Chef Phillippe Rochat and His L’Hotel de Ville

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Often, you will find restaurateurs and chefs boasting that they only use the best, freshest ingredients. Of course, all chefs do. After all, the quality of your food all boils down to what ingredients you used in the first place. You have often heard of chefs scouring for the best and unique ingredients; however, when it comes to really looking for the finest ingredients, no one will likely beat Chef Philippe Rochat and his customers of L’Hôtel de Ville Restaurant are certainly enjoying his efforts. This is actually a cooking principle that was passed on to chef Rochat by Fredy Girardet, his mentor.

Chef Rochat’s Cooking

As a chef, Chef Rochat believes that every dish needs to have three flavors – no more and no less. He ensures that he chooses unique ingredients and combinations that will ensure that his three chosen flavors will come out. He chooses ingredients for his recipes that will ensure the intensity of mixtures and flavors. He is a perfectionist when it comes to his cooking. He is literally a hands-on chef. Everyday, he will go to L’Hotel de Ville restaurant’s kitchen to personally and meticulously oversee every dish that goes out of the kitchen.

Following Footsteps and Finally Making His Own

Before he finally took the reins, he dutifully followed Fredy Girardet, quietly helping the latter prepare French dishes one after another. He credits his skills and knowledge to those years of learning from the grand patriarch of French cuisine. When he finally took over, he knew what he was going to do. He was masterful in his decisions and he took culinary risks. He enlivened the already popular menu with his creations and innovative recipes. He was generally compelled to create innovative cuisines. If there is one word that will describe chef Phillipe Rochat’s cooking that would be purity. He possesses the innate ability to create pure flavors and he has the ability to choose the purest products. Indeed, any artificial flavorings or preservatives are absolutely banned from his kitchen.

Day after day, Chef Rochat prepares succulent meals for every table of L’Hotel de Ville Restaurant. Not surprisingly, this restaurnat is one of the most popular ones in the region. In fact, this has grabbed the 16^th spot in El Pellegrino’s World’s 50 Best Restaurants. Often, patrons may have to make dinner reservations months in advance just to secure a table in this restaurant. A good dinner will consist of various gustatory delights like crawfish in caviar butter, glazed sweetbreads with wild mushrooms, preserved duckling in various spices.

In these times when people are tightening their belts, a dinner at a 3-Michelin star restaurant may seem excessive, but chef Rochat’s dishes are definitely worth every penny.

Chef Phillippe Rochat’s Etuvée of Cultivated Mussels with Onion Recipe

Total time: 30 to 60 minutes

Preparation time: A few minutes

Cooking time: Under 30 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

Ingredients for 4 servings

- 2 liters (8 cups) cultivated Mussels, scrubbed and well washed

- 3 small new Onions, thinly sliced

- 1 sprig of thyme

- 20 g (2/3 oz.) chopped lovage

- 20 g (2/3 oz.) flat leaf parsley, chopped

- 200 ml (3/4 cup) dry white wine

- 200 g (7 oz.) butter

Method

1. In a large pot, sweat the new onions in 50 g (3 tbsp.) butter, add the cultivated mussels and the thyme branch and combine; add the dry white wine. Cook covered, stirring often until the mussels open.

2. Drain the mussels, reserving the cooking liquid as well as the new onions.

3. Remove half of each mussel shell and place the half containing the mussel on a large plate, forming several concentric circles. Place on the oven door to keep warm.

4. Pour the mussel liquid with the onions into a saucepan, remove the thyme branch, and incorporate the remaining butter a little at a time, whisking constantly over low heat. Add the chopped herbs.

5. Pour the sauce over the mussels, add a grinding of fresh pepper and serve immediately.

Portrait Credit: World’s 50 Best

Recipe via The World Wide Gourmet

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