Chefs au Sommet d’Auron: Olivier Renaud and Stéphane Mangin at the Bistronome

The Chefs au Sommet d’Auron welcomed Olivier Renaud and Stéphane Mangin for a high gastronomy dinner at Le Bistronome.

Chefs au Sommet d’Auron: from 15 to 20 January 2022, the 10th edition of the Mountain Gastronomy Festival offers memorable gastronomic experiences to tourists and inhabitants of the region. In addition to the show-cooking, every evening, renowned chefs officiate in the restaurants of the Haute Tinée resort and offer sumptuous gastronomic dinners at the unique and privileged price of 55€ per person.

Mountains of sweetness and authenticity

For a decade, the Mountain Gastronomy Festival has beeen bringing together many of the Côte d’Azur’s top chefs and talented pastry chefs to share an authentic moment of culinary pleasure and conviviality at the foot of the slopes in the heart of the sumptuous Mercantour mountains. During the Festival, great names from the culinary world perform each evening with real gastronomic prowess, creating dinners on “pianos” never seen before.

Great chefs in the kitchen

On Thursday 20 January 2022, the maestro of the stoves Olivier Renaud from the Restaurant Le Tilleul in Saint Paul de Vence, and the pastry chef Stéphane Mangin from the three-star Michelin Restaurant Georges Blanc in Vonnas, transposed their delicious culinary experiences into the warm, wooded, mountainous chalet setting of the restaurant Le Bistronome in Auron.

A chef attached to his terroir

Chef Olivier Renaud began to take his first steps in the culinary and hotel business at the age of 14. The desire to continue in this direction led him to enter the hotel school, which he left a few years later with his diploma. Henri Ricottier, Robert Matray, Joël Garault, Christian Willer, Serge Cholet and Maurice Bonnard gave him a taste for the profession and a love of cooking. To perfect his culinary experiences, he multiplied his chef positions in Cannes (Miramar Beach, Plage du Festival…), Mougins, Algiers…

Easygoing personality and natural bonhomie

Thanks to his easygoing personality and natural bonhomie, he was recruited by Sébastien Broda, ex-starred chef of the Grand Hotel in Cannes and then in Cognac where he took part in the short-lived adventure of the Chais Monet. For almost two years he has been the chef at Le Tilleul in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, Fredrik and Nathalie Widenfels’ restaurant, which has a superb sunny terrace and warm, friendly rooms that can accommodate up to 500 people in summer.

A bistronomic cuisine that sweetly smells of the Côte d’Azur

Olivier Renaud is a bon vivant who likes to work with the good, the true, the tasty in all simplicity, without fuss. In just a few dishes, he expresses his experience and raises the level of his cooking to a true culinary art. This talented Chef likes to make his guests discover the gastronomic riches of his favourite region: the Côte d’Azur. Favouring the treasures of small local producers, he sublimates with talent and passion traditional dishes elaborated from products that jump directly from the neighbouring fields to the plate.

An ode to nature

Detail after detail, his creative and masterful cooking, tinged with tasty alliances, perfect seasonings and full-bodied juices, delights the taste buds of a large number of fine gourmets. In rhythm with the seasons, the plates with their elegant layouts offer a feeling of serenity and balance. The dishes concocted by Olivier Renaud offer a gustatory experience that plunges guests into a universe that pays tribute to the wonders of nature, such as his Leeks with organic vinaigrette of vegetables from St Paul de Vence, grated truffle or the Lamb Confit, Socca Galette, yoghurt with fresh herbs.

Passion and creativity

Stéphane Mangin, a native from Saint-Nabord (88), began his career as a pastry chef in a shop with Jean-Luc Valentin in Remiremont. To perfect his training, under the advice of his boss who encouraged him to discover other facets of the profession, he joined the starred kitchens of L’Oasis** in Mandelieu-la-Napoule run by the Raimbault brothers. His desire to travel then led him to Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Tokyo… For the Orient Express train, he created a new range of desserts, and many other experiences followed.

Stunning compositions

This long journey will bring him to Grasse at La Bastide Saint Antoine with the great Jacques Chibois. In 2018, Stéphane Mangin flew to Morocco to land at the prestigious Royal Mansour in Marrakech where he took up the post of Pastry Chef. His creativity, his passion and his little touch of madness have found a new home. In 2019, he will join the starred chef Nicolas Decherchi at the Paloma restaurant in Mougins. In 2020, Stéphane Mangin becomes consulting pastry chef.

Stylish and elegant desserts

Today, Stéphane Mangin, Pastry Chef at the three-starred Georges Blanc restaurant in Vonnas, has been putting his art to serve the legendary Lyon restaurant for two years. With a deep respect for the chef’s cooking guidelines, the pastry artist ensures that the feast of the senses is extended with absolute meticulousness. Playing the spatula and the whisk with virtuosity, the 42 year old from the Vosges plays his score of taste by staging stylish and elegant desserts. His overflowing imagination, always on the alert, is pushing him to create mountains of sweetness with soft, creamy and aromatic textures. His constantly renewed flavours are inspired by nature, its harmonies of colour and the world around him. This craftsman of happiness, in addition to being imaginative and creative, bases his art mainly on rigour, precision and know-how.

Victor Delpierre

Respect for tradition and the product

For this tireless manual worker, there is no room for approximation and everything must be executed with precision because seasonal products are often short-lived and the dishes are usually made up to the minute. “For the balance of a dessert to be respected and for the desired effect to be achieved, the recipe must first be respected by the gram. When I make a dessert, I think about the taste first. When everything works, I start working on the shape. If there is any hesitation, I have to start again, because a dessert must create a gustatory emotion! If not, I put it aside, and perhaps rework it later.” Respecting the tradition and values of the Blanc family, the chef-patissier puts forward local products and those of the delicatessen boutique adjoining Georges Blanc’s starred restaurant. Stéphane Mangin likes to share and pass on his passion, as during his demonstrations at the Chefs au Sommet d’Auron where he introduced children to good tastes.

Menu tasted at Le Bistronome (photos ©YesICannes.com)

Le Bistronome, conviviality and fair price

Christophe and Fabienne, la Cheffe, have been promoting in Auron the good mountain gastronomy with a gourmet accent from Lyon for seven years. After having practised their talents at the Plage Royale in Cannes for many seasons, they settled in the central square of Auron to offer a cuisine with accents of the Alpine region at a fair price. Among their specialities, you will find frogs’ legs, fried eggs with truffles, black blood pudding from Anot or tasty local charcuterie. In a spirit of conviviality, Christophe, who used to be a professional musician, often invites guests to a jam session at the end of the evening.

Mountain Gastronomy Festival

Les Chefs au Sommet d’Auron, the Mountain Gastronomy Festival reflects all what the hinterland of Nice and the Mercantour offer with generosity, in addition to the splendid mountain landscapes: authenticity, conviviality and sharing. Values to which the chefs are sensitive because they lavish them daily. This is why a loyal team of starred and renowned chefs come to celebrate gastronomy in the setting of the magnificent snow-covered mountains of the Alps by delighting the taste buds of gastronomes and holidaymakers on the ski slopes.

Photos ©YesICannes.com (photos taken with respect to the barrier gestures)

Les Chefs au Sommet d’Auron
From 15 to 20 January 2022
Restaurants in Auron, St Étienne de Tinée and St Dalmas-le-Selvage
Information: Auron Tourist Office
+33 (0)4 93 23 02 66

www.auron.com

https://www.facebook.com/LE-Bistronome-809465762428462/

Chefs au Sommet d’Auron: Olivier Renaud et Stéphane Mangin at le Bistronome

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