Maîtres Restaurateurs Kick Off 2020 Chefs au Sommet d'Auron

Happy inauguration! ©YesICannes.com

Les Chefs au Sommet d’Auron – ninth edition – will make the emblematic ski resort of the Mercantour the Capital of Mountain Gastronomy from 18 to 24 January 2020, with chefs Noëlle and David Faure as godmother and godfather.

Les Chefs au Sommet d’Auron 2020 was inaugurated on Saturday 18 January by an exceptional line-up of Maîtres Restaurateurs Chefs who demonstrated their culinary talents. Victor Delpierre, Barista/Cocktail World Champion, and the students from the Lycée Paul Augier in Nice, completed this tasty and festive show, placed under the sign of conviviality and friendship.

Les Maîtres Restaurateurs ©YesICannes.com

Mountain Bio and Locavore

For a week, under the honorary presidency for the first time of a couple of chefs, Noëlle and David Faure from SensÔriel in Nice, Les Chefs au Sommet d’Auron deploy their talents through the many restaurants in the Mercantour and Vallée de la Tinée resorts. Around the Auron skating rink, the female chefs (five this year) and chefs host gourmet happy hour, show cooking, cooking classes and other tastings. The “piano” virtuosos put the spotlight on Bio and Locavore to honour the gastronomic riches and quality products that the mountains and valleys of the Haut Pays abound with.

Noëlle & David Faure ©YesICannes.com

A couple of amazing chefs

Love and gastronomy, generosity and conviviality for the 9th edition of Les Chefs au Sommet d’Auron! The event is sponsored by a couple of chefs with a particularly bubbling creative culinary genius: Noëlle and David Faure. David and Noëlle, his accomplice in adventure, share the same passion and take great pleasure in innovating, diverting and revisiting tradition. The culinary art of the chefs, united in the city as well as in the kitchen, gives Nissarde cuisine new tastes and colours, sometimes plunging their spatulas into molecular cuisine to juggle textures and colours and exalt aromas, all with a keen sense of showmanship.

Jérôme Clavel & Théo Mansi ©YesICannes.com

Affordable gourmet meals

Les Chefs au Sommet d’Auron, the high altitude culinary event in the spectacular snow-capped peaks of the Mercantour in the Southern Alps, celebrates mountain gastronomy from Saturday to Thursday with the greatest chefs from the coast. The restaurants in the resorts of Auron, Saint-Damas-le-Selvage and Saint-Étienne de Tinée welcome in their kitchens many renowned Chefs and Pastry Chefs from the region.
Every evening, three different pastry chef duos officiate in three restaurants to create an exceptional dinner. In a warm and authentic atmosphere, holidaymakers, seasonal workers and the inhabitants of the valley have the opportunity to taste sumptuous gourmet menus at the privileged and unique price of 45 euros. Composed of an appetizer, a starter, a main course and a dessert, the menus are sure to delight the taste buds of fine gourmets.

Stéphane Furlan ©YesICannes.com

Inauguration around love, passion and sharing

The job of a chef or pastry chef is a job of love, passion and sharing. This was demonstrated by the generous chefs at the inauguration of the Chefs au Sommet d’Auron on the central square in the presence of Colette Fabron, Mayor of Saint-Etienne-de-Tinée Auron, Eric Barale, Deputy Mayor of Auron and Michel Guillot, President of the Tourist Office of the Mercantour resorts and organiser of the Mountain Gastronomy Festival.
The chefs shared their exceptional know-how and their passion for the profession, sprinkled with grains of snow and friendship, for the greatest pleasure of skiers and tourists who love high mountains and good gastronomy. The inauguration began with an initiation for the children to the mixing of tastes to create a fruit juice drink, with shaker mixing, hosted by the resort’s mascot, Victor Delpierre.

Discovering the nice tastes of fruits ©YesICannes.com

Show cooking around the ice rink

As a gourmet appetizer for the Chefs au Sommet d’Auron, the Maîtres Restaurateurs of the Alpes Maritimes, represented by Théo Mansi, their President, delighted the many gourmets who came to attend the inauguration. On the tasting menu: Strudel of Duck confit with apples, cinnamon, grapes by Stéphane Furlan, Le Sansot in Tourrettes sur Loup, Risotto with Mercantour saffron by Théo Mansi, from the Maîtres Restaurateurs and fresh local goat’s cheese, Pickles of black radish and small spelt by Guillaume Arragon from Le Bistrot Gourmand in Cannes. Jérôme Clavel from Le 44 in Antibes and his brilliant second Mylène Treizières were also on hand to create these delicacies.

Colette Fabron & Michel Guillot ©YesICannes.com

Le Riounet: a cocktail, three universes

The warm afternoon concluded with the invigorating notes of the tasty Riounet, the cocktail by the talented and endearing Victor Delpierre, Barista/Cocktail World Champion, who created this beverage, which has become the official drink of the resort, during Les Chefs au Sommet d’Auron 2018. This harmonious summit drink can be sipped cold after a nice summer walk in the mountains, or savoured as a grog or mulled wine after a day on the snowy slopes, or as an after-ski comfort drink. This same cocktail, completed at 50% with a bubble, Champagne, Crémant or Prosecco, becomes a great aperitif cocktail that will accompany your most beautiful festive moments. The Riounet is composed of Triple Sec, created in 1834 by Jean-Bapiste Combier, artisan chocolate maker and confectioner, in stills set up by Gustave Eiffel, still in use today, Chocolate Distillation, Cocoa Cream, to be mixed with pressed Lemon and Orange Juice.

Maîtres Restaurateurs at the gala dinner ©YesICannes.com

Gala Dinner “La Cuisine Spectacle”

The chefs’ week of generosity and sharing began with a symphony of refined dishes concocted by young Maîtres Restaurateurs. For the first time, the Maîtres Restaurateurs of the Alpes Maritimes prepared the menu for the sumptuous gala dinner on the theme of La Cuisine Spectacle for a hundred guests at the opening of the festival. The recipes were implemented and served by students from the Lycée Paul Augier, the Hotel and Tourism School of Nice, under the aegis of their headmaster, Denis Férault, and an educational team. About fifty students in gastronomy and their teachers worked in the kitchen and in the dining room to create an exceptional gastronomic dinner where “open space” stoves and animations made the dinner La Cuisine Spectacle unforgettable.

©YesICannes.com

Gourmet after ski, workshops and conferences

In addition to the four-handed dinners – a chef and a pastry chef – every evening, Les Chefs au Sommet d’Auron offer a rich programme of gourmet after-skiing, workshops and conferences every day from 19 to 24 January 2020. Starting at 4pm around the Auron ice rink, many activities await locals and tourists who love gastronomy: sweet and savoury workshops for young and old, conferences, culinary demonstrations with the Chefs, signing sessions… While parents are at the workshops’ stoves, their little devils can, depending on their mood, play apprentice cooks like mummy and daddy by making one of their favourite dishes or attend culinary demonstrations and fun workshops in the “P’tits Chefs” workshops.

©YesICannes.com

Relaxation and a touch of madness

Les Chefs au Sommet d’Auron invite you to a six-day gourmet feast to be enjoyed without moderation, around an amazing recipe based on the flavours of our mountains, snow, sun, relaxation, plus a touch of madness and good humour for a real cure of flavours and well-being at the top of the Mediterranean Alps.

YesICannes.com is Media Partner of Les Chefs au Sommet d’Auron

Les Chefs au Sommet d’Auron
From 18 to 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

www.auron.com