Christopher Coutanceau: everything on his sea

La Rochelle's flagship table, doubly starred for thirty-two years, Christopher Coutanceau's restaurant has set itself the defense of a sustainable artisbad fishery. Diving into the world of "cook fisherman".
  

Equally at home with the goal of a fish out of the water, Christopher Coutanceau stays away from sonars, foodies and the media trap. Barely seen on TV this blue-eyed fellow in an episode of Top Chef where dragged his boyfriend Etchebest. To the candidates, he submitted beautiful live langoustines. "Not a single one has been able to clean them up raw, a mbadacre," he rages again.

In this restaurant, which used to be his father's, everything brings him back to the sea. "At the age of 3, I was already going to the auction before school. he recalls. His childhood is also the grandfather André who transmits him the love of fishing. In the beautiful book he published in April *, he tells of impressive catch shrimp bouquets or his first lean of 5 pounds he comes out of the water at 7 years. "My playground was the sea," he says.

Yet it is towards another field that he evolves during adolescence. Unlike his older brother Grégory, who likes to cram, Christopher is the stirring kind. And he teases the ball as much as the fish. Spotted by breeders, he goes to a training center, while his brother commits to medical studies. Both will be overtaken by the kitchen. Drowned too young in the mbad of cadets, Christopher gives up football and enrolls at the hotel school of La Rochelle, without notifying his parents.

"I saw in the kitchen above all a team spirit, like in sport," he explains. The father bows. Richard Coutanceau, after having made a name for himself at the Hotel de France and in England, bought in 1984 an old pergola with a breathtaking view of the bay. Two years later, he won two stars. Christopher feels the job, chaining the seasons from the age of 12 years. But he moved away from La Rochelle to complete his training with Michel Guérard, Ferran Adrià, Guy Martin or Joel Robuchon.

Back in the "white city" at 22, he opened a restaurant with his brother. Three years later, his father calls him by his side. If Grégory has the business bump (he is now the head of two restaurants, a cooking school and a catering service), Christopher is a talented and sensitive cook alongside his father, who broke ground in 2007.

Telling the story

Completely renovated last year, the liner-like establishment is an open door to the ocean. Abyssal blue carpet with volutes on the ceiling reminiscent of a nautical chart, delicate nacreous crockery with a butter knife shaped by Farol's La Rochelle cutler on the model of the rigger of the fishermen-sailors, everything has been fine-tuned. Through the bay windows offers the view of the beach of the Competition, sublime at any time.

While a fleet of 17 cooks is operating in the kitchen, Nicolas Brossard watches over the room and the cellar, one of the most beautiful in France with its 22,000 bottles. This former chief sommelier of Louis XV, in Monaco, with the civilized look, shares with Christopher Coutanceau the taste of performance and perfection. It is to these two different but complementary men that Richard Coutanceau has entrusted the ship in an equal partnership.

The establishment, a member of Relais & Châteaux and Grandes Tables du Monde, has a cruising pace of 80 covers a day, all year round. The map is logically the focus of the fish. "My garden is the sea. The story is told," says the chef. Without fuss, just like one of his signature dishes, the sardine from head to tail. A dish zero waste: the fillets are marinated, the head and the top of the edge perfume a broth, the tail is fried, the whole is accompanied by a puffi ice cream (smoked herring). Nose to those who only imagine bar or turbot in a two Michelin macaroons.

The star of the house is the langoustine in two services. In Tartarus, sublime delicacy; then roasted back side, just pearly. "We eat lobster, what!" Summed up the cook laconically.This living langoustine of the Cotinière, only I can have that. A treasure among the profusion of species that shelters the coasts of Charente-Maritime, unknown to the Rochelais themselves, and that ardently defends Christopher Coutanceau, one of the few leaders to survey the auction early in the morning.

Beautiful catch

This discerning fisherman preaches a traditional, seasonal and sustainable fishery. "At the age of 10, I surfed when I saw the bars hunt in the reels, they lost 3 kilos in five years," he protested, "mobilized against the electric fishing industry, he fights alongside badociations for the defense of fauna and marine flora for biological rest and respect of the size of capture.

Between two trips off, the "cook fisherman" has mounted a new project.In early summer opened the Yole de Chris, annex of the gourmet restaurant where it offers seafood and fish in their simplest form, just past the wood fire or the plancha. "A place to let go a little," said the chef, who is promised a third star. It would surely be his best catch.

The restaurant Christopher Coutanceau in 5 da you

1978: birth of Christopher Coutanceau in La Rochelle.

1984: Richard and Maryse Coutanceau settle in front of the beach of the Competition.

2007: purchase of the restaurant by Christopher Coutanceau and Nicolas Brossard.

2017: the restaurant is entirely redecorated in tribute to the ocean.

2018: Opening of the Yole of Chris.

The note of L'Express: 4/4.

Restaurant Christopher Coutanceau, Beach of Competition, La Rochelle (Charente-Maritime), 05-46-41-48-19. Menus: 70 and 145 €. Card: 175 €. Closed Sunday and Monday.

The Yole of Chris, Beach of Competition, La Rochelle (Charente-Maritime), 05-46-41-41-88. Dish: 18-25 €. Open every day from 11h to 22h.

* Christopher Coutanceau, cook-fisherman, ed. Glénat.