Page 77 - Taste_and_Travel_International

LUXEMBOURG WITH LOVE DINING

PHOTO LEFT
Luxembourg City. LUXEMBOURG

er eyes are as warm “We use Luxembourg’s local
FLAVIO ENSIKI
and golden-brown ingredients,” she says when asked
about the secret of her fine cuisine.
as her signature “What we raise and grow. What the
Hmadeleines. They soil and climate give us. My
madeleines, for example, are made
sparkle with warmth and with the best Luxembourg butter and
lots of love.”
passion, and a smile lights up
urg batch of these petite shell- Europe’s standard currency — when
In her fifties now, she recalls the
her face as she deftly scoops a
days — well before the euro became
the restaurant was her family home.
shaped cakes from the oven
It was also the centre of a family
business that included a café,
and arranges them on a plate.
restaurant, gas station, bowling
Léa Linster, Luxembourg’s celebrity chef is in her
alley, liquor and tobacco shop and
favourite place — the kitchen of her mansion-turned-
currency exchange bureau for
tourists from France and Germany.
restaurant. She is about to conduct her regular evening
ritual — orchestrating the dinner service and ensuring
“My father was a pastry chef
that every detail is perfect, from the tables set with
exquisite, hand-painted dishes, crystal glasses and silver
she says, adding that she inherited
cutlery, to the food itself, a symphony of flavours, and an artist — in the art of living,”
her taste for a refined lifestyle from
textures and colours. him, while her perseverance and
As Luxembourg’s first female chef to win the Bocuse determination come from her mother.
D’or — the most prestigious culinary award in the world The third of four siblings, she went
— Léa Linster put the miniature country — situated to France to study law, but came back
at the crossroads of Germany and France — on the to reunite with her true love — the
gastronomic map of the world. She still reigns supreme family’s restaurant business.
as the ) ˆ0.!ƫ 1%/%*%!. of the Grand Duchy, which can “My heart was in this business, my
hold its own in culinary terms with neighbouring France. roots are here, and I can use all my
Her eponymous flagship restaurant is in the talents here,” she says.
charming village of Frisange, a ten-kilometre drive After buying the house from her
from the heart of Luxembourg City, capital of mother in 1985, she spent a million
the picture-postcard country blessed with ideal euros on refurbishing it into the
conditions for good farm products and vineyards. It temple of fine dining it is today. “I
is also 800 metres from the French border, attracting found a bank that had faith in me as a
large numbers of French tourists accustomed businesswoman,” she says of her
to the highest standards in food and wine. search for a loan in the days when
Earlier in the afternoon, the cookbook author and women entrepreneurs were relatively
popular guest on German TV shows responds to my few and far between.
questions over cups of cappuccino. She talks Today, sliding glass doors offer
animatedly about Luxembourg’s culinary heritage and guests relaxing views of the gardens
her own road to stardom. and vineyard, glowing in jewel tones

JANUARY–MARCH 20185 TASTE;5TRAVEL INTERNATIONAL 75