Hélène Darroze partners with Villa La Coste and unveils new restaurant

Michelin-starred chef Hélène Darroze has announced her partnership with luxury hotel Villa La Coste in Provence, including her new restaurant Hélène Darroze at Villa La Coste.

Darroze, who was recently awarded three stars in the Michelin Guide for Hélène Darroze at The Connaught and two stars for Marsan par Hélène Darroze in Paris, will now oversee the entire food and beverage operations at the hotel.

Impressed by the diversity of the vegetables and fruit from the region, the chef has chosen to award them the a starring role on the menus for the fine dining restaurant Hélène Darroze at Villa La Coste.

“The quality of local produce is such that this decision was essential from the outset, as was an absolute quest for simplicity,” explains Darroze. “When we are lucky enough to find such exceptional vegetables and fruit, it is up to us to cook to enhance them, not to transform them.”

Hélène Darroze at Villa La Coste restaurant will be the jewel in the chef’s gastronomic crown at the property. With panoramas out over the estate and the Luberon Massif beyond, the room is set within a glass-walled pavilion that opens up onto an outdoor terrace. The simplicity of its transparent drapery and elegant furniture envelops the artwork suspended from the ceiling representing an embracing couple by the acclaimed artist, Louise Bourgeois.

In the fine-dining restaurant, the ‘Walk in the gardens of Provence’ menu – developed by Darroze alongside Marco Zampese, her Head Chef from Hélène Darroze at the Connaught in London, Thomas Pézeril, Executive Chef at Villa La Coste and her Pastry Chef Kirk Whittle – takes place in eight acts. It will evolve naturally according to the harvests and seasons.

Dishes featuring on the opening menu include Terra t’air safran in Puy-Sainte-Reparade, where saffron pistils add a golden yellow to creamy Camargue rice with shellfish and cuttlefish, flavoured with savoury leaves and a dash of Espelette pepper oil; and ‘The ‘Red Florence’ cebette by Aurélien Knipping in Puy-Sainte-Reparade, a Rouge de Florence is served tender and lacquered with a reduction of red wine from Château La Coste and paired with a matured Hereford Prime beef tenderloin, grilled over vine leaves and finished with a Bordeaux sauce of fermented green pepper.

In addition to the food offering, Darroze alongside her London-based Restaurant Manager, Mirko Benzo and Head Sommelier at Villa La Coste, Bernabé Pérez, have been given carte blanche with the wine list and the estate’s all organic, biodynamic wines will occupy a prominent place on the list alongside other regions in France.