Chris is, of course, together with brother Jeff, the man behind Galvin La Chapelle, Galvin at Windows, Galvin Cafe a Vin and the spot we’re sitting in at the moment, Galvin Bistrot De Luxe, the place where it all started in 2005. It’s a restaurant that smells right as soon as you walk in; it may be on Baker Street but get inside and you’re in Paris for sure. There’s garlic in the air, the soft murmur of French as the staff polish glasses ready for the lunch service, chefs are in the room eating their midday meal early and there’s a clear sense of things being done right. It’s the kind of eaterie that Chris, who is in his chef’s whites himself today, despite having a large empire to run, loves with a passion.
France has always been his touchstone, ‘When I was a lot younger I’d write to all the great French restaurants in France, asking if I could come work as a trainee. On holidays we’d always go to France and all the different regions where I’d go to the markets, get produce and cook.’
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Chris’s accent, younger sounding than his actual age, is tinged with Essex not French, and he speaks quietly but with the authority of a man who has worked his way up the hard way, the traditional way, from being pot washer to Antony Worrall Thompson, ‘lovely man’, via The Ritz, The Lanesborough, Terence Conran and The Wolseley to where he stands today, one of the most respected chefs in town.
‘I’ve never really wanted a lot in life financially though,’ he says leaning back on one of the restaurant’s ironically rather luxurious banquettes. ‘I just like doing what I do really. We even moved as a family from a great big house to a little one in a village in Essex for the quality of life and it was one of the best things I’ve ever done.’
With such a successful career, you wonder what was the impetus to go out and open his own place was; after all he wasn’t short of well paid employment. ‘Well I’d been cooking a lot of years, most chefs want their own place and I was no different, but you wonder if you’ll ever have the money to do it. I got to the point where I felt I knew enough to do it and if I didn’t I never would. Mind you, if I’d known then about the other struggles you have to face, the legals, the rules and regulations maybe I wouldn’t have!’
Bistro de Luxe was the place the Galvins started with a big loan, big passion and big ideas to do something perfect. From day one it was a success and as it starts to fill up for another packed lunchtime with the sort of customers every restaurant wants – regulars- it seems its allure hasn’t faded. Where else in London could you see such a mix of people; young, old, groups plus single diners with their napkins fixed to their collars with the look of happy expectancy you only normally see in mainland Europe? The food is right, never more so than now in recessionary times. Who wants to see chef using tweezers to move a micro salad leaf into precisely the right spot on the plate? Not me and I suspect not many true foodies either. Big flavours banged out with precision by chefs who can work fast and work well, that’s what we want and at the right price too which is another way the Bistro scores high points.
Chris gets much of his produce direct from France, sourcing for value and quality to keep his prices affordable. Meat comes in shoulders, legs, and other cheaper less fashionable cuts that have all the flavour. And he buys seasonally, hitting the good stuff when its in glut and so low priced.
‘I certainly never for one second considered taking the money the easy way, using cheap produce for example. I believe in eating less but of best quality, doing the maths that way rather than serving loads of cheap food. Look at Iberia Ham, you certainly don’t get a lot of that for your money, but its fantastic, an explosion of flavour. You feel you’ve treated yourself.’
He’s dead right. Bistro de Luxe was ahead of its time and now seems to me more perfect than ever. A slice of France delivered by an Essex boy who knows how to cook food people want to eat. Sounds simple, but few get it right.
‘When El Bulli opened,’ Chris says, ‘I rushed over there, knew immediately it was amazing and also knew I would never go back. It’s not what I want to eat.’
Amen to that.