Philippe Etchebest opens the doors of his new restaurant to us

• “Maison Nouvelle” is now Philippe Etchebest's second address, after “Le Quatrième Mur” located within the grounds of the Opéra de Bordeaux.

• This new gourmet restaurant, with a cozy atmosphere, wants to welcome customers "like at home".

• With his unique seven-course menu at 210 euros, Philippe Etchebest hopes to win at least two stars.

Photos of him and his wife Dominique on the wall. On the shelves, a ticket for an AC/DC concert, books on rugby, memories of a motorcycle road trip with his friend, the Marseille chef Michel Portos... At

, Philippe Etchebest wanted to do everything to make it "just like home".

went to visit, and test, the new address of the Bordeaux chef, located on the Place des Chartrons.

This new concept of gourmet restaurant, Philippe Etchebest and his wife had wanted for years.

It came to fruition on December 21, after more than three years of work.

“After

[his other restaurant in Bordeaux, but which does not belong to him], I wanted another project, something that would allow us to receive people as if we were at home, explains the chef.

Here, people ring the bell, they are invited to go up the stairs or take the elevator.

They sit down and are served a unique seven-course menu.

When you go to someone's house, you don't choose your menu, you eat what's there.

»

"One evening, I said: 'We're changing everything'"

Parquet or carpet on the floor, handmade tapestries on the walls, fireplaces (with fake fire), the atmosphere is cozy. And wood is everywhere. A nod to the carpenter from whom Philippe Etchebest bought the building. "When I was offered the property for sale, the day I visited, I did the tour in ten minutes, and I said to Dominique: 'That's it.' “In competition” with a Chinese and a footballer “for the acquisition, the Bordeaux chef claims to have won the piece with affect. So, in memory of the former owner, now deceased, "I had the handles of the meat knives made, with amaranth wood which belonged to him".

Philippe Etchebest's project initially included, in addition to a gourmet restaurant, a brasserie corner and a grocery store. On arrival, Maison Nouvelle consists of a bar on the ground floor and a single restaurant, divided into two parts, a lounge-library on the first floor, and a main room on the second floor. “The project evolved because of the technical constraints we encountered,” explains Philippe Etchebest. You had to fit a truck into a matchbox, it was impossible. One evening, I was driving home on my motorbike, I was ruminating all this in my head, and when I arrived I said to Dominique: "We're changing everything". Downstairs, we make the bar, and the house will be a single concept, a little confined. »

The legal recourse of a neighbor, and the Covid-19 crisis which slowed down the construction, did not help, either, to carry out the project as it was hoped.

“In all, we lost a good year, believes the Bordeaux chef, but all this allowed us to mature our idea.

»

"I'm counting on the little thing that the cook will bring"

The menu is offered at 210 euros, a “completely assumed” price, specifies Philippe Etchebest. “I want to recover the two stars I had in Saint-Emilion [at the time when he was chef at the Grand-Barrail hotel] and if we can go to three stars we will go, then we would be the first three stars of Bordeaux", he announces. To support him in this ambition, he recruited as chef Benoît Grondin, who arrives from the restaurant L'Orangerie of the George V hotel in Paris, and Guillaume Verdier who officiated at L'Oiseau Bleu in Bordeaux, as pastry chef. .

He is counting on them to set himself apart from

, his third entity located within the

, with which he has already won a star.

“At

, we are in direct contact with the cuisine, the approach is different from here.

But above all, what changes from one establishment to another is the personality of those who do the cooking.

Me, I give a guideline, there is my DNA, my culinary structure, but I count on the little thing that the cook will bring.

»

“I wanted to give a substantial place to the kitchens”

The menu will evolve according to the seasonality of the products. Currently, the chef is offering, among other things, a cauliflower Royale accompanied by a passion fruit jelly and an oyster tartare from Joël Dupuch, or even a new take on his traditional mushroom and pan-fried foie gras ravioli, which he topped off with a mushroom tuile and a mushroom and vegetable mousse mousse, to drink like a cappuccino. The Bordeaux chef also offers, for the first time, an all-vegetable dish around variations of cabbage. “My concept is still traditional French cuisine, but I'm modernizing it, always relying on local producers. »

Maison Nouvelle

offers around thirty covers, only in the evening from Tuesday to Saturday, and Friday and Saturday lunchtimes.

“I could have halved the pastry lab to save space and make more cutlery, assures Philippe Etchebest, but I wanted space for the employees, for their well-being.

“Not insignificant, in a period when the restoration is experiencing a recruitment crisis.

The Bordeaux chef promises that he will navigate between his two Bordeaux addresses to "orchestrate all this".

"I pass regularly, people are surprised to see me, you know", slips Philippe Etchebest.

“But hey, they come here above all to eat.

»

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• Philippe Etchebest

• Restaurant

• Aquitaine

• Gastronomy

• Bordeaux

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