Simple and Impeccable World of Mouchel

Hospitality - November 2005

The name pretty much says it all. The Brasserie by Philippe Mouchel. After 25 years of working for master chef Paul Bocuse, French-born Mouchel has confidently put his signature on his own place in Melbourne’s Crown Entertainment Complex. And while fine dining remains his first love, he is acutely aware that what Melburnians want in a restaurant is good, honest food at reasonable prices. “I might not be able to use foie gras or caviar, but brasserie can still be good fun. There’s so much you can do with it,” says Mouchel, noting that a brasserie is less formal than a restaurant, but not quite as casual as a bistro.

“In France, a ‘brasserie’ is where people congregate to enjoy simple but tasty food in a convivial atmosphere, served with generous hospitality. In the countryside it would be called an auberge and specialise in local produce.” Mouchel grew up in Normandy, where his father was a chef and he has fond memories of his mother and grandmother cooking at home. “It’s all based on cream,” he says of the cuisine in Normandy. “We probably have one of the best creams in France. There’s a lot of butter used, a lot of seafood, fish, lots of apple, very good cider and calvados, good beef and lamb.”

While he is “still in love with seafood and fish”, he no longer uses cream, except in pastry-making. In a concession to modern preferences for lighter food, he serves mains with a jus rather than a cream base. At the age of 16, Mouchel did his three-year apprenticeship at a restaurant with one Michelin star, located in a 20-room hotel. “It was a small operation so it was good to learn a lot.” Then, “like everyone else in France, we had to do one year in the army. I was, of course, in the kitchen.” A chance meeting with one of Paul Bocuse’s chefs helped him land a job with Bocuse in Lyon.

He spent the next 25 years working around the world for Bocuse, going to Japan in 1978 to open a restaurant called Renjaya. After four years there, he was sent to Hong Kong to open another restaurant, where he spent three years. Then he went to Houston in the United States: “I stayed only one year. I was not a fan of Houston.” He returned to Tokyo for six years, where he worked at the Hotel Okura, before being sent to Melbourne in 1991 to open Restaurant Paul Bocuse in the Daimaru shopping centre. Mouchel’s skill in the kitchen won widespread acclaim for the restaurant, which is still talked about long after its closure.

After seven years there, Mouchel left to open Langton’s Restaurant and Wine Bar as executive chef, followed by Liberté in Sydney. Two years later, he and his Japanese wife had to return to Japan for family reasons. It provided a brief respite from the kitchen, Mouchel opting instead to work as a marketing manager for a food and wine importer. He returned to Melbourne to open The Brasserie in May 2004. With high ceilings, a visible kitchen and lots of light, it has a sleek, contemporary décor and views over the Yarra River to the city skyline. There’s a terrace for outdoor dining and an excellent wine list comprising both Australian and French labels.

Mouchel admires the fine-dining style that Shannon Bennett is doing at Vue de Monde and he dreams of fresh foie gras being allowed into Australia one day. (He has already placed his order for the Roquefort cheese which has just been allowed in.) But with a vast number of restaurants located within the Crown Entertainment Complex, he is necessarily price-conscious. If Langton’s loosened the tie with fine dining, The Brasserie has discarded it altogether. The lengthy menu embraces slow braises, roasts, pan-fried dishes and grilled seafood dishes – all simply and impeccably prepared.

Some of the dishes, such as the beef tartare, are traditional; others are more contemporary, such as pan-fried duck breast with honey, spices and figs. Mouchel likes working with the cheaper cuts of meat, such as ox cheek and kidney, that characterise brasserie food. He is renowned for his cassoulet, on the menu every winter and loaded with pork sausage and duck confit. “We put a lot of love in our cooking.” Having worked in Japan for so many years, Mouchel considered doing a fusion style of food as other leading Australian chefs have done. However, he didn’t think he was good at it, and he thought there were already too many chefs doing it. “When you get older, you go back to your roots.”

© Christine Salins

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