The hearth at L’Élite before service, embers glowing

Chapitre IV

We cook with fire. We finish with restraint.

L’Élite is a room built around a hearth. A charcoal grill, an oak oven, and a kitchen that cooks the Mediterranean with French discipline.

The open kitchen at L’Élite during evening service

01The open kitchen

Nothing happens backstage.

There is no door between the kitchen and the room. You hear the grill before you see it, and you see the cooks long before you taste anything.

If a plate cannot be finished in front of you, it does not go on the menu. The pass is a marble counter, and the counter is open to everyone.

You hear the grill before you see it.

Glowing charcoal and oak embers in the grill

02Charcoal and wood

Fire is the loud part.

We burn lump charcoal for heat and oak for scent, and each has its own station. Lamb goes over the coals until the lacquer catches. Bread goes into the oak oven at the top of every hour.

The fire is lit at ten in the morning and banked at midnight. It is the first thing we tend and the last thing we leave.

Fire is the loud part. Everything after it is quiet.

A chef spooning a glossy jus over a plate

03Sauces and timing

The quiet part.

The technique is French. Stocks take two days. Butter is mounted into a sauce at the last second, and a jus is reduced until it coats the spoon and not a moment longer.

Timing is the real recipe. A plate leaves the pass when it is ready, not when it is called for.

A plate leaves the pass when it is ready, not when it is called for.

Hands tearing hot bread fresh from the oak oven, steam rising

Le pain

Baked every hour.

L’ordre du soir

The evening, in three acts.

I
Arrival
Warm bread, something cold from the bar, and the first sound of the grill.
II
The fire
Plates arrive as they leave the coals, meant for the middle of the table.
III
The last course
Something sweet, a small cup of cardamom coffee, and no one hurrying you out.