International
Jean COUSSAU
Chef : 1 restaurant
Le Relais de la Poste, in Magescq, is a great family story! Today, Jean Coussau is the main protagonist:"My father first had a small restaurant here, my mother worked in the dining room, and I used to watch them with envy. As I was doing well at school, my father wanted to dissuade me from going into the restaurant business - it was a different generation.
In the end, Jean Coussau followed his dreams. It all began at the Toulouse Hotel School. The adventure continued at the Plaza Athénée, Paul Bocuse and the Ritz in Madrid, among others.
Homesick, he returned to the Landes region in 1971, where he worked as his father's assistant until 1996. At theage of 22, he was deported. When he returned, he weighed only 32 kilos, compared with 100 when he left. It was difficult to work alongside him, but I had a lot of respect for him and his career. In 1952, Bernard Coussau opened his first restaurant in Magescq, along the Nationale 10. In 1958, he took over the Hôtel de la Poste, then moved 200 metres further on to a 19th-century manor house, where he founded the current Relais de la Poste, which over the years has become a fabulous 7-hectare estate with a lake, vineyards and fruit trees.
Jean Coussau played an active role in enhancing the already excellent reputation of the family business. In 1996, he definitively took over from his father in the kitchen. The same year, his brother Jacques took charge of the dining room.
Considered a pillar of Southwestern cuisine, Jean Coussau defines himself as"a locavore before his time". "I've been working with the riches of my village for 45 years. Here I have everything I need: poultry, fruit, asparagus, sole and hake from the port of Capbreton, and salmon from the Adour river. He tells an anecdote about the visit of an American, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr., owner of the New York Times, who insisted on tasting his salmon with foie gras. Satisfied, he said,"This is the cuisine we envy. Our salmon comes from Canada or Chile, and that makes all the difference". A few days later, the famous newspaper published a glowing article about Le Relais de la Poste, in Magescq, "asmall village lost in the middle of the Landes ".
Despite his success, Jean Coussau remains very attached to his land:"my menu obviously includes four ways of working foie gras and the famous Landes asparagus ".
B. G.
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