Short Order: Marc Esquerre

MARC Esquerre, chief judge of France Gault&Millau, was in Australia recently to review restaurants.

Marc Esquerre

Best recent dining experience: Guy Savoy restaurant in Paris. This restaurant is a five Gault&Millau-hat and a three Michelin-star venue — it is amazing, one of the best in the world.

Must-buy ingredient: I am French so my must-buys are always bread, cheese and butter. They make life beautiful.

Most embarrassing pantry item: Nutella for my daughter and my wife … and me on a bad day.

Can’t live without: Again a very French response, but butter of course — only the best.

What I’m cooking at home: I am the cook at home and my wife is the baker — I love to cook dishes such as ratatouille and fish pie, I enjoy making the pastry. While it’s not cooking, I also make my own cider at home.

Next big thing: The “locavore” movement — which is to only eat what is grown around you, usually within 20km. People are after excellent produce — they want simple dishes that are all about the quality of the ingredients.

I hate: It is what I call slash dishes, popular in Paris and London. It is where the menu lists a dish as, say, cucumber/tomato/fetta, and you order and wait, wondering what the chef will make of these ingredients and then when it comes out it is just cucumber, tomato and fetta on a plate. I hate that. It is common in places we call bistronomie — bistros attempting to be gourmet.

Favourite cuisine: It is hard to pick just one! I enjoy French because it is so diverse, it is not just the traditional heavy dishes people think of. Italian for its warmth. Thai and Japanese food for its skill and intricacy.

Biggest culinary influence: Michel Guèrard. He was a founder of nouvelle cuisine and inventor of cuisine minceur. He was the first to say traditional is good but how can we make it lighter.

Favourite cookbook: Michel Guèrard’s La Cuisine Gourmande. This book came out in 1979 and it is still relevant, and the bible to many chefs. I began to cook with the book, and it still is used weekly in my kitchen.

My last supper: A simple spaghetti bolognese — it reminds me of my childhood. When I started going to restaurants with my parents I would always have the spaghetti bolognese.