It’s a new day for Montrachet, which has reopened with a top-notch chef at the helm
An institution of Brisbane’s dining scene has been reborn. A nationally renowned chef has stepped in to save Montrachet, the French-inspired fine diner that faced extinction after entering administration earlier this year. Now operated by Clement Chauvin of lauded Canberra restaurant Les Bistronomes, Montrachet is embarking on a new era – expect a menu mixing established favourites (yes, including the famous crab souffle) and some must-try newcomers, all served with the same classically crisp service Montrachet regulars have come to expect.
When Clement Chauvin put his hand up to take over Montrachet after it entered administration in July, he didn’t expect that he’d actually be selected to be the storied restaurant’s new owner.
“I was like, ‘I’ll make an offer – who knows?’,” says Clement. “The next thing you know, the offer got accepted and, excuse my French, shit got real.”
For those unfamiliar with the chef and his body of work, it might seem like a left-field choice. However, when you think about it, few other candidates would have made as much sense as Clement.
The Paris-born chef cut his teeth in Michelin-starred restaurants across Europe and UK before emigrating to Australia, where he undertook heralded stints at the likes of Bistro Paris in Neutral Bay and Canberra’s Sage Restaurant. But Clement really established himself as a force in Australia’s culinary scene with Les Bistronomes, a fine-dining restaurant considered by many to be the cream of the crop when it comes to French-inspired cuisine.
Last year, Les Bistronomes was pipped at the post by Montrachet at the 2023 Restaurant and Catering Association Awards for Excellence, with the Brisbane institution earning the crown of Best French Restaurant in Australia. Though missing out on the top gong (Les Bistronomes did walk away with the award for Best European Restaurant), Clement developed a healthy appreciation for Montrachet and its former co-owners Shannon and Clare Kellam, who took over Montrachet from its founders Thierry and Carol Galichet in 2015 and relocated it to King Street two years later.
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“I started to look at them closely and I could tell that our style of cooking was very, very similar,” Clement tells us. “I believe that we were definitely in the same ballpark and that my style of cooking actually matched quite well with what Shannon used to do. Shannon and I take French classics and we revamp them with new modern techniques and we’ve got a bit of the same background, in the sense of both having Michelin-starred training.“
With Clement’s pedigree and cooking style taken into account, it tracks that he was picked to take over Montrachet. But, already at the helm of a nationally renowned restaurant, it’s fair to wonder why Clement would undertake such an ambitious manoeuvre in the first place.
“My restaurant in Canberra is well established – I’ve been running it for ten years and I’ve got a very strong reputation in Canberra and a beautiful regular clientele,” says Clement. “But I needed a challenge. Montrachet is an institution. We can’t lose the restaurant, we can’t lose an institution.”
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Montrachet officially reopened under Clement’s ownership on Tuesday October 1. Long-time fans will appreciate that Clement and his team have kept the artisan-crafted interiors exactly the same, retaining the pressed-metal ceilings, the eye-catching lights, the old European oak timber fixtures, the brass details (imported from the United Kingdom) and the iconic banquettes (encased in deep red leather sourced from Medina).
The differences appear, primarily, on the menu. Though favouring a similar classic expression of French bistro staples (Montrachet still serves cracking renditions of escargots, steak tartare, bouillabaisse and pithivier, as well as its famous double-baked crab souffle), Clement has wasted no time introducing his own colourful flourishes (and a few of his own dishes) to the offering.
“My signature dessert – the passionfruit souffle with the chilli explosion – is on the menu now,” says Clement, who tells us that Montrachet will be running a menu similar to Les Bistronomes, with regular tweaks intended to reflect the seasons. “The beef wellington (which Clement learned to make working under Gordon Ramsay at Claridge’s), the duck a l’orange, the chateaubriand – those are staples from my menu in Canberra and I would love them to become staples of the menu here in Brisbane.”
Clement bought all of Montrachet’s wine stock in the purchase of the venue, meaning that the cache of top-tier vino (which earned Montrachet 3 Wine Glasses in last year’s Australian Wine List of the Year Awards) is still available. General manager Remon Van de Kerkhof, a master sommelier who has previously worked at Establishment 203, Oncore by Clare Smyth and Aria Restaurant, is not only arranging the awarded collection into a sensational wine list, but will also be leveraging his own connections to source fresh allocations to keep the selection elite.
With a solid grasp on Montrachet’s importance to Brisbane diners and a burning desire to strengthen its legacy, Clement is well equipped to maintain Montrachet’s standing amongst locals. Though Clement understands that some may hold reservations regarding his custodianship of the storied restaurant (and is apologetic for his inability to honour gift vouchers obtained before Montrachet entered administration), the operator is confident that both die-hard regulars and newcomers will find much to enjoy.
“I am not Shannon and I am not Thierry Galichet, but I’m very confident that the regular customers from Montrachet will find what they are looking for in my cooking,” says Clement. “It’s a third life for Montrachet so the style might be slightly different, but the essence and the standard of quality will stay. And I think that’s what’s really important – creating experiences around good French food and providing customers with exceptional customer service.”
Montrachet is now back open to the public – operating hours, contact details and booking info can be found in the Stumble Guide.
