French Cuisine | Christophe Hay’s Sustainable Gastronomy

(Blois, France) The Fleur de Loire hotel in Blois attracts a clientele who come first to immerse themselves in the world of its chef, and then enjoy exceptional accommodation. In the kitchens and at the head of the luxurious establishment which includes two restaurants, Christophe Hay restores the nobility of the local terroir which he revisits in an inspired and eco-responsible way.

It is a former hospice that chef Christophe Hay has chosen to create a high place of the art of living and pay homage to the Loire region. Located in a strategic location in Blois, on the banks of the Loire, the hotel renovated at a cost of 8 million dollars offers a breathtaking view of the river, the city and its castle.

From its former vocation, the 19th century building^e century preserves the setting, beautifully dressed by designer Caroline Tissier on a theme inspired by the fauna and flora of the region. On the walls, a range of blues and greiges evokes the Loire and its banks, while iridescent or wavy materials echo the movements of the water and fish scales: so many nods to a river from which the chef draws an essential part of his inspiration.

The Fleur de Loire is one of the most luxurious hotels in the Loire Valley, but it stands out for its contemporary and spacious environment that includes 55 rooms and 11 suites, a spa, two restaurants and a counter of irresistible pastries and homemade products. It has the stuff that makes some places rise above the best and become institutions.

From Bocuse to Blois

Unlike Amour Blanc, a more accessible version of the two Fleur de Loire establishments, we come to the eponymous signature restaurant to experience local and responsible gastronomy, with a six or nine-course formula for dinner and four or more for lunch. A true showcase for the Loire region, Christophe Hay offers embodied, bold and authentic cuisine.

It was in Orlando, Florida, that Christophe Hay’s career took off at the helm of Paul Bocuse’s restaurant Le Bistro de Paris. A few years later, he returned to the region where he grew up with the intention of promoting his cuisine with a vision oriented towards the future. With two Michelin stars, which also crowned him with a green star, he opened the Fleur de Loire in 2022.

Every day, a new taste score takes shape based on what the land has to offer: unloved mud fish such as catfish, carp or shad, vegetables and herbs freshly extracted from the estate’s vegetable garden or other produce grown by local artisans within a radius of less than 30 kilometers.

Chief and peasant

On the land surrounding the hotel grow several varieties of herbs and exotic fruits that the chef brought back from his travels in Asia and America: “Goji or Sichuan berries, fig trees, mandarin trees, yuzus, kumquats, pomegranates, guava trees…”, lists the main person concerned who has been collecting citrus fruits since 2014 and has around forty different varieties that appear on the menu. “They are my babies. I prune and pamper them myself,” he adds with restrained enthusiasm. Grafted onto Poncirus trifoliataa citrus fruit that tolerates cold well, its protégés adapt to temperatures below 15 degrees.

However, it is in his permaculture vegetable garden, located a few kilometers from the hotel complex, on a plot of two hectares, that the chef draws most of the vegetables highlighted in his plates. It is there that he revives ancestral varieties such as the Berry sucrine or the Tours sucrine melon and collections of more than 50 varieties of asparagus and artichokes.

The restaurant’s cuisine will always be essentially plant-based, he says, emphasizing the ecological issues, without ever denying his origins. “I am a farmer. My father was a butcher, my grandparents were cattle breeders and farmers. It flowed in my veins. I now have my own small herd of wagyu beef, which numbers 90 head. I want to offer something exceptional in terms of meat, but in a smaller volume.”

Fresh and refined cuisine

At Christophe Hay, what is normally hidden in the background is exposed to the clientele. At the table, we are treated to the spectacle of a culinary laboratory placed in the center of the room and finely orchestrated. Always present on site, the maestro himself takes the orders and the pulse of his audience. “Without him, we close the restaurant,” emphasizes Stephen Guyard, his right-hand man in the dining room. With 25 employees in the kitchen and in service, for 8 people seated that day, the restaurant provides impeccable, attentive service, invested with a mission to promote the artisans behind the product.

The menu varies according to the harvests and the catch of the day, but at all times you will find freshwater fish caught that same day in the Loire, wagyu beef whose marbled flesh ensures an exceptional melt-in-the-mouth texture, Sologne lamb and vegetables and herbs from the garden. Sponsor of a school in Oaxaca, south of Mexico City, Christophe Hay goes there twice a year to draw more inspiration and regularly collaborates with chefs from Asia, from whom he borrows certain techniques. Deeply rooted in the land, his cuisine also has a taste of elsewhere.

We will remember the exceptional flavors of the carp “à la Chambord”, the house’s signature dish served with crayfish, a Cheverny wine sauce and aestivum truffle (white summer truffle). Not to mention the Sologne caviar and its pea pod coulis, the melting meats perfectly enhanced with delicately flavored frothy sauces, the creatively prepared fish, the delicately zesty desserts and this bread whose flour comes from a miller in the chef’s home village, topped with a melting butter with caviar scraps that are normally used to feed animals and that Christophe Hay beautifully revalues ​​in a constant effort to use everything a food has to offer.

Price: from 110 euros (4 courses)

This trip was organized in collaboration with Atout France. Part of the costs of this trip were paid by the Regional Tourism Committee of Val de Loire and Air Canada, who had no control over the content of this report.

Visit the Fleur de Loire website