Meet Laurent Montfort
French chef
Laurent Montfort grew up with eight brothers and sisters in a family where each meal was an opportunity to taste excellent home cooking and where generations of cookery skills were passed on from generation to generation, so much so that several members of the family became professional chefs! It’s therefore not that surprising that he decided to follow this path when he was just 13...
- "Cooking is not a job, it’s a passion"
- Laurent Montfort grew up with eight brothers and sisters in a family where each meal was an opportunity to taste excellent home cooking and where generations of cookery skills were passed on from generation to generation, so much so that several members of the family became professional chefs!
It’s therefore not that surprising that he decided to follow this path when he was just 13. During his CAP-BEP cookery and pastry-making course at the catering school in Saint Jean du Gard (France), he put his enthusiasm to the test in every challenge he faced.
At “La Fontaine” in the town of Olette, he learned the basics of home cooking, including making foie gras. “Pusignan” in Lyon (two Michelin stars) taught him the traditional gastronomic recipes of old, working with bread, chocolate and fi ne patisseries. At “Gilles Tournadre”, in Rouen (three stars), he got down to learning about fi sh.
In 1994, once he was qualifi ed, he took off for the Antilles, to look for new ideas and see a completely different culture. His fi rst stop was St Francois in the Lesser Antilles where he learnt how to manage a big team and organize buffets, amongst other things.
In 1996, he moved to New Caledonia to work at “Méridien de Nouméa”. Here, he was surrounded by chefs from the four corners of the globe. Working with them gave him enough
confi dence to be part of the team that opened a restaurant on Ile des Pins two year later. ‘It was paradise. We used to cook in the middle of the most beautiful lagoons’ he remembers.
But this didn’t stop him taking off on another adventure in 2003, to join “La Chaumière” in Nouméa.
Then, in 2009, with a desire to return to the everyday life of the big hotels, he joined the team at “Oasis” in the Ramada Plazza Hotel (Nouméa). In the kitchen, he worked on his own specialities and those of his family: homemade terrines, wild boar casserole, as well as his soft spot – anything with chocolate. Happiness is for this chef who never stops saying ‘‘Cooking is not a job, it’s a passion!’