Jérôme Schilling, chef of the restaurant LALIQUE-Château Lafaurie-Peyraguey, wins the title of Meilleur Ouvrier of France 2022.
Bommes, November 21, 2022 – Jérôme Schilling, Chef of the restaurant LALIQUE – Château Lafaurie-Peyraguey, 2 stars in the guide MICHELIN 2022, is the winner of the contest One of the Best Workers of France 2022 in the category “cuisine, gastronomy” whose final took place on November 16 and 17 in Grenoble.
A meteoric rise
After a second Michelin star obtained a few months earlier in March 2022 for the restaurant LALIQUE in Sauternes, only three years after the first, Jérôme Schilling continues his meteoric rise in the elite of French gastronomy by winning the prestigious title of “MOF”. The career of the forty-year-old cook of Alsatian origin is already punctuated by success. Rich in his career alongside great French Chefs such as Joël Robuchon, Roger Vergé, Jean-Yves Schillinger, Thierry Marx, Jean-Luc Rocha, Guy Lassausaie and Jean-Georges Klein, Jérôme perfects his art and refines a technical mastery that he likes to put to the test in many competitions: Bocuse d’Argent France 2021, Challenge of the President of the Republic of which he won the 1st prize in 2017, MOF 2015 of which he is a finalist, 2nd at the Prosper Montagné competition in 2013, 3rd at the Taittinger International Culinary Prize in 2012 and 1st prize Henri Huck trophy in 2010.
The “cook of the vines”
Jérôme Schilling puts this technicality at the service of a sensitive and delicate cuisine that he has been orchestrating for four years at the restaurant LALIQUE – Château Lafaurie-Peyraguey, Premier Grand Cru Classé of Sauternes in 1855. If he defines himself as a “cook of the vines”, it is because he feeds his creativity by studying Sauternes from every angle and uses all its components: shapes and colors of the plant, landscapes of Sauternes, maceration and fermentation of grapes, shoots, seeds and marc of grapes, mouts, verjuices, etc. As if to assemble the best grape varieties, Jérôme composes his plates and his menu inspired by the typicity and terroir of the AOC Sauternes Barsac. Among the flagship dishes of his menus poetically entitled “Grain Noble”, and “Terroir du Sauternes”, we find smoked scallops with vine shoots, parsnips and white truffle, hake confit in grape seed oil, agastache and imperial shrimp, a Brannens pigeon macerated raw on the bone for 48 hours in the wine lees before roasting, smoked beets and nectavignes, or an egg cooked in a marinade of gin and Sauternes, spaghetti squash carbonara.
On the sweet side, Jérôme Schilling and his Pastry Chef Héloïse Château still honour the local terroir by imagining the “Brouillard du Ciron with yuzu and caviar”, a tribute to the morning mist that emerges from the Ciron River and settles on the vines, creating optimal conditions for the development of Botrytis Cinerea, the famous noble rot essential to the production of Sauternes.
Jérôme Schilling’s cuisine blends naturally with the wines of Château Lafaurie-Peyraguey in the form of bold and original pairings. The restaurant’s impressive cellar book also gives pride of place to the greatest wines on the planet. 2,600 references are offered, most of them from Silvio Denz’s private collection or the selection of sommelier Romain Iltis, MOF and Wine Director of Lalique Group.
Jérôme Schilling indicates that “Becoming Meilleur Ouvrier de France is the realization of a dream, that of following in the footsteps of my elders from whom I learned the trade. I am also very grateful to the MOF chefs who were members of the jury who supported me throughout the competition. I built this success by being surrounded by a formidable “dream team” composed of colleagues and my sous-chefs who accompanied me with great generosity in my preparation at the Ferrandi school in Bordeaux. I am also fortunate to benefit from the unwavering support and trust of my family, our customers, Silvio Denz and the great team at the LALIQUE Hotel-Restaurant – Château Lafaurie-Peyraguey. I was a little apprehensive about passing the 40-year milestone but 2022 finally proved to be a particularly rich year in success and emotion with the obtaining of a second Michelin star and this title of MOF. »
“We are all very happy and proud of the success of Jérôme Schilling, whose MOF title crowns an exemplary perseverance and will, taking him ever further in the excellence of his profession. Jérôme joins the very closed circle of the Best France Workers of Maison Lalique. With now seven MOF art glassware, a MOF Sommellerie and a MOF cuisine, we have the privilege of counting in our teams nine exceptional craftsmen in the disciplines that make up the DNA of our group. ” adds Silvio Denz, owner of the Lalique group, of which the castle is a part.
