Saint-Malo (AFP)

Like "a great couturier at H&M": the three-star chef Christian Le Squer offers himself a makeover in his native Brittany where he is multiplying projects for a modest budget while waiting for the reopening of his Parisian palace restaurant.

In his establishment Ar Iniz, by the ocean in Saint-Malo, we have lunch for 34 euros, starter-main course-dessert with fish and seafood at the center of the menu and touches of Breton "land", like the buckwheat crispy that envelops raw tuna or candied and caramelized pork belly.

"Here, there is a seaside atmosphere. I cook on the beach that I could not practice in Paris. It reminds me of my youth, I was born by the sea, I like this iodized side. morning when you open the window, "says Christian Le Squer to AFP.

- "Without pretention" -

He signed the menu for this hotel-restaurant with around twenty small Spartan rooms decorated like boat cabins.

A rare thing for Brittany, known for its capricious weather, meals are eaten on the terrace.

Christian Le Squer also oversees the menu at Rosmadec Le Moulin in Pont-Aven (also in Brittany), led by his former sous-chef Sébastien Martinez.

The restaurant received a Michelin star a few months after it opened in 2020.

For Saint-Malo, Christian Le Squer does not seek stars.

The place suggests "unpretentious cuisine, but elegant in terms of flavor," he says.

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He is preparing to rework in the same spirit the menu of the restaurant La Vallée in Dinard (still in Brittany) which currently serves platters of seafood and parmentier with crab, and in Ar Duen, in the heart of the Breton forest.

The idea?

"A sea tavern" for the first, the creation of a large vegetable garden and the work of forest grasses for the second.

- "I lived on a cloud" -

"For years, I lived on a cloud which is luxury. The confinement allowed me to think" differently, underlines the chief.

The health crisis and the closure for 17 months of the Cinq, its three-star restaurant at the George V palace, made it available for projects "on a human scale".

"Before, I had always refused, because I didn't have the time, I really liked working internationally and I had forgotten France a little."

However, "a great chef who makes meals for a high ticket must be able to give emotion with small meals".

"At one point, there was a social breakdown, there was no longer an intermediary."

“On the palate side, people are always demanding,” says Christian Le Squer, who ensures that bread and butter are of equal quality in all his restaurants, starred or not.

The wines for Breton restaurants are chosen by Eric Beaumard, his accomplice and sommelier at Le Cinq.

- "Instagrammable" or "more there" -

Le Cinq will reopen in September, but Christian Le Squer is also preparing a range of products that will be on sale at Monoprix this fall.

He is also considering an ice cream parlor like another heavyweight, the most starred chef in the world Alain Ducasse, who has just inaugurated one in Paris after having diversified into coffee and chocolate.

"Alain is extremely intelligent, he has always had a great head start", considers Christian Le Squer who considers his departure from another Parisian palace, Plaza Athénée, where he has been replaced by the young chef - without stars - "regrettable". - Jean Imbert.

"We are going back because the French clientele was perhaps not at the rendezvous" at the Plaza, he analyzes.

Jean Imbert is the winner of the popular Top Chef show and is very active on social media.

“Today, a chef who is not Instagrammable is no longer in the race. Alain Ducasse may not have found his audience on Instagram,” says Christian Le Squer.

© 2021 AFP