La Marine

“In Tokyo, I met chef Tori Okuda, who taught me fish. I spent fifteen days in Ginza with him learning to kill fish ‘ike time,’ a technique that consists of paralyzing the fish to preserve the quality of its flesh. We’re not attracted by a single type of fish, but rather by the best quality of the daily catch. For us, a mackerel of exceptional quality is as appealing as turbot or sea bass, which are much more expensive.”

Erika oyster poached in squid bouillon and served with a black squid’s ink marinade (a wry reference to the local environmental disaster that occurred when the Erika, a petroleum tanker, sank in 1999 and slicked the coast with heavy crude) and dried ribbons of lardo di Colonnata; lobster with carrots and nasturtium flower coulis; duck with beets, Swiss chard, and watercress.

In his minimalist restaurant overlooking the port of the Noirmoutier-en-l'Île, an island off of France’s Vendee region, Alexandre Couillon has won an international reputation for the freshness and incisive natural flavours of his personal and deeply meditated seafood cookery. Bouillon also cooks with the over 200 different varieties of herbs and vegetables from his garden and honey from his five beehives.

“Everything is so inventive and seems so easy that it is not possible not to give five toques to this chef to end this exceptional year.”

Gault & Millau