Queen Elizabeth II’s new personal chef, Marc Flanagan, would not have missed the trip for the world: the British culinary wizard was in Paris this week to get a few pointers from an elite group of his peers.
The 30 or so members of the exclusive Club des Chefs des Chefs, or the Club of the Chefs of Heads of State, gathered in the French capital for a week of tastings, advice-giving and a well-deserved break from their employers.
Flanagan, who took over the Buckingham Palace kitchen from Lionel Mann, who had held the post for 42 years, made no secret of his joy at being part of the top-notch club, whose members hail from Ireland to India, Spain to Sri Lanka.
”I didn’t have a name, I didn’t have the skill of an Alain Ducasse or a Paul Bocuse. You know, I’m a cook and I’m very happy.
For a Briton, to cook for the queen is the greatest honour,” Flanagan said in explaining his royal arrival.
For Walter Scheib, chef to US President George Bush and current chief of the tightly-knit group of gastronomic geniuses, diplomacy and flexibility are the key ingredients in successfully preparing meals for world leaders.
”You have to satisfy a restricted number of people every day — four for myself — and respect what they like. I am a domestic servant,” Scheib told a press conference.
”The first ladies give the direction. If they want a hamburger, you make a hamburger — but the best one you can make,” added Scheib, who said his mother taught him the value of saffron, garlic and wine from a very young age.
Joel Normand, who has served every French president from Charles de Gaulle to Jacques Chirac, agreed: ”A chef for a head of state cannot impose his own culinary style. He must adapt to the tastes of the household.”
Good advice for Flanagan: he is responsible for managing a team of 33 people including 20 chefs that serve the queen at her five palaces and prepare an average of 500 meals a day.
”I was so nervous and enormously impressed,” he said of his first meeting with the 77-year-old monarch.
During their stay in France, the chefs were to visit the Cognac and Champagne regions and dine at a restaurant owned by Ducasse, a chef for whom Scheib, who has worked at the White House for a decade, has the utmost respect.
”I feel like a young priest in front of the pope!” Bush’s cook enthused, noting that he used French cooking techniques in much of what he prepared for the US leader while, ever the diplomat, praising advances in American cuisine.
Even though each chef has his or her own specialty dishes, they said they tried to ensure the satisfaction of visiting presidents, kings and princes by knowing their likes and dislikes.
Normand, who during his four decades at the Elysee presidential palace has sealed friendships with many of his counterparts, told reporters he always calls his fellow chefs to learn the favourite meals of visiting dignitaries. – Sapa-AFP