SaQuaNa Honfleur

One of our very favourite restaurants on this earth, SaQuaNa in Honfleur : delectable food + excellent service, two well-deserved Michelin stars. Incidentally, during our last visit, we learnt that Alexandre Bourdas was Chef de Cuisine and Director of the 3 Michelin Stars Michel Bras Toya Restaurant in Hokkaido when we ate there in 2004 :-)

What Alexandre Bourdas wrote characterises his cooking beautifully : « I chose cooking because of my love of food… A cuisine of flavours, colours and shapes, a cooking of common sense, the senses and essences… My father is from Normandy, and when he makes a sole meunière he doesn’t skimp on the meunière! My mother is from the Aveyron and loves artichokes and asparagus. I grew up in a family that viewed meals as an important time for exchanging and sharing, which allowed me to develop a taste for what is good. My studies and professional experiences toughened me up, and Michel Bras gave me the desire to follow myown path and pursue my vision. The table is made for pleasure and encounters. It’s a place for laughing, sharing, indulging, and one that I want to make accessible to all. I want to encourage the encounter between those who bring life to the restaurant and those who come to dine. A convivial purity, warm minimalism. And, until now, it has been successful. I have always wanted to create a small, generous restaurant that offers a real respect for the diner that can be felt in the plate. Cooking is connected to my childhood memories, joyful times at the table with my family; to my travels, especially to Japan; and to moments of complicity with my friends or with Delphine and Akali. All of these memories, these subtle flavours can be found at one time or another in my cooking, a warm and sometimes bold meeting of the Aveyron and Japan, somewhere between the high plateaux of the Moroccan Atlas and Normandy. Every meal starts here with the sharing of bread, a bread from the Aveyron that we break and offer to everyone. Each meal contains a salad, whose dressing and composition change every day, and which is also shared. Dishes for each person and dishes for everyone. An elaborate cuisine to create shared memories and pleasure [ref].»