they say, tapping into it. You don’t have to worry about communicating it on social networks. Now I’m not sure. It’s like comparing the game of Pelé and d’Mbappé today.
Pele in his day was a living god and now Mbappé in his day is the same. Nostalgic people will say that Pele was there and a young person today will watch Pele play, they’ll say that’s what soccer was all about and they’ll prefer Mbappé. It’s all the same.
Today, two-thirds of our customers choose our modern recipes. Like this roast venison fillet with pepper sauce, served with stuffed cabbage. Here we are. That’s what this family from Reims is going to taste as they took the 210-euro délice menu. Excellent. Nothing to say. It’s all there. It’s all there on the plate.
What could have disappointed you? Maybe the kitchen had stayed the way it was, or maybe it’s living off the character’s notoriety. And actually, no, it’s really very, very well done. Despite its efforts to modernize the menu, the restaurant has lost customers. Sixty percent less revenue because of Covid.
Today, the group, listed on the stock exchange, has sales of ten million euros. To get back on track, Bérangère approached tour operators and luxury hotels abroad. She learned Japanese at business school That’s what we do. and is also banking on South American clientele.
Well, there you go, boom, ten thirty-five, it’s time. And then, boom, reservation, Flavia Ribeiro. This is a group for a car brand. Latin America section. And boom, they take a dinner, a whole table. How many people? Thirty-two people. Where do they come from?
Here we are. There, near São Paulo… So that’s because I went there at the end of last year, to Brazil, where I stayed for two days, meeting numerous travel agencies. You have to go there, in fact, because if you don’t, they forget about
You very quickly. We explain the house, what it is, the Burgundian charm, everything we can offer their customers. And just because your name is Loiseau doesn’t mean you’re going to sit quietly behind the counter and wait for things to happen. Like her mother, Bérangère is hyperactive. Married to a real estate
Administrator, she runs a small business with four children. You have to sort them, the little cards and the big cards. And when you’re done, you call me. So, what’s left to do? Five hundred and seventy-seven and six hundred and twenty. The third generation didn’t know the charismatic grandfather.
Come on, let’s do history and geography. But Bérangère could well see them taking up the torch one day. Which is it? What was Grandpa Bernard up to? He cooked. In the world championship. Three stars, three stars. Yes, of course, they know it. It’s omnipresent in our lives, in our professions.
Aren’t you afraid of sacrificing your children a little too much, like your father once did, giving everything to his job? Er… Dad really had an obsession with three stars. It’s not mine. On the other hand, yes, it’s obvious that I want to keep my parents’ work going.
But no, I try to preserve as much time as possible between us. I always do the homework, that’s something I’ll never give up. Do you see her often enough, often enough, Mom? Or would you like to see her more? Every day, but not every day. Quoi ? Pas tous. Because sometimes she goes…
When abroad? When I’m abroad? Well yes, I’m going away for a bit longer. We don’t live very far from the hotel, so that helps too. While she waits to take over Dad’s gourmet kitchens, Blanche, the younger sister, tries to find her place.
Hello Solane, how are you? Very well, and you? Pleased to meet you. So, it’s a bit of a work in progress, but at least you’ve got an idea of the place. She’s recruiting for this new restaurant which will open in Besançon end of April.
So, you can already see the beautiful façade of the conservatory, a listed building. A chic bistro for which she will be head chef. The Loiseau family has bought the premises, and the total investment, including work, is one and a half million euros. There’ll be an entrance to the kitchen, sanitary facilities, cloakroom, the
Whole dining room, and beautiful sits along the walls. You’re welcome. It’s a bit of a system D. That’s a bit of my background. This twenty-two-year-old candidate has two years’ experience in a brasserie. She’s applying for a position as half-chef de rang and can expect a minimum of eighteen hundred euros net per month.
Yes, not keep it. The name impresses me because I know it’s a big house, very prestigious. I think I’m up to the challenge. We give people pleasure, we sell them food, we sell them a moment where they come, they relax, they have a good time, they drink a good barrel of wine.
Blanche is trying to make a name for herself, but it’s her name she’s hiring under. Against a backdrop of labor shortages in the restaurant industry, she’s overwhelmed by the demand. In Besançon, we received a lot of unsolicited CVs. We were very surprised. At
Least, I think, around thirty CVs. In our case, I think the name attracts. There’s a real demand for this restaurant. Every week, we get e-mails from people in Besançon saying, we’re waiting for you, we can’t wait, when are you going to open? We’ve got a pretty impressive response, and it’s a real pleasure.
All that remains is to create the menu. It’s all done at the parent company. For the first time in her young career, Blanche is going to have to create an entire restaurant menu all by herself. It’s a little book of mine in which I’ve drawn little pictures. For example,
There’s one dish I really like, and that’s the croûte. La croûte franc comtoise is a heated slice of bread gratin style. It’s also a delicious product like the Jura trout. It can be cooked, raw, gravlaxed or smoked. It’s full of question marks, doodles and ideas.
But she also relies on her father, drawing on his old recipes to revisit them. Here I am, always eating. On this particular day, she’s testing Les crapiaux du Morvan, potato pancakes that Bernard Loiseau used to offer on his menu in the nineties.
And for us, these are the dishes we grew up with. It’s the memories of grandma, the memories of childhood dishes, the smells, the tastes. Normally, it’s just parsley. But I like to add chives and chervil. You can use a variety of aromatic herbs. He adapted it by adding grated gruyère
Which I don’t use because I like it quite plain. And I serve it, for example, with a boeuf bourguignon. Of course, I’d like him to be there to guide me, to say, here, think about this, do this and that. It must be great. I hear him, fuck, taste this. Incredible, go
On, what’s-his-name. Three thousand miles an hour, of course. After that, that’s life. At some point, that’s life. And then we’re here and we move forward and we go for it. There’s one lesson I learned from my mother, and that’s this. One day,
On the twenty-fourth of February in two thousand and three, she found herself faced with two doors: option A, option B. She took option A and decided to go for it. And, like him, she smashed everything to bits with an axe. And it’s thanks to her that we’re where we are today.
It’s nice when it’s curved too. It’s nice. Here, it’s got to bake in anyway. It’s good, it’s an excellent purée. Blanche is trying to be independent, but for the time being, it’s hard to ignore Mom’s opinion. How can you put a little Franc-Contoise twist on it? Comté cheese? Have you tried it? No.
Crapiaux du Morvan. Let’s see. Back to work. Thank you for this. It’s a modest recipe, but good. It’s good. It’s good. The terroir. What if she hadn’t wanted to? To take over? I don’t know what I would have done, but it wouldn’t have occurred to me to
Sell, sir. Absolutely not. It’s out of the question. You’re happy to have them both there. This is a blessing for me. A blessing. A week later, at the Cité internationale de la gastronomie et du vin in Dijon, the 3 Charlie’s angels organized the eighth Bernard Loiseau culinary trophy.
The competition has attracted media attention from all over the world. The jury is made up of starred “meilleurs ouvriers de France”. Among the candidates are commis chefs and second chefs, for whom Bernard Loiseau remains a source of inspiration.
We see lots of videos of him, and there’s a phrase that always appealed to me: give pleasure to others, and you’ll double your happiness. The candidates have four hours to prepare two of the great chef’s legendary dishes. The famous frog legs and the Bresse chick, truffled and stuffed. It’s a lovely dish,
A great success. Thank you all for your passion for this trophy. Dominique knows that one day she will have to leave the stage, but she hasn’t yet set a date when Bérangère will succeed her as president. As for Blanche, she’ll have to learn the ropes, alone, at the helm of her restaurant,
Before dreaming of the stars.