The gaze is intense, the stature high, the verb calm. Charles Coulombeau leads his brigade with kindness and firmness. He controls everything, he corrects, he advises. No plate reaches the room without its approval. This omnipresence is reassuring. His sense of detail, his precision both in flavors and in gestures, are guarantees. The reality of the dishes goes beyond the idea that one can get from reading the title. Entering “La Maison dans le Parc” means entering the world of a chef who combines enthusiasm, inventiveness and culinary culture. A big moment !
Nonchalantly enthroned on a high table in the entrance of the restaurant, the international Taittinger Prize trophy is almost anonymous. However, he rewarded the creativity of Charles Coulombeau. The cook, now from Nancy, won it under the colors of… Great Britain! His journey across the Channel led him to assert his style. With, like a mise en abyme, a foray into Japan which turned out to be a form of founding act.
Originally from Évreux (27), his parents drove him to the Landes. This is what allowed him to start at Magescq (40), at Jean Coussau , then go to Bidart (64), at the Ibarboure brothers, where he learned about Basque cuisine and met Roxane, his wife. After having been chef de partie at Michel Guérard in Eugénie-les-Bains then at Lameloise in Chagny (71), he joined the Gravetye Manor hotel & restaurant where he was sous chef for a year and a half then chef for two years. During a phase of work in this Relais & Châteaux, he had the opportunity to spend a few months in Japan in Beniya Mukayu, à Kaga , Ishikawa Prefecture.
He liked the state of mind, the respect for people and products. He learned traditional techniques which he uses in the restaurant in Nancy. Not to give in to a fad, but because it makes sense. He receives the live fish and kills them with the ” tegaki », Which triggers instant death and thus prevents the spread of blood in the flesh. This allows the fish to mature. “It takes longer and it’s more complicated for transport, but it really adds something to the flavor and it’s exclusive,” says Charles Coulombeau. “The fish farmer was kind enough to play the game.”
However, in this culinary syncretism, it is the French cuisine that is at the center of the proposal. The chef claims his love of French cuisine even though he modernizes the classics. We can thus enjoy a remarkable white elderberry butter accompanying an astonishing rolled omelet filled with crab meat, with a julienne of snow peas, trout eggs and lemon zist purée. This type of omelet is the traditional Japanese “tamagoyaki”, but everything else is quintessentially French. It’s iodized, salty, tangy, vegetal, light: a perfectly successful marriage between two worlds and two eras.
Charles Coulombeau took possession of La Maison dans le Parc, starred in its time with Françoise Mutel, just before the second confinement. With this painful constraint, he stood a chance. He was able to take the time to meet the producers and find exactly what he wants. He has established relationships of trust with the lamb farmer as well as with the market gardener. And respect. “I asked the Ferme de la Grande Haye to provide me with more lambs. In the restaurant all we needed was the chops and saddles, so so that the breeder didn’t end up with everything else on their hands, I modified the dish to add other parts. “
The cook takes his vegetables to the organic farm of Pichou in Amance. “The exchange is permanent. The market gardener tells me what will be available and I compose my card accordingly. He even offered to plant what I might like by bringing me a book of vegetable seeds for me to choose! This relationship has already given some anthology dishes. Celeriac is presented in 14 variations! Everything is used, the flesh, the skin, the tops. The plate offers a ravioli, a sorbet, condiments, a smoked dashi broth, a tuile, spères, coulis… With simply the addition of a pastoral cheese and cardamom. Zero waste guaranteed!
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The card reserves a space where the producers, suppliers and all the staff are mentioned, including the six collaborators who followed Roxane and Charles in the Nancy adventure. Humanism is also an essential ingredient of this restaurant with a bright future.
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