Maura Nelson (third from left), DMACC French professor and director of the Iowa Culinary Institute's French chef exchange program, stands with members of L'association des Cuisiniers de la Loire near Saint- Étienne, France, in 2010. / Special to the Register
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Across the deep blue sea in Saint-Étienne, a Des Moines sister city in southeastern France, two young chefs saw all their hard work rewarded.
Alexis Robin and Caroline Girol were, respectively, the winner and runner-up of the L’association des Cuisiniers de la Loire’s “trophée.” Their grand prix? A trip to Des Moines, Ia. Mais oui!
For the 12th year, the professional association of chefs from the area around Saint-Etienne in the Loire “department” of France (not to be confused with the Loire River valley area) awarded the prize.
The two up-and-comers, along with their chef-chaperone Gilbert Grandsire, will arrive Nov. 14 and spend two weeks working with the Embassy Club and Michael and Lisa LaValle. Their time here will culminate in a multicourse dinner on Nov. 24 at the downtown Embassy Club. The menu will feature the chefs’ winning dishes.
The club’s general manager, Michael LaValle, says the program is unique in the country. “We’ve been flying under the radar with this — it started before all the ‘celebrity chef’ stuff and now it’s pretty well established.”
Maura Nelson, a professor of French at Des Moines Area Community College and coordinator for the school’s longtime French chef exchange program, says Des Moines’ connection to chefs from St. Étienne started in 1986, shortly after the French town was designated a sister city.
“The sister city people called DMACC and asked if they were interested in having a chef come over and cook. They said sure,” Nelson says. As the school’s only French teacher, she was tapped as a translator. “Then, we thought the idea was so great, we decided to continue it.”
The Embassy Club and DMACC’s French chef exchange program both chip in to get the chefs here.
“It’s an inspiring thing to see these young people go on in their careers; they’re moving the culinary football forward in France. Most of them are now cooking in starred restaurants,” LaValle says. “It’s a back-and-forth giving thing and we get to bring a little of that sister city culture here. They were raised in that (food-centric) culture.
“These kids have, besides amazing technical skills, a really developed palate. They don’t have that Skittles palate so common here, where every flavor has to be exaggerated. They’ve got more talent in their pinkies than half the chefs on television.
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