Top chef Mauro Colagreco - Guest chef in the Ikarus

December 2010 at Restaurant Ikarus: Mauro Colagreco

Halfway to Paradise

Colagreco's kitchen is to be found in Menton, the easternmost French town on the Côte d'Azur. As far as gourmets are concerned it's halfway to Paradise – in Colagreco's restaurant the fruits of the earth meet those of the sea and merge into a Mediterranean composition that is closer to Heaven than Earth.

The Colagreco family has always set a good table. Mauro's grandmother Amalia Blanco first initiated him into the mysteries of the kitchen, yet before he devoted himself to cookery body and soul, the Argentinean first had to rid himself of an old burden, the business studies course on which he'd embarked. As might be expected, he found this easy to do and so he attended Gato Duma's cookery school in Buenos Aires from 1998 to 2000. Thereafter Colagreco travelled to the land of the great chefs, to France, to further his training at the La Rochelle Hospitality School. In 2002 he was drawn to Seaulieu, in the country, where he completed a practical placement with Bernard Loiseau, who died shortly afterwards in 2003, at Restaurant La Côte d’Or. After one-and-a-half years as demi-chef de partie, he returned to the capital. He took the post of sous-chef at Arpège with the legendary Alain Passard. 19 months later he exchanged Passard for Alain Ducasse. Five months at Plaza Athénée were enough to hone the sense of perfection, refinement and precision. Colagreco ended his sojourn in France in the kitchen of Le Grand Véfour under Guy Martin.

In 2006 the top chef assumed his latest position to date, at the Mirazur in Menton. When Colagreco stops creating new dishes, he takes up his spade and watering can. Why? Someone has to look after the 20 varieties of tomato. The Mirazur's gardens also promise the freshest fruits, varieties of vegetable and herbs, which only make it to the plate here. He combines Argentinean and Italian cuisine with great delicacy to create culinary fireworks on the palate, such as the Mediterranean cuttlefish with/on aubergine with tomato emulsion or loin of organic pork with/on Swiss chard, and baby white onions with sauce vierge. The dessert awakens romantic desires and will seduce even unromantic guests in seconds. The guilty party is the wild violet ice-cream accompanying and revealing a milky roll coated in the milk skin, highlighted by a hint of honey and delicately displayed on a slate. Such creations must make an impression, and they do! Just six months after the first dish left the kitchen, the Mirazur was Gault-Millau's discovery of the year.

When you're faced with better than good, boundary-breaking cuisine, you have to expect anything, and where chefs are concerned it's well known that only one thing counts – the Michelin star. The exceptional cook received his first only ten months after opening the Mirazur, followed by what is for chefs by far the most egotistical, but also the nicest award – chef of the year 2009, as awarded by Gault-Millau. The jury described the Argentinean as a "wunderkind", who feels his cookery in the same way as a virtuoso feels the fleeting soul of a fugue. The next honour came at the start of 2009, with 35th place in San Pellegrino's world's best restaurants.

He already has the recipe for the next Michelin star – soil and water. Colagreco's cuisine crosses the boundaries of land and sea and combines them in a unique culinary journey through his gardens, the sea, Italy and Argentina. If you haven't yet taken this journey, you should try visiting the hilly hinterland between Heaven and Earth.