Beatriz Gonzales

A as Citrus

Lemon in Mexico is the basis of seasonings: « Juice and zest raise any dish, salty as sweet », Jubilee Beatriz Gonzalez. This chef of a brilliant and exploding bistronomy met Perrine and Etienne Shaller, founder of Agrumes Bachès in the Pyrénées-Orientales, an orchard of an incredible citrus collection. « I had the chance to visit their estate, their citrus variety is exceptional. These are products I'm having fun with! » In fact, caviar lemon, bouddha hand, yuzu, sudachi, kalamansi, limequat, pomeloquat... Beatriz grapple, press, peel, size, cut and cut out these little wonders of sweet acidity. And we also burst: lobster tartar, caviar lemon and nori mayonnaise; grapefruit cream, burnt grapefruit and white cheese sorbet.

B as Bocusse

the young Mexican arrives in Lyon at the age of 18 to follow on the recommendation of her
Father, the courses of the Institute Paul-Bocuse (now Lyfe Institute). The curriculum is two years. It's not going to be unemployed. After four months, she mastered our language and became literally crazy about French cuisine. All the delight: foie gras, morillas, asparagus, truffles... and also bread, wine, cheese: « How good! It's divine! I want to learn everything », she exclaimed to the envi. The conqueror obviously falls under the charm of another conqueror of gastronomy, « Mr. Paul » which points its high stature and its immense aura at the Institute to greet the students: « He was adorable », she still remembers moved. His passion for our culinary art will only assert during his two internships, in La Belle Otero, in Cannes, then at Pierre Orsi in Lyon. « If it were to be done again, I would do that school again. », insists the cook who was honorary president of Bocuse d'or 2021. A pride and consecration that she is not close to forgetting.

C as Cozumel

It's far away. It is the Mexican island, on the Caribbean Sea, where Beatriz Gonzalez grew up.
Her parents had two restaurants. Neither his father nor his mother were in the ovens, but his mother slipped every morning into the kitchens to make his children's meals. « My mother cooks like a god », s The chef said she had recently exchanged a lot with her mother to prepare the recipes for the sauces accompanying the tacos of her last-born restaurant, Taco Mesa. « Cozumel, I'm going back every year. This is an important place for me »confided the very French Mexican chef.

F as Fume

Dig a hole in the earth. Light a fire. Wrap meat or fish with large leaves. Cook them in the hole. The technology of the buried oven is very common in Mexico and provides a great taste for smoky foods. Beatriz Gonzalez does not dig holes in the earth, but smokes fish, vegetables or even fruit, but they, « never more than 3 to 5 minutes ». Its smoked mackerel, beets, raspberries and green pepper beet sorbet is one of the entrances to the Coretta. As for its amblé-matic veal ris, it gets its delicate flavor thanks to a cooking in a Big Green Egg, an ultra-performing oven-barbecue elected by many chefs.

G as a large waterfall

Beatriz joined the historic Boulogne Wood Restaurant in 2006. She followed Frédéric Robert, who had just been appointed chief and with whom she had worked for four years at Lucas Carton. « I discover a universe: number of cutlery, huge spaces and kitchens, brigade of about fifteen people... and the family Menut, the owners, great bosses. » The young party leader, deter- minée and more passionate than ever before, climbs the skies and becomes Frédéric Robert's assistant. For five years, Beatriz juggles with « very beautiful products », observe and admire the evolution of the one she always appoints
« Chief Robert », an outstanding technician who, gently, managed to stand out from Alain Senderens' cuisine and assert his own culinary identity. It still reigns today on the starry cuisine of the Grande Cascade.

H as hashtag #metoo

Beatriz, if she supports all women victims of discrimination, or worse, says
net: « I never had to suffer anything and never felt like a problem being a woman in the kitchen. The leaders with whom I worked treated everyone the same and only skill and seriousness imported them. Today, when I recruit men or women, only the quality of the candidate matters. » She smiled and remembered those few months when, by chance, the entire La Grande Cascade brigade was... feminine! It went very well.

I as Ikejime

It is a technique of slaughtering fish that has been practiced in Japan for centuries. This method neutralizes the nervous system of fish whose flesh becomes more quality and conserves longer. « I saw it practiced at the Madrid Fusion [annual meeting in Madrid], which is fabulous! », exclaims the chief. It supplies to several fishers fishing small boats from Brest, Quiberon, Saint-Jean-de-Luz... some of which practice likejime. Above all, it does not require anything and adapts to the products offered. Its bluefin tuna tataki line ikejime s a wing of a milling skate is scented with pastis and crab bisque; a yellow place line from a macadamia pralinée and a coffee gel.

J as juice

« I love it! Juice is essential in the French wine industry », ignites this Mexican conquered by the French art of sauces. White bottom, brown bottom, veal juice, bisque, smoke... She took up the basics at the Paul Bocuse Institute, but the revelation occurred during her years at Lucas Carton. « Many juices were thrown at the same time, duck, hare, veal, poultry, fish smoke... I was impressed! », she says. In its two bistronomic restaurants, Neva Cuisine and Coretta, all the bottoms and juices are made in the pure French tradition, then, sometimes, enhanced by the creative touch of the chef, kombu white butter, veal juice with spices, cocoa sauce inspired by Mexican mole... : « The sauce, It's the gourmet of the dish. »

Anne-Laure and Andrea, respectively pastry chef and party chef at Coretta, are delighted to work with Beatriz: « She's in sharing, benevolence and teaching us a lot. This is like a family! » Far from theirs, the two young women are housed in the Leopold Murier residence, the home of the French cooksIn Clichy.

L as books

Beatriz is « addictive » To the cookbooks.

It has tons of them and even in Mexico that it has not yet been able to bring back. The chef quotes the works of Paul Bocuse, Jean-François Piège, the Roca brothers and Alexandre Gauthier: « I'm always looking for chefs, recipes, techniques... All this inspires me and I adapt it to my kitchen and to the requirements of my restaurants where menus must remain accessible to all. » Beatriz Gonzalez has just brought his stone to the editorial building with the publication of « Mesa, my Mexican cui- sine », published this year in Solar editions, 80 sunny recipes of guacamole, tacos, quesadillas or churros which attest that Mexican cuisine also flows in the veins of this French chef.

M as Matthew Marcant

Originally from Nord–Pas-de-Calais, Matthieu Marcant, after a techno baccalaureate in hospitality-restaurant, joined the Paul-Bocuse Institute in Lyon for a bachelor's degree in hospitality-management... and bim, he met Beatriz. He then followed the Spoon, in London, as leader, then Le Scribe, in Paris, as master of the hotel for seven years. He worked successively alongside chefs Yannick Alléno, Jean-François Rouquette and Franck Char- pentier. Today, he « Turn » in each of the couple's three establishments, and can, among other things, count on Guillaume Tempere, his room manager at Coretta. Matthew especially endorsed a new hat, the sommery: « I had taken a taste for wine thanks to the formation of the Paul Bocuse Institute, but I really learned "on the job" at the opening of Neva Cuisine. We offer a wide choice of bottles by adapting to the clientele of each restaurant: in the Neva, a lot of business meals, so rather conventional wines, the cuvée du Papy, a saint-joseph of Stéphane Montez, for example, is very much in demand. At Coretta, with a more "fashionable" clientele, one can afford to go on natural wines, such as those of Catherine and Pierre Breton, in Indre-et-Loire, or the Bott-Geyl estate, in Alsace. At Taco Mesa, head for Mexico, with a pressure Corona and a nice choice of cocktails made from tequila or mezcal.

N like Neva Cuisine

It is the first restaurant opened by the couple. Beatriz Gonzalez and Matthew Marcant met at the Paul Bocuse Institute in 1999: « Since then, we have never left, it has been twenty-five years! » Motivated by her husband, the one who was Frédéric Robert's second at La Grande Cascade embarks on an adventure: an old pizzeria rue de Berne, in Paris, will become their « first baby », Neva Kitchen. « In two months, we cleaned everything up, everything redone, everything set up. My parents and Matthew's have come to help us scratch, rub, paint... It was opened in June 2011. The brigade of the Great Cascade came to help her rest days, too sweet! But when I see my first dishes, stuffed pigeon or Wel-Lington beef, I find them horrible! My kitchen was born little by little, thanks also to my trips to Iceland, Norway, the Philippines, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam... they opened their minds. » The chef, very close to her teams, also feeds on all their ideas and initiatives, such as those of her deputy chief, Jude Roberts, who accompanies her, very complicit, for a long time Coretta, the second establishment, a neo-trot-bi-backed park Martin Luther-King, opened in 2014. A bistronomy with multiple influences, mixing the great French tradition with more travely flavours and the superb creativity of the chef.

O as an egg

« For Mexicans, eggs are scrambled, flat... and eat at breakfast », explains Béatriz, who, upon his arrival in France, discovers « another one goes to them » eggs, associated with truffle, caviar, sea urchins... « So there's a different way to enjoy the eggs and then go crazy! » At the Neva Cuisine or the Coretta, the chef always has a menu: perfect eggs that she marries with potatoes, onions from the Cevennes and truffle or Paimpol coconuts, twilight sparassis and parmesan broth. She also makes condiments « Very nice » with low temperature cooked egg yolk base. All his eggs are organic.

P like Pierre Orsi

During his second six-month internship at the Paul Bocuse Institute in 2001, Beatriz joined Pierre Orsi's establishment in Lyon: « Rigourous, demanding, but a chef present from the opening to the closing of the restaurant and in the transmission. He was taking us to the Halles de Lyon... And his kitchen was so well thought out. It was admirable! » She also remembers the coffee that Paul Bocuse regularly came to take at home and with his friend Pierre Orsi.

Q as quality

The chef supplies as much as possible with French products and if possible from the Paris region like these little kiwais whose pavlova passion-kiwais-sorbet lemon. But its trecôte comes from Imanol Jaca, a butcher from the Spanish Basque Country: « Incredible quality, so good meat! Imanol says that the breed of cattle is not crucial, what matters is that the cow is big and old! » She laughs. Quality products therefore, but also a real requirement on waste: « Our garbage can is small and I'm able to dive my hand into it to make sure nothing is ruined. » Vegetable bud with peels, juice with poultry carcasses, fish tails folded, rolled and served, smaller round to not waste water, lights off... Beatriz is intractable.

R as veal laughs

The chef's specialty! It's first at Alain Senderens and then at the Grande Cascade that she got into this very fine dish. She's been thinking about how she works. Well, he took it! Veal ris is on the menu all year round at Neva and Coretta. Crustining, the chef puts it on lacquered with reduced veal juice with lemon and apple juice, escorted by a cumin purée of eggplant, fresh figs and pickles, lemon paste condi- « for the small health note » or with a frying pan and a ginger carrot fall, full of cocoa and full-bodied juice...

S as Senderens

In 2001, Beatriz Gonzalez graduated in pocket and returned to Mexico for eight months to work with his parents. She then went to Florence, Italy: « I was speaking Mexican, English and French, but I wanted to learn Italian and discover Tuscan cuisine. » Returning to France in 2003 where she joined the Lucas Carton Brigade as a clerk. The « Chief Robert » is at the helm of the three Michelin stars, but Alain Senderens is very present: « Chou stuffed with foie gras, duck pie, vanilla lobster, kadaïf lobster or Thai sauce – which I know by heart – Mr.Senderens was a forerunner in the kitchen, but also a very team-conscious man. The staff ate very well and, when he arrived, he came to greet everyone with a "hello", except me, to whom he said "Hello, darling!" » Beatriz laughs.

T like Taco Mesa

All in length and pimped with bright colours in the lively rue du Faubourg-Poissonnière, Taco Mesa, the little last of Beatriz Gonzalez and Matthieu Marcant, opened at the end of 2023, stands out from their other two establishments. You can sit along a large counter or take away the delicious tacos, fine cakes of corn garnished with confit pig or on the brooch, simmered beef... They eat with their fingers and salsa verde, a traditional Mexican sauce. The idea of this street food was born during the Covid-19 epidemic: « We started with meals for caregivers, then take-away dishes at Coretta for the general public. But to be able to participate in a delivery system, something had to be invented. Tacos, I never did! This project was mounted from food to packaging. I wanted it to be excellent and you felt a little in Mexico. »Tell the chief. The success is at the rendezvous: a long queue patiently waiting in front of this Parisian taqueria.

V as meat or vegetarian

« I'm carnivorous as much as vegetarian! », enjoy Beatriz. If there are no vegetarian or vegan dishes to its menus, the chef of Neva and Coretta meets the demand with plates sublimating vegetables pulsed with condiments, lemon paste, red fruits, peppers...

W as Wasabi

It uses a lot of it either in powder or grating the root of wasabi: « It's
A very nice seasoning. My heart was at William Ledeuil's house, which married white chocolate and wa-sabi. » She likes grating on a tuna tartare or making an anchovies-wasabi condiment to encame a rib.