Le Fouquet’s Saint-Barth, the restaurant at the Hôtel Barrière Le Carl Gustaf, is making a strong comeback on the Caribbean culinary scene with all it needs to play a starring role, including ambitious cuisine showcasing local flavours, a refined menu created by one of the world’s best chefs, and an efficient team led by a highly professional young cook brimming with talent!

On the island of St Barths, two reopenings will occur on the same day. On 28 October, the Hôtel Barrière Le Carl Gustaf will be reopening its doors after a short break, and its restaurant, Le Fouquet’s Saint-Barth, will do the same. Guests can expect elegant decor, “five-star” service, stunning views of Gustavia and the Caribbean, sun-blessed recipes that bring tropical flavours to your palate… plus a duo of chefs!

The first is Sidney Gordon, a Canadian who has just arrived on the island to lead the team at Le Fouquet’s. It will be a new challenge for a chef who honed his culinary techniques at some of the world’s best restaurants, from Le Relais Bernard Loiseau in Saulieu, a high temple of French gastronomy, to the Kobe Kitano Hotel, one of Japan’s three-Michelin-starred eateries.

Adding to his stellar resume, Sidney, until recently, was in charge of the restaurant kitchen at Château Lake Louise, one of the pearls of the Fairmont group, nestled at the heart of the Rockies.

This dramatic change of scenery and climate, from the pristine snowy landscapes in Alberta to the golden sand of the most stunning island in the West Indies, is not an unwelcome one for this native of Vancouver as he begins to make the most of the Caribbean’s abundant waters. Not for swimming, of course, but to provide his guests with delicious fresh fish dishes, which is his major speciality. And fish dishes aplenty feature on the menu created by Pierre Gagnaire, the leader of this highly talented duo!

An exotic Caribbean touch
The imprint of the legendary St-Etienne-born chef Pierre Gagnaire does not surprise those who have followed his career closely. They will be aware that this extraordinary chef has several lives and that one of these has resulted in his close collaboration with the Barrière Group and overseeing several of its restaurants, from Cannes to Courchevel. Le Fouquet’s Saint-Barth fits perfectly into this highly fruitful gourmet partnership.

The chef voted the “world’s best Michelin-starred chef” by his peers a few years ago is not content, however, just to reproduce for the restaurant at Le Carl Gustaf a handful of his successful dishes from elsewhere. Far from it. Instead, he has invented its own culinary identity full of panache and boldness, a menu combining classic French brasserie-style ingredients with much more exotic flavours.

An excellent example of this is his Caesar salad, which is served with crayfish, his duck foie gras terrine with an island chutney, and his carpaccio is not beef, but red snapper, served raw, of course, and sprinkled not with olive oil but an aged rum-infused grapefruit syrup.

A few impressive cuts of meat appear on the menu to please the more carnivore-focused guests. However, the kitchen team freely admits that it is lovers of fish and seafood who will be in their element here, given that Pierre Gagnaire has significantly upped the number of unique recipes to delight their palate and excite their tastebuds.

Fouquet’s tuna tartare with a kombu algae bouillon and papaya; octopus à la Jamaïcaine; crayfish tails poached in a ginger-infused beurre blanc; fillet of local fish with sweet spices and coconut milk; mahi-mahi with Caribbean condiments and sweet potato à la Anna are just some of the maritime-inspired delicacies that Sidney Gordon, with his mastery and technique and a penchant for fish and seafood, will be executed to perfection.

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