My business trips? Generally, as soon as I arrive, I'm welcomed around a table by important people; officials wearing jackets and ties... Very quickly, I untie mine and slip away into the kitchens! That's where I meet real people, simple people, people who work... So I get down to work too. But that doesn't stop me chatting to the guy who washes the dishes, the guy who cuts the fish, the linen maids... I usually end up having a beer with them after work, where they have their habits, sometimes even at home... in a real neighbourhood!
I like encounters that challenge me - in a positive way, of course. People who push me towards a balanced, pleasant, sincere relationship. That's what travelling is all about: not going quickly, quickly to a market... quickly, quickly tasting products... The looks of others are essential, especially those of children and old people... I remember, for example, an old man in Cambodia, at Angkor, telling me about the war... We were alone, and the sublime setting added to the emotion. More recently, it was a Chinese man who was completely mad, and brilliant at the same time, who insisted on taking me to Tien An Men Square in his gleaming Maserati, with the opera Turandot playing in the background - a piece he's been listening to on a loop for years! An enthusiast! And a beautiful encounter too... It's always possible, this encounter, but far from obvious. Because wherever you are, you're always face to face with yourself.
I'm lucky enough to work in the field of quality... and therefore luxury. As a result, the trips I'm asked to organise take place in the same universe. So, inevitably, in hotels, for example, I get fed up with the average, the bastard, because it's all fake... the fake great service, the fake luxury, all that stuff.
I travel by plane, of course, and it's terribly efficient, unfortunately, because it's also, paradoxically, far too fast... With more slowness, we'd get to know the countries more gently. We'd have more time to get to grips with their history, and ours too! I remember walking silently for four or five hours in the Libyan desert. A human rhythm that encouraged an inner journey.
I'd like to go to the Russian taiga. It's a trip that appeals to me. I don't know Russia very well, but I love the Russian soul, the music, the literature. I also love their romanticism, their nostalgia... Sometimes I have the impression of being a bit like them, both forward-looking and optimistic, and at the same time sceptical about many things... I'm lucid and playful... just like in my book*!
* Lucid and playful, Pierre Gagnaire, éditions de La Martinière, November 2006.
Seven dates
1950: Born in Apinac, near Saint-Etienne.
1970: Cook-admiral on the escort Surcouf.
1976: Back in Saint-Etienne, after a long journey, in his father's restaurant.
1980: He opens his own three-star restaurant.
1996: Moves to Paris, where he collects his three macaroons.
2001: Starts working with Hervé This, pioneer of molecular cuisine.
2004: Takeover of the Gaya Rive Gauche restaurant in Paris, followed by openings in Tokyo in 2005 and Hong Kong in 2006.
