This Tuesday evening, Hangar-7 in Salzburg, which has been showcasing Luxembourg throughout the month of February, will be serving the final menus of Ma Langue Sourit. An “incredible” page in Chef Molard’s history and a “superb symbiosis” for Chef Klein of the Ikarus restaurant.
That’s a wrap… But what an adventure! What an “honour”… for Cyril Molard, the humble 2-star Chef of Ma Langue Sourit, who took part in a unique experience. This experience is Ikarus, the 2-star restaurant at Hangar-7 in Salzburg, Austria.
In this restaurant, 11 months out of 12, the teams of the Alsatian Chef Martin Klein reproduce the menus of the best restaurants in the world. “We go looking for them all over the world, so that there is a representation of all the continents throughout the year”, explains Klein. For this month of February, it was the Luxembourgish restaurant Ma Langue Sourit that he chose to highlight. “We are looking for the best in each region, so the best in Luxembourg, since we were looking for someone in the Benelux, was Cyril Molard.”
“A true figure of the gastronomic world”
At the end of January, the two-star Chef de Moutfort explained to KACHEN his feeling of humility when presented alongside the greatest chefs (two and three stars) who have already passed through Hangar-7. “It’s a bit crazy, you always look at the others with admiration, it’s a strange feeling when your turn comes! I don’t want to compare myself to all these three-star chefs…”. But during the month of February, he too marked the history of this restaurant, as a top Chef.
“He is a true figure of the gastronomic world. You’d want collaborations like that all the time,” says Martin Klein. “Chef Molard had proposed a seasonal menu with dishes that had already been acclaimed in his restaurant. And it was a success. We had a very good month, the customers were delighted. And he was very professional.”
“A very precise cuisine“
Throughout the month of February, the Ikarus teams cooked the dishes of Ma Langue Sourit. With one watchword: precision. “His cooking is very, very precise and requires a lot of know-how,” explains Chef Klein. “But he had done a great deal of work beforehand. The cards for all his dishes were precise and detailed. When we came to Luxembourg to discover the restaurant, he took a whole day to present and taste the dishes. And during the experience, he checked in every week. It was really a collaborative work.”
Insights
On the technical side, no flaws either. Chef Molard only had to rework “a few things, truly nothing…”. “Here in Austria, the teams had never worked with pâté en croûte. It was the Chef who supplied us with his own moulds and the pâtés went down very well! His scallop dim sum was also one of the highlights. I also learned his special technique to salt fish, which we will continue to use here,” says Martin Klein. The French Chef makes a final confession: “When I was at Ma Langue Sourit, I liked the plates he used for the starters so much that I bought the same ones for Ikarus. Something we don’t usually do…”
“One of the best experiences I have ever had”
When we talk about this “Hangar-7” month, there is a sparkle in Cyril Molard’s eyes. He has been a Chef for some twenty years, and this experience is one of the two best of his career, along with the one at the Villa Louise in 2019. From now on, he is looking forward to the “sublime” 2023 cookbook of Hangar-7, with all the dishes of the guest chefs, “it will be a memory of this moment for us”.
This Tuesday, 28th February 2023 will be the last MLS dinner in Salzburg. Now it’s time for another Chef: Erlantz Gorostiza, from Tenerife (Spain).
Header picture: ©Helge Kirchberger Photography / Red Bull Hangar-7