Winner of 29 Michelin stars, Olivier Elzer wants to bring quality French food to the masses, rather than aim for the stars and fine-dining prowess.
Olivier Elzer does not only want to be defined by his Michelin stars anymore. After earning 29 stars over a career three decades deep, he is ready for the next stage of his chef story.
“I am a very passionate person. I always love to give it all. Earning these accolades is great, but I feel like I don’t have as much happiness anymore doing it,” Olivier tells Foodie.
“I still love to create concepts, but I have come to a stage in my life where I realised I was done with doing it by the book and getting more stars. This is not who I wanted to be anymore.”
Olivier’s turning point came three years ago in a reflection of his past success and how he wanted to shape his future. “I wanted to be an entrepreneur,” he says.
Having lived in Hong Kong for 16 years and counting, cooking and earning stars at Pierre Restaurant, L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon, and Seasons by Olivier E, before opening Clarence and L’Envol, he now wants to “create concepts, create jobs, and create a connection with other countries across Asia.”
French food, Olivier argues, has been burdened with a perception of high cost and lack of casual options in Hong Kong and throughout Asia, as compared to the accessibility of Italian, Spanish, and Japanese cuisine.
“People in Hong Kong only enjoy French food for an anniversary or a special occasion due to the high price and perception.”
“With French food, [us French chefs] do very well in fine-dining and well-presented food, but we lack enough sexy concepts when it comes to casual food. I want to fill this gap with a little bit of creativity.”
When Clarence landed in Hong Kong in 2022, Olivier’s ‘yakifrenchy’ Japan-meets-France concept drove the masses to dine at his Soho restaurant. Today, his “French cuisine made lighter“ concept focusses on a simple expression of the cuisine with a greater focus on lighter and more seasonal dishes designed for accessibility.
His two Michelin-starred restaurant L’Envol at St. Regis brings about a modern and innovative interpretation of old-school French haute cuisine.
New restaurants in Taipei, Hangzhou, and Phu Quoc enabled Olivier to spread his auteur signature beyond Hong Kong into neighbouring markets, growing with a hunger for French food, just not the French food of the past.
“When you think about French food, you automatically think of French bistro, brasserie, or fine-dining, the three forms of French restaurants worldwide. I think this is quite sad because we have so much more to offer beyond the mainstream.”
“In France, we have a lot of great concepts and beautiful regions which cannot make it out of the country. I need to bring these foods and a creative touch to the concepts that I create. The regular has already been done before.”
At Seasons by Oliver E in Taipei, Olivier brings French technique and Taiwanese produce together. At Pink Pearl by Oliver E in Phu Quoc, French food meets Italian food. And at L’eclat 19 in Hangzhou, French culinary techniques blend with local Hangzhou cultural ingredients.
Primarily, the Elzer culinary school of philosophy is to democratise French casual dining for the local Asian palate. “My vision is to bring French food across Asia, making it affordable and accessible,” he says.
Olivier has made his mark on five destinations in Asia, soon to be six with an ambitious project in Japan.
“Who enjoys the most French food in Asia? Hong Kong and Japan. This project, which will come to Japan at the end of 2025 or next year, will be the codification of French cooking. We want to introduce the real classic French bistro cooking to the country.”
Just like Olivier introduced his fusion of the two countries with Clarence’s yakifrenchy concept in 2022, his brave project in Japan will bring French ingredients to the stick with charcoal cooking.
Enjoy a fine French meal at Olivier Elzer’s portfolio of restaurants across Hong Kong and Asia.
