Déborah Georges & Marc Payeur with Gwladys Grosso, owner & team ©YesICannes.com
Les Chefs au Sommet d’Auron welcomed Déborah Georges, chef of l’Auberge Lo Robur in Roure and pastry chef Marc Payeur in Cannes for a high gastronomy dinner at the Régalivou in Saint Étienne de Tinée.
From 18 to 24 January 2020, Les Chefs au Sommet d’Auron – 9th edition – offered memorable gastronomic experiences to tourists and locals alike. Every evening, in addition to the chefs’ cooking shows at the ice rink, renowned chefs officiate in the restaurants of the Haute Tinée resort and offer sumptuous gastronomic dinners at a unique and privileged price of 45€ per person. The Cheffe Déborah Georges from Lo Robur Inn in Roure and pastry chef Marc Payeur, consultant, have delighted the fine gourmets’ taste buds at Le Régalivou restaurant in Saint Étienne de Tinée.
Auron ©YesICannes.com
High gastronomy at the foot of the trails
For the past nine years, the Mountain Gastronomy Festival has been bringing together many great chefs and talented pastry chefs from the French Riviera who share at the foot of the slopes an authentic moment of culinary pleasures and conviviality in the heart of the sumptuous mountains of the Mercantour. During the Festival, great names from the culinary world perform real gastronomic feats every evening by creating four-handed dinners on previously unknown “pianos”. On Wednesday, January 22, Déborah Georges and Marc Payeur transposed Lo Robur‘s delicious culinary experiences into the warm, wooded, mountain chalet setting of Le Régalivou restaurant.
Déborah Georges ©YesICannes.com
Déborah Georges, love of local produce
Déborah Georges has chosen a meaningful life in a beautiful and peaceful location, the Auberge Lo Robur in the charming village of Roure. In her kitchen, which opens onto a superb panoramic and deep view of the Tinée valley, Déborah lovingly sublimates local produce into delights to be enjoyed in the soothing and enchanting setting of the mountainous landscapes of the Mercantour. In a warm and friendly atmosphere, the cheffe offers gourmets the local, organic and fresh products, sublimated with brio. Passionate about cooking, Déborah has followed a path rich in beautiful starred addresses: La Chèvre d’Or in Eze, L’Hotel du Cap Eden Roc in Antibes, La Folie Douce in Val d’Isère. Déborah is a member of the Toques Brûlées, a group of talented and generous chefs, led by David and Noëlle Faure, who each year provide an amazing barbecue at Les Chefs au Sommet d’Auron.
Marc Payeur ©YesICannes.com
Marc Payeur, a modern vision of traditional desserts
After a C.A.P. as a pastry chef, chocolate maker, confectioner, ice-cream maker, Marc Payeur perfected his talents in major establishments: L’Hôtel de Paris Monte-Carlo with Pastry Chef Pierre Foucher, L’Hostellerie de l’Abbaye de La Celle with Benoît Witz, then he worked at Fauchon in Paris with Christophe Adam before joining Le Plaza Athénée in Paris with Pastry Chef Christophe Michalak. Back on the French Riviera in 2010, Marc works as Pastry Chef at the starred restaurant Lou Fassum in Plascassier before assisting Pastry Chef Patrick Mesiano at the Hotel Métropole Monte-Carlo in Monaco in 2011 alongside Joël Rebuchon. He then worked in two prestigious establishments on the Côte d’Azur, Le Royal-Riviera, a 5-star hotel in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat with Marcel Ravin, and the Blue Bay, a starred restaurant at the Monte Carlo Bay. Marc Payeur likes to share with gourmets his modern vision of traditional desserts, without colouring agents, evolving with the seasons.
©YesICannes.com
Flavours from the mountains
Behind each ingredient, farm or local product, resounds a name or a place with an authentic and poetic echo: Ferme de Lavancia, Bergerie de la Belloire, Ferme du Poussinet, Saint Blaise’s vegetable garden… The fresh and seasonal products cooked by Déborah have the accent of the Provencal mountain terroir and are honoured every day in beautiful and generous plates in the gastronomic restaurant Lo Robur. At Les Chefs au Sommet d’Auron, Déborah has marvellously staged the locavore advocated by the Mountain Gastronomy Festival, highlighting the true taste of the raw materials produced by farmers and breeders passionate about their craft and their land. Marc Payeur’s geometrically beautiful dessert delighted both the gourmets’s pupils and taste buds.
©YesICannes.com
The chefs’ menu (photos YesICannes.com)
Amuse bouche: Rye bread toast with salted butter and truffle, fresh truffle shavings and lamb’s lettuce with lime and lemon vinaigrette. The mountain terroir is at its best with the delicate taste of the rye bread and the scent of truffle that bewitches the senses and the palate. The freshness of the lamb’s lettuce and the slight sunny acidity of the lime and lemon combination are a beautiful introduction to this king’s meal.
Entrée: Snail soup with pancetta, Gourmet garnish on a shortbread made with spelt flour, Emulsion of fresh sheep’s milk cheese from the Bergerie de la Belloire. This deliciously gourmet soup accompanied by tasty and crispy pancetta (from the Auberge de Roubion), combined with the fruity freshness of fresh ewe’s milk cheese on its soft and deep-flavoured shortbread, sings an ode to well-eating, sublimated by the land and the exceptional products from the Mercantour Massif.
Dish: Lamb in all its forms from the Bergerie de la Belloire, Poupeton of Shoulder Moorish style, Saddle in nettle crust, thyme and hazelnuts, Leg of lamb stuffed with Lavancia kale and nettle, Grilled and smoked rib, Lamb juice with hazelnuts. This is yet another fine display of the fabulous products of the rich Mercantour terroir with this variation of lamb meat with a refined and sustained taste. The perfect cooking of the shoulder and the saddle coated with the pronounced, vegetal fragrance of nettle, all spryed by the full-bodied thyme-flavoured juice, brings a wild dimension to the dish, emphasizing the large, still untamed mountain areas.
Dessert: Passion chocolate and hazelnut praline. A melting praline on a soft cake, all with pronounced accents of Valrhona chocolate enhanced by dark chocolate chips. A light sweet delight for a sweetly apotheotic finale.
Mignardises: the tasty Mic Mac Macarons macaroons signed by Bruno Laffargue
The delicious creations of Déborah Georges and Marc Payeur were enjoyed with food and wine pairings, which you will find illustrated in the photo gallery at the end of the article.
Le Régalivou’s dining room
Le Régalivou, conviviality and prices you love
Located at the entrance of St Etienne de Tinée, the Hotel Restaurant Le Régalivou is a pleasant place with a dining room beautifully decorated with the wood of the mountain that stretches out at its feet. The chef Eric Grosso proposes a gourmet and copious cuisine of mountain specialities or pizzas and grilled meats, to be enjoyed in a warm and friendly atmosphere, as much on the terrace in fine weather as by the fireplace in winter after a day’s skiing. Popular with hikers and motorcyclists, the place is also reknown for its reasonable prices.
With Colette Fabron, mayor of St Etienne de Tinée ©YesICannes.com
Authenticity, conviviality and sharing
The Mountain Gastronomy Festival Les Chefs au Sommet d’Auron reflects all what the hinterland of Nice and the Mercantour offer with generosity, in addition to the splendid mountain scenery: authenticity, conviviality and sharing. These are values to which the chefs are sensitive because they provide them daily. This is why a faithful team of starred and renowned chefs come to celebrate gastronomy in the setting of the magnificent snow-covered mountains of the Alps, delighting the taste buds of gourmets and holidaymakers on the ski trails.
©YesICannes.com
Les Chefs au Sommet d’Auron
18 – 24 January 2020
Restaurants in Auron, St Etienne de Tinée and St Dalmas-le-Selvage
Information: Auron Tourist Office
+33 (0)4 93 23 02 66
Chefs au Sommet d’Auron, Déborah Georges and Marc Payeur at Le Régalivou in pictures
Click to enlarge – ©YesICannes.com – All rights reserved
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