What’s Eating Gilbert? Chef Maxime Gilbert of S.T.A.Y.

It’s not every day you come across a French chef who’ll tell it like it is about French cuisine. Maxime Gilbert, who mans the burners at Yannick Alleno’s Beijing restaurant, opens up about snails and cooking for Jacques Chirac.

Can you seduce someone with your food?
Of course. When I met my wife, I cooked her many fine dishes. Florian [Couteau, the pastry chef at S.T.A.Y.] does the same. It’s usually easier for him because girls love dessert. But it’s true. That’s why you can have a special connection with some ver y important people that come to restaurants.

In your opinion, what is the worst thing about French food?
Thinking that we are the best. Yeah, French cuisine is good. But Italian cuisine is beautiful. Spanish is beautiful. Chinese, Taiwanese, Moroccan. We just have a different culture, with different produce and different styles of cooking.

If you could avoid eating one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Snail. I cook snail, and my dad makes them in the best way possible, but ever since I was a kid, I couldn’t stomach them. Because where I grew up, we’d go into the forest and grab them live. And you’d see them crawling around. They’re good, but I just can’t eat them.

If you weren’t a chef, what would you be?
A lawyer. No. [Laughs]. I would be a musician. I would love to play the saxophone or the piano. It’s one of my biggest regrets. When I was seven, my mom put me in a piano class. I was lazy, so I would complain, “Mami, my hands hurt,” and she would say, “No, you need to learn,” but after ten times she let me stop. Now every time I see her, I say, “Why did you let me stop? I would now be able to play piano.”

Who was the most famous person you’ve ever served?
The French president. Both Chirac and Sarkozy. It was when I was in Morocco. I served Chirac in my restaurant, with his wife and his friend. And the night after, I served Sarkozy, who was with the king of Morocco. We really meet some famous people, and they’ll shake your hand and congratulate you. They don’t congratulate people every day, yet you’re just someone who cooked him a nice meal. That’s the kind of connection I was talking about before.

So you seduced Chirac!
And his wife.

Let Chef Maxime beguile with his Sunday brunch at S.T.A.Y. at the Shangri-La Hotel.

Photo courtesy of the Shangri- La Hotel

This article originally appeared on page 35 of the November issue of the Beijinger.