Michaël Fulci : Les Terraillers (Biot)

Michaël Fulci, 28 years old, was born in the restaurant he’s been running for the past five years. How many chefs can boast such illustrious origins?

 

The establishment bought by his parents in 1978 was a 16C pottery manufacture which operated until 1914; the restaurant’s wine cellar, for example, is housed in what used to be the kiln... A perfect cradle for a cook!

 

Today, Michaël’s impeccably efficient parents oversee the dining area.

 

The chef did leave home at one point – to study under Roger Vergé (Moulin de Mougins), Christian Morisset (Antibes) and Alain Ducasse, with whom he spent three and a half years between Paris and Monaco. During this last, most decisive professional experience, the apprentice Fulci had a ‘revelation’ which brought to light what he ‘really loves about being a cook.’ Ducasse’s school focuses on precision, accuracy and ‘rigour’. ‘We truly learn to cook, and we also do absolutely everything that is done during a restaurant’s operating hours.’ At Ducasses’s, Michaël learned how to work with the exceptional ingredients – truffles, caviar, and the like – which are now an integral part of his menu.

Michaël is ‘obsessed’ – he’d cook day and night if no one stopped him. His love for fine ingredients and dishes mirrors his generous nature. There are no particular products he couldn’t live without, but he does insist on respecting the seasons – you’ll never see a tomato on his menu in the dead of winter! He does his shopping very early three times a week at the professional market in Nice, where he fills his baskets with produce acquired directly from farmers and small-scale producers and suppliers. His fish monger provides him with several choice specimens sold by local fishermen, like the magnificent John Dory we were served along with celeriac puree with black truffle petals. Michaël thinks of himself as an ‘artisan’; ideas first come to him as he wanders through the market in Nice. His practise of cuisine is intuitive – without reflecting, he tastes and sniffs...

 

Grounded in the Mediterranean environment, the menu of Les Terraillers is short and well-balanced, with its three meats, three kinds of fish, and starters featuring seafood, foie gras and vegetables. The winter menu might propose cream of pumpkin soup with diced foie gras and chestnuts; cod roasted with the skin accompanied by mashed and sliced truffle-flavoured turnips; scallops and French caviar from the Aquitaine; courgette flowers, stuffed and served with a velvety sauce made from local courgette and a corolla of puree with black truffle petals; or whole veal sweetbreads on a bed with three carrots and a light cumin aroma. A full program of well-balanced flavours!