The art of simplicity

Another successful season of Plat du Tour recently aired, his restaurants once again able to operate ‘face to face’ and a dominant performance by the French rugby team in this year’s Six Nations tournament – Guillaume Brahimi has every reason to smile. But then the celebrated French-Australian chef and long-time Audi ambassador has always been one to embrace the positives in life – very much a part of his ‘living life to the full’ in the very best French tradition – la belle vie if you will.

It’s this same attitude that helped Guillaume navigate the myriad challenges posed by the last two years, having to put his restaurants on hold while ensuring staff were looked after and a new way of operating put in place to see everyone through. But that’s just what you do says the irrepressible Brahimi who has been a permanent fixture at the top of the country’s culinary scene for years.

“You know you have to adapt and reinvent yourself and find a way to make it work,” he says of the rolling lockdowns and forced isolation.

“First we made sure that all the staff were okay and that had enough financial income and then we worked on finding new ways to keep busy.”

That initially meant finding new ways to connect, although the very face-to-face nature of the hospitality industry and fine restaurants in particular didn’t necessarily seem a perfect fit for the emerging wave of zoom usage.

Nevertheless, that is exactly one of the directions he took, connecting with the likes of the Audi online experiences to bring his famous fare right into the kitchens of many Audi customers in an online version of the popular Audi lifestyle experiences. Indeed Guillaume became the first  Audi ambassador to share his skills via this unique, live and intimate format in what was to become a tremendously successful series during the pandemic.

“It was hard, but we just made it work,” he says. “We did a lot of online cooking classes and created takeaway options from some of the venues as well as doing some room service options for people in quarantine,” he says.

Indeed over time, this ‘new approach’ became extremely busy in its own right as customers also adapted to the ongoing situation.

But for someone so used to presiding over a highly successful and far flung business, the sudden ‘stop’ took some time to adjust to. 

“I can’t go to Melbourne and I can’t go to Perth … restaurants are closed, so I’d pick up the phone and call staff members to check that they’re okay. Zoom was also amazing,” he says of the transition.

But while the business side of things was difficult and certainly a challenge, the personal side of the pandemic provided an often rare but very welcome opportunity to spend more time with family. Instead of constantly being on the move, suddenly he found himself forced to stay put.

It took a while, but eventually he realised it was ‘okay to just sit back and read a book’. 

Since the slow return to ‘normal’ some lessons from the last two years have also been carried over as the country and the rest of the world opens up again. Online meetings have become a staple of doing business wherever possible, but such is the nature of Guillaume’s various projects and of course the restaurants, that there is ultimately no substitute for travel. Not long after travel resumed he was back in the air again and catching the dreaded ‘red-eye’ to Perth and even heading back to France to film and reconnect with family.

“It’s always fantastic to travel and see family and friends. And the overseas travel is nowhere near as difficult as people seem to think.”

“We went for eight weeks overseas. The travel is great but it’s all about balance. If you can get that balance you’re ahead of everything.”

That stint saw him complete the latest in the tremendously successful Plat du Tour series for SBS and a new series, Guillaume’s Paris, which will air in September.

For Guillaume, the appeal to doing television is the chance to meet the many people whose daily contributions underline his own philosophy on producing the very best.

“Artisans who are making something special, not for me [and the show] but every day. I’m talking about bakers, pastry chefs, butchers, florists. I was blown away by the people I met in France and Paris especially who are perfectionists. Experts in their field.”

“For me, that’s what makes it so special. That’s what makes France so special.”

It’s also very much a part of Brahimi’s own makeup and the way he has approached his own cooking and indeed life since his earliest memories.

“My Dad would go to this market in Paris to get goat’s cheese and then drive another 20 minutes to get a particular washed rind. That’s the way the French are.”

That same insistence on using only the finest ingredients from the very best produces is also ingrained in Brahimi and the way he operates. Growing up, his Grandmother would go out and buy the bread three times a day. Now, going daily to his own favourite suppliers is as much a part of his own lifestyle as it is in the way he runs his restaurants. 

Indeed this approach very much underlines the appeal of French food. Fashions come and go, but the exacting nature of French cuisine never goes out of style. 

For Guillaume, an acknowledged master of his craft, cooking the perfect roast chicken for example is a never ending quest. Constantly striving for perfection in every minute aspect of a dish is the goal.

Sourcing only the best and supporting local providers are the cornerstones of Guillaume’s approach to producing the finest French fare.

“I’m trying to be a window to France in my philosophy and in what I do and also showcasing the great growers and great farmers we’ve got here in Australia,” he says.

It’s a marriage made in culinary heaven for anyone who has sampled Guillaume’s classic French cuisine, but it is the result of tremendous dedication and that ongoing search for perfection.

“Not everybody wants to work at night, not everybody wants to work in a kitchen,” he says of what it takes to succeed at this level and stay at the top. “I think there’s a big reassessment now post COVID, you know ‘do I want to work 10 hours a day, do I want to work on the weekend’ so I think if you want to cook you have to be passionate.”

And passion is a word that essentially sums up Guillaume Brahimi. He is both passionate and absolutely dedicated to everything he does. Whether that be cooking the perfect roast chicken or cheering on the French national team.

It’s all about keeping it simple, but as Brahimi admits – ‘Simplicity is the hardest thing’.