The Farm of Hospitality
No cows or chickens on that farm. The Neighbors' Farm, located in the old village of Neighbors-le-Bretonneux, in the Yvelines, is a wonderful restaurant where guests are pampered. But the warm welcome of the establishment is not its only quality: the chief and manager, Romain Gicquel, It offers a cuisine of beautiful French tradition mixed with a harmonious touch of modernity. On this farm, you feel good and eat very well.
He passed his college certificate motivated by the promised paternal reward in case of success: a moped. He got the moped! School wasn't too fond of him. Kitchen, on the other hand, was his business. Today, Romain Gicquel, head and manager of La Ferme de Voisins since 2006, says it loud and clear:
« It's not because you're not good at school that you won't do anything about your life! Cooking is a social elevator. The profession creates encounters, networks, opportunities. The meal gathers. »
And, gathering around Romain Gicquel, it is to be sure of a pleasant moment of exchange and conviviality. And, gathering around a table in his restaurant in Neighbors-le-Bretonneux (Yvelines), it is the assurance of a (very) good meal in a warm and welcoming setting. On a pimping and flowery terrace in the beautiful days, near the dancing flames of the large central fireplace in winter.
The amazing menu « Small farm »
We'll have to choose. « Small farm », is the amazing menu to 35 € (starter, dish, dessert) proposed by La Ferme de Voisins at lunch. They put water on your mouth: creamy velvety butternut-carrots-ginger and egg perfect or surprising flash to the mousse d Balanced, seasoned with pile-poil and harmonious flavours, this menu recently set up despite the price increases of raw materials, energy and multiple taxes, won many votes. Romain Gicquel, 43, doesn't hide behind his little finger:
« It's difficult right now. Three consecutive years have never been achieved. By 2025, we're down. All these difficulties are usable, but... I still like my job so much! »
« Transmission matters to me »
He's not that old, Romain Gicquel. But this forty-year-old speaks with conviction of a fundamental value for him: transmission. No, rather a triple transmission: « We need to transfer life skills, know-how and know-how », explains the leader who wants everything he has been taught not to stop at him. While he has trained many of them, some of whom have participated in the Best Apprenticeship of France competition, he regrets that the number of apprentices is currently decreasing: « There are fewer and fewer young people who want to do this, there is less and less passion. » A passion that is always so lively among this Victorian chef despite the present hazards: « Unfortunately restaurants are in trouble, some close. The life of the restaurant is not represented by the only cuisines of Parisian authors or those from « Top Chef ». It is all these leaders of the regions of France who fervently feed the French. They're the ones who do our job. » Absorbent, demanding as much as exciting.
Grandma Josette's financiers
A profession that the very young Roman, born in 1982, certainly does not choose as his own. He grew up in Montigny-le-Bretonneux in a sibling of 4 boys and parents who did not exercise at all in the restoration – Dominique, his father is an official at Orange, Christine, his mother, hairdresser – Romain is educated to the taste of good things: « fantastic » his grandmother Josette's financials, the blanquettes, burgundy and gratin with his father's ham or his uncle's famous wine cock. « I knew very quickly that I wanted to go to the kitchen. I like to spend time there. Cooking is at the same time a little selfish, one is focused on what one does, and generous, one does it in order to treat others. It's a pleasure to enjoy yourself! », entrusts the one who joins, at the age of 15, the Tecomah school, in Jouy-en-Josas.
A rich apprenticeship
Forward! CAP and BEP in two years and alternating at the Pied de Mouton, traditional bistro in Versailles:
« We had a 36-franc menu with lobsters and foie gras! »
Remember the former apprentice. He is trained at all the bases of French cuisine under the guidance of his boss and master of learning, Michel Betis (today chef owner of Mirabelle in La Gaude): « A true leader, paternalist and in transmission; All the fish fillets were raised, I would shell 25 kilos of lobster or clean 10 kilos of mussels. I was going to the butcher's house, market him... A learning so rich! » Romain Gicquel continues his training in professional baccalaureate, always in Tecomah, alternating at Cartier, the luxury house that owns its business restaurant and president's table. « There I learn speed and organization », tells the one who participates in the realization of 180 daily cutlery for the staff with, please, 5 entrances, 5 dishes and 5 desserts to choose from. It is better not to lambinate. At the same time he discovers the kitchen of high-end products, lobsters, turbots..., for the president's VIP table. « I like it! », summarizes the one that follows with a complementary mention pastry maker, glacier, chocolate maker, confectioner obtained in 2002.
First experience at La Ferme de Voisins
It was as party leader that Romain Gicquel joined La Ferme de Voisins at Didier Hayes in September 2002. He was soon promoted to deputy chief:
« I'm going to Rungis with my boss. I'm learning to go to several producers, compare products, check their quality... It's important! »
The menu of this restaurant offers classic French dishes, such as lamb roulette, snails, veal liver, kidneys...
« We're in the country! Still today, when I put kidneys on the map, it works well. As for the calf head, it is impossible to remove it from the card! »,
state the leader. But we're not here. And in 2004, Romain Gicquel, who already knows how to want his own establishment, wants to add other strings to his bow. It joins the Domaine du Verbois, in Neauphle-le-Château, to experience room-service, breakfasts, receptions and banquets. In 2006, his skills are solid, varied, Romain starts to browse the announcements of establishments to be taken over...
Authenticity and modernity
The young man can only stop at the announcement of The Neighbors' Farm... where he worked! Top there! The case is made, Romain Gicquel takes over the house and opens on November 14, 2006. He's 24. « The tool is in working order. We can work. » Little by little, the cook will make his nest. This nice, shimmering and very friendly nest. The decoration of the room has been redone, the map has evolved quietly to reflect today the mastery and skill of this chef who mixes with bio authenticity and modernity: « We've taken a lot of outcasts. We turned towards the thinnest, the lightest. 30-40% sugar was removed from desserts. » Romain Gicquel likes the beef fillet he works in chateaubriand, lardé and just snacked, in Wellington-style crust, brioche individually and whose sauces he likes to vary: a simple and good meat juice « which does not hide trimmings », pepper sauce, bearnaise... A winter vegetable, butternut becomes, at La Ferme de Voisins, a velvety poured on a foie gras escalope, a daring and successful band, muslin and butternut cubes or a Butternut-Feta pizza, served at the Pizza Pappa which Romain opened right next door and managed by his little brother, Aymeric, also room manager of the Neighbors' Farm.
Jazz and magic
Two other menus are available: « The Farm » EUR 55 and « Signature » EUR 79.
Extremely competitive prices to taste veal head, crunchy vegetables and ravigot sauce; lobster, gables and saffron ephemeral; crispy veal ris nuts, mushrooms and garliced meat juice... It would at last be more than a pity not to keep a little appetite for desserts: chocolate-marron fingers; baba home stopper, orange arranged rum; declination around citrus, sorbet yuzu or almond, biscuit success, ganache up and ice pistachio. Romain Gicquel also organises once a month an evening « Jazz » and another « Magic » : « These are animations that please, different atmospheres, very joyful. » The chief, father of two boys, Amaury and Arthur, does not propose a child menu, but « half-port, half-tariff ». Education of taste buds is important: « Children must taste the same as their parents. » To satisfy a business clientele at lunchtime, private at night and family at weekends, Romain Gicquel leaves the aurora at the Rungis market to choose the best products. For human resources and all accounting, he can count on his wife, Elise. And lean on a team room and kitchen solid and trustworthy. Yes, the times are tough, the era is complicated, so to cheer up and support our French restaurant, to spend the most enjoyable of moments and enjoy an excellent meal, not hesitation, quickly, a reservation... at La Ferme de Voisins.
Valérie Bouvart
Article to be found in the Revue Culinaire No 958
