A table to discover on the edge of Hyères, sea side: Alain Angenost, our correspondent on the Côte d’Azur, always on the lookout for novelty, tells us everything…
Young innkeeper of twenty-six springs, Tom Cariano is a fighter and a cook full of the future. It was in England that he began to dabble in all the catering professions while perfecting his English. He continued his career with three years of culinary studies in Switzerland. On his return to his native Var, this Hyérois, who did not forget his roots, joined the kitchens of the Abbey of La Celle with Benoit Witz, then Nicolas Pierantoni. He then left for the USA for the Auberge du Soleil, Relais & Château in the Napa Valley created by the Provençal Claude Rouas. Arrived as a demi-chef de partie, in one year, he ended up training new recruits there.
It was in Solliès-Ville that he opened his first restaurant. With a small team, he puts into practice everything he has learned, putting his paw there. After a year and a half of operation, when he would have liked to find a business by the sea with a terrace, a new project came to grant his wishes, with the takeover last February of the Hôtel de la Mer, a 12-room hotel with snacks, very quiet, a stone’s throw from the Ayguade beach in Hyères. After three months of intense work in the restoration part by remodeling the spaces, new room with bar, lobster aquarium and large bay windows.
With a beautiful terrace opening onto the seaside vegetation, he has made it a gourmet, friendly and relaxed table confirmed by intensive word-of-mouth. Tom Cariano cooks only from local producers and local fishermen that he highlights on his menu. His cooking, sticking to the seasons, is clear and precise. On his menu, roasted “Butter Boy” squash, aestivum truffle, candied onions and hazelnuts, sit alongside pan-fried foie gras and Solliès fig jam with rosemary, black garlic vinegar and brioche, catch of the day, sea bream pink “beautiful eyes” with its variation of parsnips, orange and saffron cream from Hyères or poultry with Atlantic lobster to which he has dedicated a tasty menu.
On the dessert side, figs from Solliès and melon from neighboring market gardeners, shortbread and vanilla whipped cream are a fitting finish. In the near future, renovation efforts will focus on the hotel part and its twelve rooms with private terrace and sea view. So don’t hesitate, a stone’s throw from the blue waves facing the Levant, Porquerolles and Port islands -Cros, you will be conquered by his cooking and his kindness, just like that of a staff on the lookout.