IN THE KITCHEN WITH . . .

Young Chang

Florent Marneau, 31, does not feel far from his home country, France,

when he’s working at Pinot Provence. The head chef, who speaks with a

charming accent, has been creating fabulous food for the Costa Mesa

restaurant for 2 1/2 years. He recreates France in the kitchen with his

use of fresh imported fish, unique herbs and a lemon oil he is

particularly fond of.

Marneau took time off from his duties to talk with us about life in

the kitchen.

DP: What is your best dish, the one you make better than anyone else?

M: (Laughing) A big ego thing, huh? You know, I don’t look at it this

way. I look at it as we try to use different items and different products

that nobody does, that [only] some people do, but unusual products -- the

freshest, very seasonal products. We import a lot of fresh fish from

France. We use a lot of high-end products -- like truffles, wild

mushrooms, vegetables. And a lot of things we use are just a little bit

different than what you would see typically around here. We try to keep

it simple and nice and not too overpowered with spices.

DP: When and where did you start training?

M: When I was 13, I went to cooking school in France for three years,

and I started working at 16. I went to a cooking school called Le Gue A

Tresmes, north of Paris.

DP: What is a good day for you?

M: It’s when I see things that I can get from France that I used to

grow up with that my parents used to do. I can translate it to what we do

here and make people enjoy it too. We have beautiful fish coming from

France -- the dorade. It’s a French fish. . . . So whatever’s in season

and looks really nice, and you can tell it’s really unusual, and it’s

very fresh.

DP: Why do “unusual” products appeal to you?

M: Because our culture in France, we really like to try new things and

get very excited about eating. Eating in France is part of the culture,

so it’s very natural for us to get excited about eating and making

something that tastes really good.

DP: What is your favorite dish to cook and eat?

M: It’s something we do here at the restaurant, and I like ordering:

foie de gras with a nice glass of champagne.

DP: What is your favorite ingredient?

M: I would say so many things. A great thing we use right now is lemon

oil. It’s great. It goes with a lot of things. And herbs -- herbs and

lemon oil.

DP: Do you have a favorite piece of cooking equipment?

M: If I could, I would love to work with copper pots and pans, which

are outdated because they’re so ‘80s. But I really like working with

copper. I like the style. I like looking at the back of restaurant in

France when you’re cooking. It just has so much style, it looks good, it

reminds me of when I was really young. You always go back to your roots

at some point and look at when you grew up.

DP: Do you come up with your own recipes?

M: We don’t call them recipes, but we come up with our own ideas. We

try it out, we work with it, we see if it works this way. We don’t really

have recipes. It’s a way of cooking. We do it very naturally. When it

comes down to new dishes -- an entree, an appetizer -- we just make it.

We put our ingredients out of the fridge, look around, come up with

ideas. I try it. We all try it. The dishwasher tries it. We give it to

everybody to see their reaction. When I do something like this, I just

grab whoever’s around me and grab some forks and knives.

DP: How do you get inspired?

M: There’s many ways I do it. I like to sit with a glass of wine with

my wife at home. We make dinner, we look at magazines, we look at books.

We often go try out a competitor to see what others are doing. I love to

go to New York and San Francisco and Paris. We go to a very nice

restaurant [in Paris] -- we save up for that. It’s very important for us

to see what people are doing, just like any business would do.

DP: Is it hard to stay thin or watch your weight because you work with

food?

M: It’s not hard to stay thin. What’s the hardest is to eat properly

because you never eat at the same hours. I don’t know if you gain weight

from that. We don’t have very healthy personal habits. Sometimes you’re

so busy that sometimes it happens I just forget to eat.

DP: Do you eat the food you cook? Do you like your cooking?

M: I love my food, I love eating it, but I think there’s nothing

better than somebody cooking for you. My wife cooks for me. I love her

food because I didn’t make it. She has a style, I have a style.

DP: What made you want to be a chef?

M: I think my mom and my parents. They had their own garden, grew a

lot of vegetables. They had to because they didn’t have the resources to

afford a lot of good, fresh ingredients. And my mom is a great cook.

She’s the best cook. She would always try new things, open books. She

makes her own preserves and her own preserved meats. She always brings a

lot of things. It’s great, we get a little bit of France here.

DP: What’s the hardest part about your job?

M: The hardest part is you have to make sure you’re very consistent

and make sure that the product is up to standard overall. Every day is a

brand new day -- that’s the hardest part about this profession, coming in

every day, making sure you can perform like the other days.

DP: What do you least enjoy making?

M: I don’t like to make pastry. I love to eat pastry, but I don’t like

to make pastry. My wife is a pastry chef, so I let her do it.

DP: What chefs do you admire most?

M: My mom. She has this old-fashioned way of cooking. And Jean-Georges

at Jean-Georges Restaurant in New York -- very famous all over the world,

very classic French cooking. He moved to Asia when he was 20 or 24 years

old. He’s much older now but has a lot of Asian influence in his French

cooking.

DP: What’s more important to you? Taste or presentation?

M: Both are very important. Lately, I think taste is No. 1,

definitely. Easy steps and very good flavor, I think, sometimes comes

first before the presentation. Personally, I like when it tastes better

than it looks.

DP: If you had a show on the Food Network, what would you call it?

What type of food would you prepare?

M: “Cooking with Simplicity.” I would have a show like Jacques Pepin

has with Julia Child. It’s a great show. Jacques Pepin is a very good

teacher.

DP: Is there a dish you wish to perfect?

M: I always go back to this fresh fish. I think it’s so nice to get

those kinds of fish from France, and then you get close to perfection

with this kind of fish. It’s very different from what people put around

here. I probably put more work into these because I know how they need to

be cooked and undercooked and all these things.

FROM THE PINOT PROVENCE FILES

Roasted Day Boat Scallops and Cippolini Onions with White Truffle Oil,

Braised Oxtail

Serves 4

20 large scallops, cleaned

1 pound cippolini onions, peeled

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon butter

2 teaspoon white truffle oil

1 pound oxtail meat, cleaned

3 cups veal stock

1 1/2 cups red wine

2 medium carrots, diced

1 onion, diced

2 small shallots, diced

1 teaspoon cumin 3 tablespoons clarified butter

1 tablespoon thyme, chopped

1 tablespoon white truffle oil

1/2 teaspoon garlic, chopped

Salt and pepper to taste

Potato chips for garnish

In a large roasting pot with olive oil, caramelize the cippolini

onions, then add thyme, a 1/2 tablespoon of butter, 1/2 tablespoon of

truffle oil, and salt and pepper. Reserve.

Braise the oxtail meat in veal stock, red wine, carrots, onions,

thyme, shallots for two hours. Add in the garlic. Cool down the meat and

take it off the bone. Reserve.

Add cumin to the oxtail stock. Remove it from the heat and let steep.

Use butter to saute the scallops golden right before plating.

Plating: Center the caramelized onions on a large dinner plate. Place

braised oxtail on top, followed by the scallops for alayered effect.

Drizzle scallops with meat jus and truffle oil. Garnish with potato

chips. Mashed potatoes are recommended as a side dish.