The delightful cuisine of Chef Laurent

EXECUTIVE Chef Laurent Kalkotour‘s charisma is embodied in his culinary creations that delightfully please the palates. Drawing inspiration from his great-grandfather who owned a Michelin-starred restaurant in Charente Region of Southwestern France and his family Sunday feasts, Chef Laurent attended cooking school at the age of 15 not far from his hometown of Aix en Provence. Hitching his culinary dreams high, young Laurent started at the bottom of the chef’s ladder, worked and trained his way up with acclaimed French chefs including Chef Reine Sammut and Alaine Ducasse whose projects also included teaching, writing and testing recipes. Armed with his experience, he moved to New York where he learned to speak English and met the world-renowned French chef Daniel Boulud (DB) and started as Sous Chef in DB Bistro Moderne, one of New York City’s top bistros in the theatre district in Times Square.

Using only the freshest of seasonal ingredients and his pristine style, the 35-year-old executive chef Laurent whips up dishes that create a delightful feast in the mouth. Being from the South of France where cuisine is Mediterranean influenced and use of olive oil supplants the butter in Provencale cooking, his dishes are light and retain the natural flavors and freshness of the ingredients. His Legumes du Marche, one of his signature salads, is both pleasing to the eyes and palate. Chef Laurent uses young garden vegetables in season (red and white endive, purple potato, red beets, English pea, baby carrots), apple, cantaloupe with fromage blanc dressing, lavender honey vinaigrette. It was such a beautiful dish!

I stared admiring it before eating the deliciously fresh salad.

UP Diliman colleague and friend Sari Villanueva and I did lunch at DB Bistro Moderne before the NYC restaurant Week ended. Because I am Patricia’s mom (Patricia works at DB Bistro Moderne, too), Chef Laurent never fails to pamper me with his culinary creations. With his compliments, we enjoyed Lobster Salpicon Bouillabaisse Fume with toasted baguette and Alsatian Tarte Flambee with Shaved Summer Truffle before the Pre-fixe lunch. A bubbly glass of Cuvee Daniel awakened our palates. With the sizzling summer temperature, Chilled Gazpacho with cucumber and olive oil was refreshing. Prince Edward Island Mussels over toasted tomatoes, herbs emulsion and black olive crumbs followed the soup. Interestingly, the black olive crumbs are made in Chef Laurent’s kitchen. Sari settled for Pan Roasted Sea Bream in olive oil, crushed potatoes, arugula, trumpet royale mushrooms and Sauce Grenobloise, a classic French sauce named after the city of Grenoble in Southeastern France made of brown butter, lemon, capers, parsley and goes very well with fish. I had the Crispy Duck Confit with Pommes Lyonnaise, wild mushrooms and sour duck jus. The duck’s skin thinly layered with a little fat was delicately crisp and the meat juicy. We feasted on all the desserts in the Pre-fixe menu: Berry Tartlette—pink pepper sable Breton (French butter cookies) topped with vanilla diplomat cream and assorted berries with lemon white verjus (tart non-alcoholic grape juice) sorbet, Chocolate Browne served with vanilla custard, morelo cherry compote, malted milk ice cream and Assiette de Fromage (assorted cheeses) with fruit chutney and house baked bread.