Mathias DANDINE

Chef : 1 restaurant

Presentation

As a young boy, he was already soaking up the scents of Provence in his dream village: Bormes-les-Mimosas, that jewel of flower-filled alleyways, not just with mimosas bursting with their golden hue at the end of winter, but with fuchsia bougainvillea, oleander and all the scents of juniper, eucalyptus, pepper and fragrant herbs. At the end of the 1990s, young Mathias Dandine took over the kitchens of his parents' restaurant: l'Escoundudo, in the heart of the village, a lovely stone house with a few tables on the terrace that tourists flock to in summer. Mathias has a good eye and a good memory. He learned the trade from his father Max, trained with Laurent Tarridec (Les Roches, Aiguebelle) and Bruno (Restaurant Bruno, Lorgues), but also listened to and watched the pope of Provencal cuisine: Gui Gedda, who reinvented an entire gastronomy in the 1960s at La Terrasse, the hotel-restaurant on the square in Bormes-les-Mimosas.

To this day, Mathias Dandine remains true to the precepts and friendship of his master Gui, who celebrated his 90th birthday last October. After Escoundudo, Mathias moved on, without of course abandoning his beloved Provence. With his brother Fabien, who has been assisting him in the dining room since the beginning, he took over the stoves at the legendary Roches in Aiguebelle, one of the places where he trained, and where he quickly earned 3 toques, before returning to Bormes, to the family stronghold of l'Escoundudo, which he renamed Maison Dandine. In 2014, he embarked on a new adventure in Aix-en-Provence, where he invented a high-level cuisine from scratch, earning 3 toques again in the 2016 guide.

In 2019, Mathias Dandine found the home of his dreams: a large, sunny bastide near Aubagne, a concentrate of Provence in a character house set in parkland. No frenzied luxury, but truth, precision and charm. This is also how his cuisine has evolved over the years, but especially since his arrival in Gémenos. The chef has gone back to basics, to the quintessence of Provence as found in his friend Gedda's extraordinary Jardin de Perlefleurs, where tables scattered from one restanque to another danced to the sound of cicadas.

At La Magdeleine, he has rediscovered this magic, while at the same time, with the help of maturity, purifying a cuisine he has mastered to perfection. Ask him for a terrine, a game dish (a recently tasted Belle Aurore pillow is a marvel) or a vegetable tian when spring arrives, and the plate will take on shape, color, meaning and pleasure... The truffle is also there, in season, as a powerful and refined auxiliary, as on this delicious and slightly roguish pigeon in a cabbage "casse-croûte", with a truffled Bandol jus...

M. E.