Cannes: Le Park 45

There’s almost always a new star or two in Cannes, but this season the one everyone’s talking about is a very discreet and talented young chef, Sébastien Broda, who just snagged his first Michelin star at Le Park 45 in Le Grand Hôtel, a 1960s vintage hotel on La Croisette that many people never notice because it sits at the back of a deep, lush and very pretty garden. The fact that this young talent was recruited by a quiet hotel in a rhinestones-and-sequins kind of town is an appetizing reflection of the fact that one of the Riviera’s most famous resort towns is currently rebooting. Though many of the palace hotels on the seafront once had Michelin-anointed dining rooms, Cannes had more recently slipped into sushi and pizza mode. Now it seems that gastronomy once again has a future here. Broda is no stranger to La Croisette—he worked with Christian Willer at the Hôtel Martinez restaurant La Palme d’Or and Francis Chauveau at the Hôtel Carlton’s now-closed La Belle Otero—and he is an intensely creative and hard-working chef. I was dazzled by a starter of lobster wrapped in asparagus ribbons in shellfish gelée, and wowed again by filet mignon with duxelles in a crust of sliced potatoes and beignets filled with béarnaise sauce. Broda’s lemon-and-raspberry soufflé was a beauty too, and with an excellent wine list, friendly service and a superb garden terrace in good weather, this restaurant is exactly what Cannes has been missing.

45 blvd de la Croisette, Cannes, 04.93.39.76.19. Lunch menu €40, tasting menus €45-€80, à la carte €80. Prices are per person without wine.

Originally published in the May 2010 issue of France Today

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