Laurent Rospars

Come on up here, I’ll buy you a wine.

Perfect. 

We can do it in French if you like.

I don’t think the listeners or readers would appreciate that.

What do you want to drink? … Bring her a glass of muscadet … do you like muscadet? It’s nice and dry.

What part of France are you from?

I’m from Brittany originally, and I grew up in the Loire Valley. But I did my apprenticeship to be a chef in Paris. I was a chef for a long time. I’m also an ex-rugby player, believe it or not. I played in New Zealand, Australia, everywhere.

I lived in the south of France, near Avignon, and they loved rugby. They were always asking me about les All Blacks and Justin Carter. I didn’t know anything.

Justin Carter played for my club. His name was on my locker. But different salary.

I know that you’re a sommelier now and I’m interested in the crossover from chef to wine guy.

I’m a restaurateur, hotelier. I’ve had my own restaurants. I grew up in this industry. I grew up running around my grandmother’s kitchen. I grew up in businesses. I started working as an apprentice when I was 15 years old and then started working in big restaurants in Paris. I worked for the French chefs society in Paris, which is the Société des Cuisiniers à Paris. You don’t just get in like that, it’s a bit of a club. Then I worked for a while in Paris and then I got an offer to go and work in Kuwait.

How long had you been a chef at that stage?

I’d been a chef already for nine years.

I saw that you were at the Ecole Hotelire in 1975.

In France you start at trade school but you work at the same time. Then I extended my time. I did a CAP in cuisine and then did another year and did a BEP, a brevet d’études professionnelles. Then I did a year at l’Ecole Hotelire le Touquet in the north of France. It was beautiful. It was very…not posh, but when you did a year there, but companies wanted to hire you…in those days.

Was it very strict?

Yes, it was strict. In those days it was very strict. Now it’s all wellbeing, which is good, don’t get me wrong, I’m all for it. But it was hard knocks when I was a kid. But I played rugby, so I released a lot of energy.

It’s interesting because I have spoken to a couple of kiwi chefs who did their chef training through the army and I know you were also in the army and you played rugby and I feel as though sometimes those strict rules and the discipline are really good for the kitchen. Now I think it’s good to have a mixture of both.

The army is good, especially in those days in France…it’s finished now, there is no compulsory military service any more…it was good for certain people. The army teaches you that it doesn’t matter what your background is; you all come in, they rip your clothes off you, you walk naked down the corridor and they give you two jabs and your uniform and everyone is the same. They give you a gun and you go this way. It’s good discipline. It’s good for the kitchen because there is a hierarchy in the kitchen; you’ve got the chef, the sous chef, the chef de partie. Now they burn their bridges a bit these kids; they come in, qualify and then they’re head chef at 22. There’s nothing wrong with that if they’re good and there are plenty of good ones and I’ve seen plenty of good ones. I was a chef de cuisine when I was 25 and I was the youngest chef de cuisine for the Hyatt all over the world, actually. I opened Max’s at the Hyatt in ’86 with Kevin Donovan and Ian Curley, all those boys, we were all in the same team.

Oh right. So you’ve been here a long time.

34 years. I did a 30-year anniversary of me being in Australia dinner. Philippe Mouchel came at the same time, so Philippe Mouchel cooked with me, Ian Curley came, Annie Smithers.

I love Annie Smithers. I’ve spoken to Annie and Ian. They are my chefs too!

We did the dinner and it was bloody cool. Annie Smithers is a good mate of mine. She cooks a bit like my grandmother used to cook; she’s good. I like the rusticity of it. The finesse in the rusticity is good. Like some wines; they are rustic, but in their rusticity there is some elegance. Especially if they are not wines from the noble regions; everyone expects Bordeaux and Burgundy. $5000 for a bottle.

Is that just because of the name and the associations people make with those regions?

It’s just being wankers.

I always go for Côte de Rhône because I lived around there.

Côte de Rhône is good. We make a good Côte de Rhône in Australia. Mitchelton make a beautiful Côte de Rhône style wine. It’s the right climate. But I enjoyed being a chef. I’ll go back as a chef one day. I know I might me a bit old but I’ll do something like Annie. My wife owns a little vineyard in Bunyip in Gippsland, she inherited it from her mum. We lost it last year in bushfires; the grange and the vineyard, we lost most of it. I was starting to put together a little farmhouse kitchen there with a menu with one entrée, one main, one dessert, like Annie Smithers and I was starting to put together the wine, but I’ll go back one day.

When you did the dinner with Annie and Philippe and Ian Curley, it must have been fun.

It was hilarious. I did a Brittany bisque with crab, Philippe Mouchel did the beef…a mate of mine did the cake; Pierrick Boyer. 

I’ve spoken to Pierrick too!

He’s a good mate. We opened the RACV together. I did the petits fours.

Wow. So, you’re across everything…patisserie as well.

I’m better at patisserie. Patisserie is my forte.

You have to be very precise with patisserie. What is it about hospitality and food and wine that you obviously love to have stayed in the industry so long?

I love it, but I think people are spoiled in this town. They need to go somewhere else and see what it’s really like.

The workers or the diners?

The diners; all those things…gluten free…organic wine…is there a wine with no sulphites? No, you can’t do it. And then they say they bought one from the bottle store and I tell them he bullshitted you. What’s wrong with them? People want to buy a glass of wine and they want to try a little bit of this, a little bit of that, I ask them whether they are buying a house or a glass of wine. 

This is delicious, by the way. 

Muscadet…melon de Bourgogne is the grape. It is from the Western Loire Valley. It’s the best one to have with oysters…and some rye bread and salted butter. There’s good minerality and bâtonnage. It smells a bit of sulphur because it is matured on lees, a bit like champagne.

Has wine always been part of what you’ve done?

It has always been part of what I do from a young age. My grandfather used to make his own wine. We have vineyards, my dad bought grapes. Then in industry, I owned my own paces and bought the wine. And I have a massive memory. My wife always tries to trick me with the wine, and the kids here, and weddings, they always ask me about wines and wonder how I know. It’s just memory.

I’m always amazed at chefs’ repertoire for flavours and flavour profiles; knowing what will go together because of the memory of the food.

It’s all memory. Believe it or not I don’t drink.

Really? So you just smell it and know? And you like working with wine?

It’s fantastic, it’s cool. There are so many things to find out. I’m a bit conservative about what I like and I have preferences which I should not have as a sommelier. I should be more impartial, but I have memories and stories in my head which relate to certain regions and wines I like and occasions. It’s like remembering what dishes smell like, like my grandmother’s Breton butter cake. You’ll never have anything like it. I remember having it as a kid with my coffee. It was so good.

I still do it and make sure my kids have some; things I make at home. They ask, daddy can I have some fluffy brioche toasted with salted butter…they’re not even four, mate.

Ha! You’re breeding the spoiled diners!

I know, I know. They are the same with the chips, they’ll say these are good chips, daddy. The ones last time were not good chips.

Just wait until they have an Instagram account. But it’s true, the whole memory of food. It’s Proustian; biting into the madeleine and being transported back to childhood. It spawned a whole novel, a set of novels even. Do you tend to cook French style food?

Yes. I do a bit of Asian. Sometimes I jazz it up a bit.

How long have you been at the Prince?

Since Melbourne Pub Group bought it. In 2005 we started Albert Park Hotel. That was massive. Then I went to work in Hong Kong.

Was that as a sommelier?

Yes from then it was always as a somm.

Did you have to do certificates and qualifications to become a sommelier?

Yes. But I have a good memory. I didn’t even study for the exam. I didn’t even buy the book. The French and Italian and Spanish stuff is easy.

What do you need to know…wine types and vineyards?

Some are a bit of a harder level, but you just learn it.

What’s your role then? People come in and they want you to recommend a wine, how do you choose?

I just tell them what to have. I take one quick look at them and I know what they’re going to have.

Really? What would you have said for me?

Pinot gris.

I do like red wine. I really like rosé but I’ve moved on. Summer has gone.

Kiwi girl, teacher, with the bobsy mum thing…no, the quite elegant hair thing, you look like you could live in Toorak, so pinot gris.

Right.

No, no elegant chic.

Ok thanks.

Pinot gris…or French rosé.

That’s right. Côtes de Ventoux…Listel…

That’s nice. I like Bandol; the grenache.

I went to Perpignan and the wine down around there was beautiful.

The red is strong and big and rustic. You need to have food with it. It sounds a bit funny what I said. I don’t work many nights anymore, but I know most of the customers because I’ve been in Melbourne so long. I know the highflyers and the ones with money or not with money. I can pick. I’ve done some big sales here. Six months ago I sold two bottles of wine for $98,000 each.

Just explain to me…

There’s no explanation, mate.

I like wine, but I’m happy spending $40…

They’re collectors.

But how do people even put that price on the wine?

I do that. I decide. I’m the only one who has that wine. You want it or you don’t want it. The guy flew from Hong Kong to get it. 

But why does it have that much value?

That’s what it is; Romanée-Conti. The guy flew from Hong Kong, he called me first and asked if I had it in the cellar and he wanted to look at it, he was ready to buy it. I said, if you fly first class from Hong Kong, I’m sure you are ready to buy it. He came in the cellar and said, no worries. He bought them and paid for them and he paid $6000 insurance to have them sent to Hong Kong in case they lost it or break it. 

Is that to drink?

No, he had already sold them to somebody else. That’s what I do; I buy wine. I’m very strong at it.

Where do you buy it from? Just finger on the pulse?

Everywhere. You’ll see in my wine store. People are already waiting for my wines.

But your wine store is also going to have wines that I can buy, right?

Yeah…how much is your budget…$40? 

But what about other people? $20 wine.

There will be but not many of them. You don’t want $20 wine. Maybe $25. Do you want a glass of rosé?

No, no thank you.

A red. A red from the Loire valley. That’s cabernet franc. It’s my favourite grape. Like I said, I shouldn’t have a preference. But cabernet franc from the Loire Valley is my favourite grape. Perfect with food. Good to cook fish with.

This is perfect. Sometimes I’m disappointed by wine. This is the experience of flavour I have been looking for. This is my new favourite wine.

It’s not too expensive and it is very underrated. We cook fish with this in the Loire Valley; a fish stew and I used to serve little oysters fried with beer batter with it. Amazing. But this to drink…perfect.

I went to the Loire Valley by myself in 2012 and just drove around the castles and loved it. So Kuwait was your first move away from France…

I also worked in America for a little bit with a couple of mates in Los Angeles. I opened a couple of restaurants with them.

But you didn’t think of going back to France?

My wife is trying to push for us to do six months there, six months here. Or two or three years. My sister has a restaurant there and we could do two or three years and put the kids in school there so they learn French. Especially in the Basque region. My nephew is a captain on a fishing boat in Cap Breton in the Basque area, near Biarritz. I don’t know. I went from being Executive sous chef at the Hyatt in Kuwait. Then they sent me a contract to open Hyatt in Australia in Collins Street. They told me to go back to Paris and do my visa. I went back to Paris and did al that and I thought, rugby…surf…it seems like a good life in Australia. I was a 25 year old. I came here for a two year contract and then they started mucking me around and wanted to send me to Korea or San Francisco but I wanted to stay here. I was the head chef at Rogalsky in South Melbourne. It was a very famous two hat restaurant in South Melbourne and then it became Est Est Est. Tony Rogalsky was a very famous restaurateur. I went there as a head chef and got him his third hat in the Good Food Guide. 

Hardly anyone in Melbourne has three hats.

I’m the only one. I try and remind them of that here from time to time. I tell them here that I am the only chef with three hats they have ever had in this kitchen so far…ha ha ha. Then after that I opened Quarter Session in the city. Then another couple of busy restaurants. Then I went to Canberra to open Benchmark Wine Bar for a mate of mine. Then came back to Melbourne and the guys were opening Albert Park so I did that, then I went to Hong Kong as GM of a massive group. I was general manager of Epicurean Group, so about 50 restaurants and 6000 employees. I used to do the menus for the French restaurants and show all the Chinese kids how to make bisque and ratatouille. I had carte blanche to do whatever I wanted. Then my old man died after a year and a half of me being there. He died in France suddenly and I had to go back. Then I came back here and Gerry Ryan said to join them. We opened Middle Park and Newmarket and reopened here. Then they bought Mitchelton winery.

When will the wine shop be open?

Two weeks they reckon. I’ve done the menu for it. Simple, half a dozen dishes, but simple. All the wine on the shelf will be pub price. You grab a bottle, or a cocktail, or a glass of wine and if you want to take a bottle home, I’ll take 30% off and you can take it home.

And you say there is nothing else like it in Melbourne?

I’m sure there are a couple of people. But not selling what I’m selling.

Thank you and thank you for the wine.

Little Prince Wine

2 Acland Street, St Kilda