Untouchable René Mathieu – la Distillerie (Luxembourg): Why do we use precious drinking water for purposes other than our own?
Rene Mathieu has been executive chef of the castle restaurant La Distilerie (5 radishes) in Luxembourg since 2013. In July, he was awarded the title of Knight in the Order of Leopold by the Belgian king. A high and honorful recognition for his services to Belgian gastronomy, especially for pursuing his own sustainability values, promoting love for nature and biodiversity. Mathieu seems much younger than his year of birth betrays with his ponytail and continues to evolve and grow. In 2020, he decided to go 100% vegetal (plant-based), without paying much attention to what the inspectors think of it. Mathieu believes topchefs should think about and serve dishes of the future, not of today. Sheila Struyck spoke to this passionate chef about the thorn in his side: drinking-water.
Why water?
“I seem to be the only chef who talks about wasting water. But why do we use drinking water for other purposes than drinking it? For the toilet, the swimming pool, watering the garden and cleaning? You can look at it in the context of the climate situation, but fresh and healthy drinking water is our first necessity. And we have less and less of it. So we have to do something. The biggest problem is of course that drinking water is so cheap. You don't feel it in your wallet. You really have to be intrinsically motivated to do things differently.”
Can you give practical examples?
“There is an exaggerated concern about bacteria and a lot of drinking water is wasted for the sake of being "hygienical". But if you work with organic products, straight from the ground, you don't have to disinfect. In fact, you can rinse all the sand off on the land, with water that is going to be sprayed again. In the restaurant you then remove the peel or the outer leaves. We use vinegar and essential oils of oregano to disinfect and no chemicals. That means we recycle that water. In my kitchen, we don't blanch vegetables in a lot of rolling boiling water either. We prepare vegetables at a low temperature in the oven or by pickling them".
In our case, the vegetables are no longer blanched in plenty of water
What does that mean for young chefs who come to work for you? This is very different from what they learn at school.
"Schools have become a profit model and therefore only pay attention to teaching current practice. They don't teach anything about the future, the dishes of 2035. So I have to unlearn everything they have learned and that is not easy.
Fortunately, there are enough young people who want to work for me for that very reason. With heart and soul. And that is brave, because they have to learn everything again. But they are super motivated. And in la Distilerie, they are in direct contact with the garden and the grower and learn how almonds and apricots grow. Sometimes they really don't know that. We shouldn't believe that the knowledge of our generation (and that of our grandparents) has been preserved. We have to activate and transfer that knowledge. And not everyone is open to that".
Why do you think that is?
“To deal with water differently - and cooking in general - you have to step out of your comfort zone. Out of what you have learned. But also out of what is ‘easy’. Of course it is easy that everything arrives clean and peeled in the kitchen. But that means you are working with almost dead products, and you contribute to the problems we are facing. But of course it is psychological, to do things differently you have to have space in your head and be optimistic. You do not get either of these from a lot of screen time. That is the tragedy of our time. The technology around us is nice and all, but we are bombarded with information. I believe that the average mobile phone user sees as much information in an hour as I got in a year when I was young”.
I am a "provocateur" by serving the gastronomy of the future in our classic castle
You decided to go 100% vegetarian at the height of your career? Weren’t you afraid of losing customers?
“We, the top chefs, have to be provocative. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer. The rich do everything they can to maintain their status quo. So the clientele also expect ingredients in toprestaurants that confirm that. The foie gras, caviar and turbot. That is why I went 100% plant-based. Not because I am vegetarian, but because I want to set and show a new standard. I want the established order to aspire to vegetables and fruits. And that is why I am deliberately provocative. Now (Mathieu was born in 1962) the world listens to me. If we, the top chefs with huge credits, do not do that, who else can make people start changing their minds and beliefs? That is how I really see my role, to serve dishes for the future in such a way that they are just as infectious and attractive”.
