PARK Magazine

DINING
JGC: So, it became a requirement, after that, to have
a Roger Mühl in the restaurant?
Exterior of of Les Pres d’Eugenie
Le Moulin de Mougins, near Cannes, where Chef Roger
Vergé was a friend. Especially going to the south of France
with Mougins, Cannes, Nice, all those villages are very
artistic, including Mougins. Mougins was a village of artists
and also collectors. It was the village of Picasso. Picasso
was living at villa Notre-Dame-de-Vie before he passed
away [in April 1973]. I went to work at Mougins in November
‘74, so almost a year and a half after... There at the Moulin,
the waiters were telling me stories about Picasso and his
time there. Picasso had made a painting for Roger Vergé to
put in the bar at the Moulin.
There were all these artists like César, [Jean-Michel]
Folon, [Jean-Claude] Farhi
and Arman, and other artists of the Ecole de Nice, who
were hyper-creative and very resourceful. I remember
César would take copper and take all the old cafetière - the
coffee pots – to create sculptures. The garden was full of
sculptures from many of those artists, and the restaurant,
too.
The Mühl Movement
There was an artist in Mougins called Roger Mühl [1929-
2008] and he was friends with all the greatest chefs in
France. He did the portraits of all the great chefs, but he
also lived in Mougins, so he was also painting Provence.
Roger Vergé, and also [Chef Paul] Haeberlin in Alsace [at
the Auberge de L’Ill], because Roger Mühl was from Alsace
originally, they were the two who started the “Mühl movement.”
And then in every Relais & Châteaux, or sometimes threestar
[Michelin] restaurants, they all had [works by] Roger
Mühl on the wall.
DB: Exactly, it was a fraternité. Roger [Mühl] was a wonderful
man. He would come to the Moulin de Mougins all the time,
as he was very close friends with Roger Vergé. You could
feel the passion of Roger Vergé through the art, and their
friendship as well, and the kind of complicity and collaboration
between all of them. Every one of the artists LOVED Roger’s
cooking and food and there was always an opportunity to
get together and party together.
And then from Moulin de Mougins, I went to live in
Copenhagen; that’s where I started to buy my first pieces
of art. I arrived in Copenhagen, I was 21, 22 and I was doing
the galleries, and choosing some nice, interesting things.
In Copenhagen, there were a lot of good artists, nothing at
the international scale, but at least some good artists. I still
have these paintings in my home in France - a lot of landscapes,
a little naïf...
Chef Michel Guérard @ Les Prés d’Eugénie
After this, I returned to the South of France to work with
Michel Guérard, Eugénie-Les-Bains, and there the art was
much more curated. At Guérard, there were paintings that
were unusual shapes, made to be in the restaurant; they
are still there now.
JGC: This is the restaurant and inn, Les Prés d’Eugénie,
in Southwestern France. Is that right?
DB: Yes, that to me was the quintessential luxury, to be
able to have this kind of artwork custom made for the
restaurant. After Michel Guérard, I was doing a lot of
photography. I took a lot of pictures of artwork there. You
know at the time I could not afford it, but at least I was
inspired.
Le Cirque, Andy Warhol,
Daniel, Les Pleiades & Leo Castelli
JGC: Tell us about your time in New York. You arrived
in 1982?
DB: I came to New York and I started to meet some artists.
I arrived on the Upper East Side and the galleries were
there. So, I started to collect art at the time, or at least buy
art that I could afford. I also met all kinds of artists. To fast
forward - the first ten years - my time [as a chef ] at The