RENOWNED North East chef Michel Renoux has returned to his French roots with his latest gastronomic venture.
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Now overseeing the kitchen at the George Kerferd Hotel at Beechworth, Mr Renoux has opened a creperie.
And he has families in his sights for his sweet and savoury creations.
“I always thought Beechworth was a nice place for a family restaurant,” Mr Renoux said.
He said the hotel’s parkland setting on the Mayday Hills site complemented this focus.
“We thought to make a destination for families on weekends and things like that,” he said.
“With a creperie, it’s not too expensive and it should appeal — that was my idea behind it.”
The Brittany-born French chef is well known for his Galloping Goat bistro at Stanley and then his fish-and-chip shop, the Ageing Frog, also at Beechworth.
Mr Renoux first thought about a creperie years ago, but “I decided not to go ahead with it”.
“Brittany is the land of pancake and crepes,” he said.
“Mine are savoury and sweet, there’s three or four different types.”
The crepes he makes are a normal wheat flour crepe and a far crepe, which he said was more like a bread pancake and similar to a pizza.
“I did a trial 10 days ago with about 50 or 60 people and they loved it,” he said.
Mr Renoux offered some crepes that day with eggs and bacon.
“So it’s good for breakfast, too, by the way,” he said.
“It’s got a very good potential.
“You can have it with a little salad on the side.”
Mr Renoux offers a traditional apple cider with the crepes, which contain ingredients such as smoked salmon, sausage, smoked bacon, honey roasted pumpkin and, for the Normandy crepe, camembert, apple, walnut and egg.
The kitchen, though, does not just specialise in crepes.
Mr Renoux also runs a regular bistro menu.
The restaurant is open for lunch from Thursday to Sunday and from Thursday to Saturday for dinner.
The creperie will be launched on Saturday and will open from 3.30pm to 6.30pm.