Restaurant
Pascal Basso is a happy chef, not quite like the others. It is that it excels as much in the salty as in the sweet. He is also one of the nine pastry chefs in the Michelin guide's 2020 Dessert Promotion.
Latest edition : 26 April 2020
He's a chef just the way we like them, enthusiastic, cheerful, accessible and whose leitmotif is: “to please”. A desire that comes to him from his mother with whom he discovered cooking and baking from the age of 5. “His good little dishes pleased the family, the guests. ". During his apprenticeship at the Auberge Saint-Laurent in Sierentz – “Marco Arbeit was an extraordinary chef” – his apprenticeship supervisor quickly realized that the young Pascal was fascinated by pastry. “So, it was at home that I trained for my exams. My parents were very happy that I prepared them the different dishes of the CAP and the Professional Certificate! »
After a stint at the Enoteca, a Relais & Château in Florence, and the Manoir in Rixheim, Pascal Basso joined Christophe Kaegy in his restaurant Le Colombier in Bartenheim-la-Chaussée. The duo have been delighting the taste buds of guests for 10 years: one with their culinary creations, the other with the choice of the perfect wine. “We are a tight-knit team. Christophe Kaegy trusts me. Excellent sommelier, he always recommends the wine that goes perfectly with the different dishes. We also have a mention for our cellar in the Michelin guide”.
Le Colombier's cuisine displays a beautiful unity with perfect harmony between dishes and desserts. Normal, since Pascal Basso provides both positions! The many Mediterranean touches on his menu, which bring color and flavors, are all nods to the roots of Pascal Basso. “My mother was of Calabrian origin, my father comes from Melfi, near Naples. If these dishes are as beautiful as they are good, Pascal Basso 's
great love remains pastry. Her desserts, which look like jewels, have a "wow" effect. "It's my greatest pleasure when I hear guests go into raptures," he admits with a big smile. “In pastry, you can innovate, play with colors. It's more artistic. I'm teeming with ideas and sometimes I have to force myself to take a break! »
This passion for pastry, this desire to always go further, also encourages him to participate in competitions. Six times in the French dessert championship, with twice a 3rd place, twice a 2nd. “The first few times, my mistake was to want to do too much! Now it's three flavors at most. Preparation for the competition takes a year. Participating in the championships also allows me to move forward, not to stay on my achievements. »
Her unconditional love for desserts was rewarded this year with the Michelin guide's Passion Dessert trophy. A distinction awarded to only nine chefs: all exclusively pastry chefs, apart from Pascal Basso. Who remembers with shivers the visit of the inspector of the famous little red guide: “It was a very bad day in the kitchen…. ". Not as bad as that after all!
To make his creations, the chef and pastry chef is never short of ideas as to the technical means to be implemented. Thus, for example, he has hijacked an old record player : he uses it to spin his plates in order to create spiral designs, for example.
Sugar lamp, sugar pump… Pascal Basso manages with the means on board. "Adelia, my wife, calls me the MacGyver of baking," he laughs heartily. “I'm a jack-of-all-trades; at home I do a lot of work myself. I like to do, to bring the finishing touches, to see the final result. Not to mention the fact that some tools represent a significant investment. Adelia is also a bit of a good soul in the Colombier kitchen where she does the "little hand".
Pascal Basso likes to talk about pastry so much that we almost forget his cooking. He has not only won dessert competitions: in 2011, he won the competition for the best fish terrine, in 2013 that for the best goose foie gras.
“We only have a small menu that we change regularly. At the moment we are offering a ballottine of foie gras with an apricot compote with elderberry, a veal tartare with a knife with a tomato ravioli and mozzarella di buffala,
a hake brandade like a bouillabaisse with grilled chorizo, yuzu pearl and squid ink bread, Angus beef flank steak with broccoli cream and conchiglioni all'arrabiata
or even a fillet of sea bream with a soft polenta, a hodgepodge of asparagus and sliced foie gras jus….. As my parents are of Italian origin, I bring Mediterranean touches to my dishes, for more color and flavors”.
Restaurant Le Colombier
2 rue de la Liberation
68870 BARTENHEIM-LA-CHAUSSEE
Tel 03 89 68 30 66.
Open 12 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. – 9 p.m.
Closed Monday all day, Saturday lunchtime, Sunday evening