Monsieur Paul, the more sedate restaurant on the second level of the France pavilion at Epcot, has named Nicolas Lemoyne as its new chef de cuisine. He replaces Francesco Santin, who has returned to France to work at another Bocuse property.
Like Santin, Lemoyne comes from the company’s mother restaurant — or father restaurant, if you will — l’Auberge du Pont de Collanges, also known simply as Paul Bocuse. Lemoyne spent three years there as a chef de partie, or one who oversees a section of the kitchen. At l’Auberge, he supervised a number of stations.
Prior to that, he worked in Jakarta, Indonesia, for three years and for one year at the estimable Daniel in New York.
Monsieur Paul, named for Bocuse, features a number of dishes from the legendary restaurant just outside of Lyon, including Truffle Soup V.G.E., created by Bocuse and named for then president of France Valéry Giscard d’Estaing. Lemoyne said recently that he knows he will need to keep such items on the menu but that he plans to add some of his own signatures to the offerings in the next few weeks.
Monsieur Paul is in the former Bistro de Paris space above the more visible and consistently busy Chefs de France. It reopened under its current concept in December of 2012. It is arguably one of the best dining experiences inside any of the theme parks. Its location, however, presents the anomaly of fine theme park dining: An upscale restaurant experience with a downscale (at least in terms of dress) clientele. Monsieur Paul is open only during dinner hours; Chefs de France serves all day.
By the way, look for some changes at Chefs de France in the near future, too. The menu there will start to reflect more classically French fare.
