Shop stories : Le Moulin de Mougins
Returning to the archive for this series of Shop Stories.
In 1988 Roger Vergé, a Michelin star chef, was collecting an award at The Savoy Hotel. Viewing the Rabbit travel bags in the showcase by the American bar, he promptly placed an order for the entire collection to sell in the atelier attached to his celebrated restaurant, Le Moulin de Mougins. For the next 12 years, an order would arrive every few months for Weekend and Overnight bags to be bought by the clientele of the film and art world. Each January, Roger and his wife, Denise, would commission an artist to commemorate each year which would be sent to their suppliers as a thank you for the past year. I cherish these prints by many revered artists including Theo Tobiasse.
Vergé opened his famous Moulin de Mougins in 1969 with his wife Denise. Celebrated as one of France's most prominent restaurants, a troop of future culinary stars trained there, such as Alain Ducasse, David Bouley and Daniel Boulud. A stone's throw from the Croisette and Nice airport, at the foot of the village of Mougins, this centuries-old mill steeped in history is an exceptional gastronomic and artistic address on the Côte d'Azur. In a captivating setting which opens onto the outside with its Provençal gardens and terraces, the works of some of the greatest contemporary artists rub shoulders with the signatures of celebrities of yesterday and today and an essential stopover for gourmet foodies.
Though Le Moulin was informal, had plenty of tables on the terrace and the building, incorporating the old olive-press, was unintimidating, the Vergés decided in 1977 to open what they called a more accessible restaurant, L’Amandier de Mougins, just down the road, which had more Provençal and Niçois dishes, such as stuffed courgettes, artichokes Barigoule and salad mesclun, and at lower prices. L’Amandier does not have rooms, as does Le Moulin, but housed Vergé’s cooking school. It rapidly acquired two Michelin stars of its own, making Vergé the chef with the most Michelin stars (five) in all France. Moreover, his kitchens became a nursery for the culinary stars of the future, including Alain Ducasse (now the starriest of all), Jacques Maximin, Jacques Chibois, David Bouley and Daniel Boulud.
Vergé was associated with other pioneers of the nouvelle cuisine such as Paul Bocuse, Michel Guérard and the Troisgros brothers, but he became a sort of spokesman for Provençal cuisine, which he called “la cuisine heureuse”, happy cooking. It is, he said in the preface to his first book, “the antithesis of cooking to impress – rich and pretentious. It is a light-hearted, healthy and natural way of cooking which combines the products of the earth like a bouquet of wild flowers from the meadows.”
A keen collector of contemporary French art, Vergé was an interesting and genuinely nice man. History will be kind to him, if only for the reason given in Conran’s preface to her adaptation of Cuisine of the Sun: “Roger Vergé, of all the master-chefs working in France today, is probably the one whose ideas are most accessible to home cooks… he has never lost sight of the fact that cooking should be a pleasure – a celebration of wonderful ingredients, cooked in a simple and practical way that will not overtax the cook and leave her (or him) too exhausted to enjoy the meal.”
Vergé was a brilliant cook and a terrific host. It is no surprise that he got his first Michelin star the next year; the second came in 1972 and the third in 1974. He was now officially one of the best chefs in the world, but the greeting in the restaurant remained genial and unstuffy. As Mougins was only a 15-minute drive from Cannes, the film festival provided a steady stream of celebrities to be photographed with the moustachioed chef with the dazzling smile.
Roger Vergé 1930-2015
