Paris (AFP)

Guy Savoy's mythical artichoke soup with truffle arrives at your home, broken down with a reheating instruction, but the star chef dreams of welcoming guests as quickly as possible to his restaurant on the banks of the Seine in Paris.

At Guy Savoy, at the Monnaie de Paris, three stars in the Michelin guide and unbeatable best restaurant in the world, according to the aggregator La Liste, the fridges are open in the silent kitchens and the elegant lounges with a view of the Louvre have been desperately empty since more than two months due to the coronavirus epidemic.

Gloved and masked, Chiberta cooks fill the take-out boxes while the pastry chef mixes the preparations for the chocolate mousse and rice pudding, "recipes of yesteryear that provide the comfort that we need in these times", emphasizes Guy Savoy.

- "reheat in the microwave" -

"It is heartbreaking to see a place at lunchtime that is not in full activity," said the chef in an interview with AFP.

From an economic point of view, "what we are doing here has no interest. But we are trying to restart an activity, we are getting closer to the guests again," he adds.

The menus are very limited and the ingredients chosen so as not to be altered once reheated such as sole at low temperature or candied quail.

"There is a small explanatory sheet for all the dishes to warm them up. We also recommend leaving the entrees a little outside for five minutes because the tasting will be much better. Same goes for the desserts", explains chef Gilles Chesneau, in in charge of Guy Savoy's Parisian restaurants, editing the menus.

The soup is delivered in a jar to be heated "in a saucepan over low heat or in the microwave at 600W by removing the metal cover", the strips of truffles and parmesan shavings under the film, as well as the brioches.

"It is not the heart of the job, I am not a caterer" sighs the chef, even if take-away allows him to "get employees out of partial unemployment".

- "I was knocked out" -

"It is time to put back the places that are made for this", rather than letting people eat their take-out "on the run".

Like many chefs, Guy Savoy has very bad memories of the way the restaurant's closure was ordered suddenly by the government on a Saturday evening.

"I had to announce this to the guests, my throat was tight," he recalls.

"I was knocked out. I have been working for 51 years and it is the first time that I have an obstacle that I cannot overcome with energy and the number of hours. It is helplessness" .

The positive point of the situation compared to an earthquake or a war is that "the building is intact and the teams have the same know-how. We can leave quickly".

"We were closed in 4 hours, I'm not saying we can reopen as quickly, but in 36-48 hours, I can put the house back on the road," he said.

"I do not believe too much in the world before and in the world after, this crisis is a parenthesis during which we must take a lot of precautions", launches the chief who wants to be combative.

This does not prevent him from wondering about the return of foreign tourists, who constitute 40% of the clientele of his restaurant and the fears of the French to go to a restaurant after the reopening.

"Paris needs the whole planet to work. If tomorrow we no longer have a tourist, 50% of the restaurants will disappear," said Guy Savoy, whose restaurant is particularly popular with Koreans and Americans.

For the French, he intends to send his brigades to cook at home, a formula offered for a few days by several starred chefs in the four corners of France.

© 2020 AFP