Marc Fosh's Unsusual Gourmet Creations
Saucepan lids suspended on steam rattle on pots that bubble and simmer. Fridge doors bang, blenders buzz and dishes clatter. “How long for the fish?” “One minute.” Nothing more is said; nothing needs to be because everything has already been said. Everyone knows what they have to do in Marc Fosh’s gourmet kitchen, a kitchen where everything is planned to the second and nothing is left to chance. Hailing from London, Marc Fosh has been working in “Read’s” Country Hotel for the last ten years, and has now developed a truly international team with which to work in this highly concentrated atmosphere.
How does he maintain such a calm working environment in his kitchen, in an industry renowned for raising stress-levels? “That is my nature, I am not the nervous type. Nervousness can be very contagious in a restaurant.” Says the 42-year-old as order after order is handed into the windowless 35sqm kitchen. The seven-course degustation menu is, it appears, especially popular and I watch as amusegueles are arranged, salads get plucked into shape and dishes are decoratively drizzled with vibrantly coloured sauces. When the stress increases and a slight film of perspiration is perceptible on foreheads and rosy cheeks, the men and women of his team raise their level of professionalism to compensate and, cutting through the kitchen clamour, Fosh’s voice sounds calm and confident as ever: “Duck to table 14 in four minutes!”
Some evenings up to 300 meals are ordered, lukewarm scallops with lime froth and carrots, smoked eel and new potatoes with a passion fruit vinaigrette, grape carpaccio on fois gras and stockfish with an aloe vera geleé. Fosh loves these culinary adventures and often surprises with his provocative combinations, such as spicing duck with eucalyptus salt or finishing chocolate truffles with the exclusive Sal de Flor. “A little thing, but it changes so much.” argues the gourmet chef, proud recipient of a Michelin Star. How does he come up with such creations? “On the sofa.” reckons Fosh. When he lies on his sofa in Marratxí he starts to cook in his head. He thinks of hibiscus and finds a suitable match such as strawberries or passion fruit, a fine mix of tastes but to accompany what? Preferably as a sauce for panacotta. The panacotta in this case will be the main ingredient in the dessert but Fosh saddles the horse from the back, starting with something seemingly trivial he will arrive, eventually, at the substantial.
His creative sofa-time has recently become extremely limited as every few weeks he flies to Moscow, where he offers advice to a restaurant near the Red Square. He is also growing his own wine in front of Read’s hotel, supervises the Lunch Bistro 33, with its daily changing menu, and has his own cooking school “Fosh Food” in Palma where he discloses chefs’ techniques and secrets. Nearly every morning Fosh can be seen walking the market stalls in the Santa Catalina quarter of Palma, finding the freshest produce. It’s hard to go wrong with good ingredients. Marc Fosh finishes the day at around midnight when the “providers” (“We are, in principle, nothing else” he says with a modest smile) have won the restaurant battle, and then he will sit and drink a beer with his staff. He needs this familiar atmosphere with the men and women of his team. His credo is: “Happy chefs make better food.”