Many chefs make fantastic dishes out of mushrooms, but none quite as good as the master of the fungi ingredient – Régis Marcon and his son Jacques – who together manage a staff of 48 people which every week cooks the best mushrooms in the world.

Every day, the most able mushroom pickers deliver the best fungi available in the surrounding forests of the remote Haute Loire region, where you will find the former Auberge et Clos des Cimes which today has been transformed into a wonderful state-of-the-art hotel and restaurant simply called Régis et Jacques Marcon after the two super chefs. Today the Marcon family successfully runs two hotels, two restaurants and one boutique, but it all started back in 1956 when Régis Marcon was born in Saint-Bonne-le-Froid as one of seven children. Régis father was a wine merchant and his mother had a café that later became a hotel which was taken over by Régis in 1979. Improvements and renovations were made several times, but the need for something more continental eventually resulted in the opening of Régis et Jacques Marcon in 2008 on a hill not far at all from the village where Régis was raised.

Régis Marcon married the lady of his dreams, Michèle, in 1978 and together they have shared everything. They have four children and the oldest son, Jacques, was born in 1978, and he runs the restaurant together with his father. Chef Patron Régis Marcon has achieved numerous accolades and does not mind competing. In 1995 he won the Bocuse d’Or with Serge Vieira as his assistant, who later in 2005 competed and won the Bocuse d’Or by himself.

Régis and Jacques Marcon make some of the best food in the world. The cuisine is straightforward without complicating anything for their guests. You will have the finest ingredients when you savour dishes like the Trout “Fario” Lignon with jelly smoked trout and duck foie gras with hibiscus, stewed vegetables and almond gomasio, or the refreshing Seasonal mushrooms and Tansy that is mushroom tea with scented leaf of tansy served between the fish and meat courses. There are many fantastic dishes of which several contain different kinds of mushrooms.

Régis et Jacques Marcon is not as easy to get access to as are the restaurants in big cities, but the driving up to the Saint-Bonnet-le-Froid village is worth every second spent. The restaurant is a must visit.

Written by Andy