Chef Franck Cerutti – And His Own Interpretation of the Mediterranean Cuisine

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Chef Frank Cerutti has been with the great French chef, Chef Alain Ducasse, for over a decade now.  He is the head chef of Chef Ducasse’s Le Louis XV in Monte Carlo, France, and under the skilled leadership and culinary talent of Le Louis XV’s head chef, it has earned the praises of its diners.  Right now, the restaurant is considered as the 98th best restaurant in the world, as named by the San Pellegrino Guide.

Chef Cerutti was born in Nice, and he grew up in this countryside region of France.  He has always had respected the land and its bountiful produce, and so he originally wanted to become a farmer.  However, his family was against this career choice.  Life decisions and the disagreements that he received from his family soon took him to a different path, and he ended up deciding to become a chef – a career choice that has deep associations with his unfulfilled dream.  Little did he know when he first embarked on the journey towards becoming a chef that his decision would bring him great blessings.

Chef Cerutti enrolled at one of the hotel management schools in the area, and after he graduated, he went to work at some of the best hotel/restaurants in the country.  However, working for large hotels bored him that he soon looked for another job.  His lucky break came when Chef Jacques Maximin granted him an interview.  Chef Maximim has just recently taken over the kitchens of the famous Chantecler, a restaurant located in the illustrious Negresco Hotel.  Although he was working yet again at a hotel restaurant, the atmosphere was far more different.  The fine-dining ambiance appealed to his nature, and the exquisite cooking techniques used in the kitchens fascinated him.  Chef Cerutti stayed three years with Chef Maximin and soaked up everything he could learn from the chef.

After his stay at the Negresco Hotel, he then found work in the kitchens of another great chef, Chef Alain Ducasse.  He worked as a sous chef of Chef Ducasse at his restaurant in Juan-Les-Pins, the Terrasse du Juana.  However, in 1982, he went back to Chef Maximin and stayed at the restaurant for two years before embarking on another journey.  His journey took him to Florence where he had the opportunity to reacquaint himself with the Mediterranean cuisine.

It was during this time that he opened his own restaurant, Don Camillo, in Nice and began offering his own take on the Mediterranean cuisine.  He took his inspiration for his cuisine from the wonderful dishes that his great-grandmother cooked for him when he was but a small child.  His restaurant soon became a very successful and very popular dining hotspot in the area.

In 1996, Chef Ducasse called him and offered him a job that he found very appealing, so he packed up his bags and flew to Paris where he was to become the head chef of Le Louis XV in Monaco.  His own interpretation of the Mediterranean cuisine gave the restaurant much success that, in time, it earned three Michelin stars and other illustrious awards

Chef Franck Cerutti White Prawns and Pan-Fried Vegetables with Pink Sauce

Ingredients:

White prawns:

• 20 white prawns

Vegetables:

• 2 medium sized carrots
• 1 fennel bulb
• 1 lemon
• 3 green asparagus spears
• 2 red onions
• 4 white pearl onions
• 1 stalk of rhubarb
• 80 g of shelled brad beans
• 4 preserved tomatoes
• 1 sucrine lettuce
• 3 cl chicken stock

The pink sauce:

• 10 cl pink sauce
• olive oilsalt and pepper

Directions:

Preparing the white prawns:

1. Remove the tails, keeping the heads and leaving the very end of the shell on the tail. Set aside in a cool place.

Preparing the vegetables:

1. Peel the carrots and cut each into four quarters. Peel the fennel. Wash and trim the courgettes. Trim the asparagus into 5 cm lengths. Peel, rinse and dry them. Peel the red onions and the rhubarb.
2. Use a mandoline to produce 1.5 cm thick slices of all these vegetables.
3. Clean the pearl onions by removing their first skin. Cut into 1 mm thick rounds. Cut each preserved tomato in three.
4. Remove the large leaves from the sucrine lettuce. Cut the lettuce heart into 5 mm thick slices. Set all these vegetables aside.

Cooking the white prawns:

1. Heat a drizzle of olive oil in a pan. Sear the white prawns in each side, lightly browning them. Cook for 6 to 8 minutes according to size. Drain on a rack and keep warm.

Cooking the vegetables:

1. Heat a drizzle of olive oil in a sauté pan. Add the carrots and allow to sweat for 1 minute before adding the chicken stock. Cover and cook for 3 minutes.
2. Add the fennel. Cook for 1 minute.
3. Add the onions and the asparagus. Cook for a further minute.
4. Add the pearl onions, the courgettes and the rhubarb. Cover and leave for 1 minute on the edge of the stove. If necessary, add a tiny drop of chicken stock to the vegetables while they are cooking.
5. Remove the cover and add the rocket leaves and the little broad beans. All the vegetables must be crunchy. Check for seasoning.
6. Add the preserved tomato sections. Mix carefully.

Finishing and plating up: Season the slices of sucrine lettuce with a little olive oil, lemon juice and salt. Arrange on a plate. Place the white prawns on top of the lettuce. Garnish with the vegetables. Add a few large drops of pink sauce.

Image Credit: alain-ducasse.com

entrechefs.co.uk

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