Our Blog - Lombardy 2025 - GG, Italy

The chef, Gilles Goujon, has had an interesting life and career. His father was a fighter pilot and, in addition to France, he also grew up in Morocco and Germany. After his father's early death, the family moved to the town of Béziers and he started working as a waiter. He then moved into the kitchen in a set of restaurants, including several Michelin-starred restaurants. He spent 15 years working for other chefs, and then decided to open his own restaurant.

Here is where it gets interesting. The mayor of the tiny isolated village of Fontjoncouse (with about 100 residents) decided that the only way the village could survive was by creating a "destination restaurant". Using public funds, he renovated an old stable into a hotel but nobody was able to make money at the venture. At the same time, the Chef Goujon was trying to fulfill his goal of opening his own restaurant by the time he was 30. He and his wife had been looking, but were unable to find anything suitable that they could afford.

Then they received a telephone call from the Mayor of Fontjoncouse, offering them the hotel (whose 3rd failed tenant had just left). They went there to look at it, were charmed by the location, and bought it and did additional work to it. Similar to the other tenants, the restaurant was virtually empty for the first 5 years, with only a few hearty souls venturing out into the countryside to visit it.

At this point, a few people suggested to the chef enter a French professional competition called "Meilleur Ouvrier de France", which literally translates to "best worker of France". It is a unique and very prestigious award and there are various "skills" that award the title of "MOF", including various types of baking and cooking, wine Sommeliers, butchers and fishmongers, but also building skills like carpentry, glassworks, and mosaics. In 1996, he won the title of "MOF" for gastronomic cooking and, as you can imagine, it made him famous. From then on, his restaurant was a "destination" that people came from far and wide to visit. His first Michelin star came the following year, the second star in 2001 and his 3rd star in 2010 (he was the only new chef to obtain three stars in the Michelin Guide in this edition).

They only have a few rooms ... 8 around the pool and 6 in another building about a 5-minute walk away. Last time, we stayed in the "other building", so this time we decided to stay in one of the rooms around the pool. It was definitely a good choice, as Lucy was WAY more comfortable there than she was last time.

I didn't take pictures of everything at dinner, just a couple things that I thought were exceptionally interesting. We started in the lobby with the house cocktail and looked over the menu (the little roll of paper). The menu is the first exceptionally interesting thing .. the paper is made containing seeds (one with strawberry seeds and the other with various aromatic herbs) that you take home and can plant (and hopefully they will grow). The cocktail is served with a little bites, delivered on this interesting "tree" of rocks.

Next up, the oyster and the pearl. Here you can see the large oyster (from a lagoon nearby), sitting in its shell, with its pearl (the little clear ball). You crack it open with a mallet to release the beechwood smoke inside.

And then one of their "signature dishes", the "rotten egg". He actually has a YouTube video where he shows this .. although the video shows summer truffles and we had the darker, winter truffles. It comes out on a plate with straw under the glass with the egg. With a special fork/spoon, you cut into it to "be sure that it is good" .. and out pours this black cream, which is a purée of wild mushrooms and black truffles. Then he spoons a sabayon of truffles on top, shaves more truffles over, serves it with a warm truffled brioche and mushroom juice cappuccino on the side.

A few more dishes went by ... and then came the cheese cart. I don't know if I have ever seen so many different cheeses on a restaurant cheese cart! We explained the types of cheeses we liked and he created a selection of mild, medium, and strong cheeses. Tom had a bit of honey with his, that they drizzled in the shape of a fish, which is the logo for the restaurant (if you scroll back up to the house cocktails and the menu, you will see the same little fish logo on the paper holding the menu roll).

As with many of the top chefs, Chef Goujon came out during the meal and spoke to each table individually, which is always a nice, special touch!