Tomatoes from his mother’s garden: we see where 3-Michelin-star French chef at the Four Seasons Hong Kong Guillaume Galliot gets the fruit he serves diners
- To eat them just add olive oil, salt, pepper and bread – we sample some of the technicolour variety of tomatoes from a couple’s garden in France’s Loire Valley
- Diners in Hong Kong eat them too – the couple are the mum and stepdad of Guillaume Galliot, executive chef of three-Michelin-star Caprice at the Four Seasons
One early summer evening, picture-perfect clear blue skies make France’s Loire Valley even more special. Not for nothing did 15th and 16th century French nobility call the region the “Garden of France”.
It is home to France’s longest river, the Loire, the wide waters of which help to irrigate the abundance of vineyards, orchards and smallholdings that line its verdant banks.
Tours, its largest city, is a historical enclave located some 240km southwest of Paris. Just outside it sits the welcoming, warm home of Myriam and Jacky Deschamps.
They are mum and stepdad to Guillaume Galliot, executive chef at the three-Michelin-star Caprice restaurant, located some 10,000km away, in Hong Kong’s Four Seasons Hotel.
Their garden is responsible for producing a stunning array of sun-kissed tomatoes, 200kg of which make the long journey to Hong Kong to be crafted by Galliot into contemporary cuisine paying homage to his homeland.
“I believe in finding prestige in even the most humble ingredients, transforming them into unforgettable dishes,” he says. And what could be more humble than tomatoes picked straight out of his own mother’s garden?
