Yves Camdeborde
Yves Camdeborde he is an elegant gentleman who speaks very fast. Despite spending more than three decades in the French capital he still retains the accent of the southern region where he grew up , the Pyrenees Atlantiques. He dreamed of being a rugby star and although his sports career didn't pan out, Camdeborde is one of the most respected chefs in France . He is the visionary who, after having been trained by the hand of Christian Constant - whom he considers his mentor and "spiritual father" - in the kitchens of the Ritz and the Hôtel de Crillon, in 1992 decided to go to the 14th arrondissement with La Régalade, a new restaurant concept in which he decided not to choose: the affordable price did not mean giving up quality. Since 2005 he offers his know-how in Le Comptoir , a bistro located at the crossroads of Odéon, in the sophisticated district 6 . Once again, the chef did not choose and thus conquered all audiences: at noon they have a brasserie-style menu and they do not take reservations , while at night it becomes a restaurant that offers a tasting menu for a select few only (average dinner reservations are six months in advance).
Entrance to Le Comptoir
Camdeborde is the most visible precursor of the bistronomy -that term coined by journalists that combines the reasonable price of bistros and the quality of the technique and authenticity of the product until then typical of haute cuisine- and boasts of land. “I was born in Pau, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques. Bearne is known because Henry IV was born there, that he decreed that chicken would be served to everyone on Sundays , even then there was a certain culinary focus in that region”. The chef grew up in a family very involved with the gastronomic tradition of the country since his parents had a delicatessen, “my brother Philippe has recovered the delicatessen that my parents opened in 1959 and supplies me with his products” he says proudly.
Pâté Snack at Le Comptoir
His grandmother was a cook and if he could repeat a meal in his life, he says he would choose without a doubt. the wild salmon that she prepared . “My grandmother had an establishment called L'Hôtel du Commerce in Navarrenx , a small town in the Pyrenees and the capital of wild salmon fishing. And she prepared it with bearnaise sauce. My grandmother died when I was 7 or 8 years old, that was an extraordinary meal, there are people who still tell me about that salmon today, and I have visual and auditory memories, but I don't remember how it tasted, I was too small. It is a meal that I would love to repeat one day , but it's impossible!" he affirms with some nostalgia.
Camdeborde, whose participation as a jury in the French edition of the program master chef has made him a public figure in his country, he recognizes that his ideal breakfast does not involve great luxuries, “It would be in the mountains of the Pyrenees, with the Pic du Midi, with simple things, a good coffee, a good croissant, a good piece of butter would be enough, but in front of nature, in the mountains, that is the most important thing ”. When asked for advice for both initiates and gourmets, he does not hesitate to say that "we must not forget that the or more complicated is to do simple things , but we have an excellent raw material, we just have to respect it”. He always opted for using seasonal products long before it became the global trend that it is today and he considers that “ the sauce is what differentiates our French gastronomy . It is part of our culture, dipping the bread on the plate...”.
Without sauce there is no paradise
Many believe that in addition to his great talent for cooking, what won over so many followers in his first restaurant of his own, Le Régalade, was the informal and friendly treatment towards customers . “The lack of generosity bothers me, more than on the plate, human generosity. A restaurant, regardless of the level of its cuisine, has to be generous, the staff has to be generous and the dishes have to be generous”, states the chef. He is one of those chefs who cooks without music or radio, concentrating exclusively on the product , in that raw material that handles perfectly.
cooking with insects He does not fit into his plans, but acknowledges that "in a couple of generations we will surely eat insects, because they are a natural protein and because they are ecologically interesting" and at the same time adds that " eating insects in Thailand has been my most difficult meal. It's not bad, but for us French people it's hard to put a worm in our mouths, we're not used to it and it's not part of our culture. It's delicate, but interesting . It was the only time I had a hard time putting food in my mouth, I ate snakes, crocodiles and it wasn't a problem, but insects yes, I had a hard time swallowing them.
Dessert at Le Comptoir
All the restoration projects of the Camdeborde family are located in the same block. Next to the bistro-restaurant Le Comptoir is the luxurious ** Hotel Le Relais Saint Germain **, run by his wife Claudine, and a few meters away, on the same sidewalk, are what the chef defines as “ the cousins of Spanish tapas bars”, L'Avant Comptoir , a place where you can enjoy a good wine accompanied by aperitifs, and L'Avant Comptoir de la Mer , the seafaring version of the previous one.
His role as restaurateur does not prevent him from saying openly that “there are no perfect restaurants, but perfect moments”. And he, who considers himself privileged to have had the opportunity to eat in many of the best restaurants in the world, from Michael Bras to Ferran Adria , he cannot choose a favorite and confesses that "they were wonderful experiences, but I also had the ideal conditions: good company, good atmosphere... ratings don't make sense because they change, it depends on the moment”.
Despite all the successes achieved, Camdeborde considers that his greatest talent is questioning what he does every day . “The past is the past, we can only work with the present and say, today I am going to make the best dish. When they ask me if it is the best dish I have ever made, I always answer, no, I hope that the best dish I make is the one I make tomorrow. You always have to want to improve."
His ambition to get better every day is echoed by regulars in the daily queue outside Le Comptoir around midday when it opens for meals. “I eat here at least once a week,” an affable gray-haired queue mate tells me spontaneously. “and I guarantee that for this price you will not eat anywhere better than here”.