It was a bright sunny day in 2019 and for the first time ever, a French restaurant was ranked #1 in the long list of 50 best restaurants in the world. Mirazur, a three-star Michelin-rated restaurant in Menton France, is a franchise overseen by celebrity chef Mauro Colagreco, and just a little over a decade after the restaurant’s launch, it has become the best restaurant in the world.
The restaurant started with just three cooks and two employees working from a previously abandoned building where the former Mirazur stood. Mauro Colagreco, an Argentine-born and French-trained chef, led the team that took Mirazur to the top. The chef was trained by notable celebrity chefs including Alain Passard, the L’Arpege famed chef who pioneered vegetarian fine dining.
Armed with tools from the very best, Colagreco began his culinary journey, which is one that truly reflects his values and culture in the meals he prepares.
Colagreco is one of those chefs who give priority to using fresh local products in their dishes and it is only ideal that he would have his own gardens. In fact, the Mirazur gardens are known to give the customers a complete feel of nature because in addition to eating meals that come from the garden, it grows right into the view of the restaurant, facing it on one side and facing the Corsica mountains on the other, making the view from the restaurant beautifully calming.
Just like chef Passard’s L’Arpege, Mirazur doesn’t have a menu. The freshness of the produce from the gardens determines what is available, and the chef develops the supplies into exceptional dishes, which is why the food changes every day. Not knowing what would be available is also thrilling suspense for diners who are certain that Colagreco will always deliver something wonderful.
The lockdown came unexpectedly for all restaurants in France and even all over the world, and Colagreco expressed how difficult that period of time was. But spending that time in his home tending to the vegetable gardens and being with his family was the most inspirational for the chef. It was during this time that the ultimate menu of the Mirazur came to life.
The chef said, “The confinement period in France was a particularly challenging time, especially with the change in pace. I devoted most of my time to our vegetable gardens as they are just beside my house, and this allowed me to enter a state of introspection and questioning. It was then I felt the strong desire to synergize the energies of the land, its resources, and the people who work on it, thus the idea of a Lunar Cuisine that brings us closer to the forces of nature was born.”
Mirazur’s ‘Lunar Cuisine’ is one that is based on the lunar calendar where the moon cycles through the zodiac signs which are grouped into four quarters and include Root, Flower, Leaf, and Fruit Days. These are what constitute the four universes on the Mirazur menu and the dishes are based on those parts of the plants.
