Mirazur is a three-star restaurant in Menton, in the south of France, which won #1 on the World’s 50 Best List in 2019. Like my home restaurant, The French Laundry, they are a Relais Chateau property and have their own garden down the street. I chose Mirazur as my Ment’or Grant location because of these shared parallels. I wanted to utilize my Grant to see how other farm-to-table fine dining restaurants managed and used their gardens, and how those gardens operated with the kitchen. Due to my interest in the connection between gardens and the kitchen, I was lucky enough to split my time between both. I carried out the first five weeks of my stage with the pastry department and then moved to the garden team for the next three weeks.
In the pastry department, I was tasked with the bread station, a classic beginner ‘intern’ station. Since I was familiar with this station, I was able to finish my list quickly and help with other stations and learn more. Every morning my job was to bake two different gluten free breads for service, spin the ice creams, scrape the granites on the kakigori machine, and build and prepare the different elements for the individual birthday cakes. Once service began, I would serve each bread and decorate the birthday cakes as needed. In between, I was free to assist with the mignardises and dessert stations, plate or make any extra mise en place needed. The menu is split into four ‘Universes’ according to the principles of bio dynamism–Roots, Leaves, Fruits and Flowers–so there were always new pre-desserts, desserts and mignardises to discover. There were also numerous buyouts at the restaurant and external events to prep for. I got to partake in one event where we had to build a giant vegetal centerpiece to present desserts on, which led to us driving around the mountains and foraging for different types of leaves, flowers and moss to dress it all with!
In the kitchen I witnessed new techniques and pairings. I found it enriching to be in a new kitchen as an intern; I was able to observe and take in a lot more of the organization, service and communication throughout the restaurant. It was also a good reminder of how I should welcome people into my team and teach them.
While with the garden team, I helped with the daily harvest and general maintenance of the garden, seeded beds, and cleared out the bottoms of dozens of olive trees for the annual harvest. I spoke a lot with the team about biodynamic agriculture, the lunar influences on soil and plant development, and when to plant, cultivate and harvest crops according to the phases of the moon. I also took note of a lot of new herbs and flowers I hadn’t encountered before.
I am extremely grateful for this opportunity and getting to learn about and discover the south of France, its agriculture and cuisine. It was incredibly interesting and useful to be a part of a different kitchen and see how things run in another three-star establishment. I have come back to my home restaurant inspired, with lots of new ideas on preserving the bounty that we receive in the summer and utilizing more pastry-friendly sweet herbs and edible flowers. I have also started coordinating more with our garden team, including researching growing new flowers and herbs and discussing ways to dry more flowers and herbs.
Living in France also allowed me to visit places that are invaluable for my development in pastry. I went to the Valrhona headquarters and museum to learn more about and taste chocolate. I also went to Montelimar to visit the first nougat factories and Grasse to visit perfume factories where I learned more about extracting the essence from flowers. In Menton, I visited all the gardens that the town is known for, including the Palais Carnoles, which has 150 different varieties of citrus. I spent my last two days in Paris before flying home, and attended the Salon du Chocolat where dozens of pastry chefs, MOFs, and bean-to-bar artisans display and sell their latest products and Christmas lines. All of it was very enriching and inspiring!
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