TAKE a look at this plate of Boeuf Bourguignon. Glorieux! It’s not a dish you encounter much these days across our sceptred isle while ‘Modern British’ rules the menus, even when so much cuisine is still Gallic classics tweaked. Post-Brexit it might almost be a criminal offence to put BB on as a special.
Which makes Marc Molé’s aspiration to open a typical French bistro in what was Allotment Vegan Restaurant just off Stockport Market Place all the more daring. As ardent Remainers (who history will prove right), we more than welcome a resurgence of blanquette de veau, cassoulet, bouillabaisse or a coq au vin to cock a snook at all those bully beefed-up Little Englanders who voted Leave.
Tirade over, we’re fascinated by the prospect of a Parisian architect, trained as a French chef Stateside, planning to recreate the cuisine of his Grandmere in this 24-cover space, vacated when Matthew Nutter’s plant-based operation decamped to the city centre.
Marc is hoping to open his bistro on Vernon Street in February. Why Stockport? “My wife, though born in Cardiff, was brought up in Stockoort, Davenport, and we are back for family reasons. It seems a perfect spot to launch. There is nowhere doing my kind of French food for miles – the closest is Raymond Blanc in Knutsford. I want to create a real, traditional French bistro, not high end but doing quality fresh food.
“My menus will feature the French regions. I was born in Paris but we had a house in Brittany and my parents have lived in Cannes in the South. These are places where I discovered my love of food.
“But it was not my choice as a career. I trained as an architect and worked as one for 14 years in Paris. I still have an involvement as a partner in a firm.
“My life changed when I went to America with my wife, who works for an international organisation with an HQ in Washington DC. I couldn’t practice there so spent a couple of years doing family care, then I worked for a produce company, selling food to restaurants, some 25 clients. It convinced me I want to go into the hospitality industry.
“I went to culinary school in Austin, Texas and Boulder, Colorado, gaining a degree in French cuisine. I trained as a chef with the exec chef at the French Embassy in Washington, who was fro the Languedoc.”
All of which should stand Marc in good stead when he launches his bistro (yet to be named) as a late morning to evening Wednesday to Saturday operation with a brunch focus on Sundays. Wine, of, course, will be French. Checked tablecloths, we asked him?
Possibly tartan, he replied.