Ah, la belle famille…
True to his name, Pierre (meaning "stone" in French ) was the rock on which the family's destiny was built; we must also mention Simone, Jean's wife, and Nicole, Jacques's wife, the ones they call "les dames Lameloise" without whom the business in Chagny would never have become what it is today.

Three generations
Everything began in 1920 when Pierre Lameloise took over an old 16th century coaching inn. After King Louis XI instigated the system of horse-delivered mail in the 15th century, there came to be an inn every four leagues (approximately ten to fifteen kilometres) on the roads from Paris to the provinces. But even earlier, Philip the Bold and John the Fearless had begun the custom of stopping "to sup" at Chagny. With the arrival of the stagecoach in the 18th century, it took five days in summer and six days in winter to travel from Paris to Chagny. It became a stopping place for gourmands in the heart of Burgundy.

Pierre worked in Paris at Ledoyen and Lapérouse, and at the Plaza-Athénée and the Savoy in London with Escoffier. After four years of war and two years in the army, he returned to the kitchen. The quality of his cooking earned him one Michelin star in 1935, but he died two years later, leaving his son Jean to take over.

Jean, then only sixteen, had to learn the trade. And so he did, first at the Royal in Chalon-sur-Saône, then in Paris at the Plaza-Athénée and the Scribe, before returning to his roots. The final years of the Second World War saw him lending a hand to the French resistance fighters in Autun. When Chagny was liberated, Jean returned to running the family hotel and restaurant. At one point he served a dish called "Rôti Longchamp" to French officers, consisting of roast horse, the only meat available.

With his wife Simone, he began to expand and breathe new life into the restaurant. Pike quenelles, trout in Montrachet, partridge wine-growers' style… the Hôtel du Commerce received a Michelin star in 1951. There would be four children to fill the house with life, two boys and two girls.

Jacques Lameloise - A Captivating Personality
As a child, Jacques was really no keener on cooking than he was on studying. He liked sports (like his father and brother) and had a penchant for practical jokes. He came up with the idea, when five years old, to put a fresh coat of paint on the house painter's ladder while the latter was having dinner, and on another occasion poured oil on the tiled kitchen floor because he "knew that made it slippery!"

Jacques didn't linger at the lycée: he moved on to the cooking school on Rue Jean-Ferrandi in Paris, under the direction of Jean Rouquier. With his CAP - vocational training certificate - in hand, he went next to work with Ogier at L'Aubergade and then to Lucas-Carton, before following in his grandfather's footsteps. He worked for a year at the Savoy in London. A stint in a number of great establishments followed: Fouquet, Ledoyen, and finally Lasserre at the same time as Michel Rostang and Jean-Paul Lacombe. Among Jacques' memories from the famous restaurant on the Avenue Franklin-Roosevelt are of Salvador Dali ordering ortolans, which the waiters were later delighted to eat, since the great artist wanted only to smell them…

Jacques returned to Chagny in 1971, taking up his place in the kitchen next to his father and chef Fernand. Little by little Jacques introduced some new recipes, sought better ways of doing things, made little innovations, all while respecting the traditional dishes that had made the restaurant's reputation, such as trout in aligoté wine, crayfish "Maître Jean," and cockerel in pastry with "sauce Jannick," created by his father to celebrate the birth of his first daughter. He was not even 32 when the Lameloise family landed their third Michelin star!

"I like things simple. I prefer a non-fussy kind of cooking, dishes where there are not too many flavours mixed together, no more than two or three." Jacques cites some key rules of great cooking: "The success of a dish depends on the quality of the ingredients, skill in cooking and seasoning - and if it also happens to look beautiful on the plate, great!" For Jacques, success also involves a constant questioning. "You must never be satisfied with what you have done. You must always do better still!" The results are evident in the rosettes of scallops that adorn your plate like a bouquet of flowers, a lobster head with freshly-squeezed vegetable juices offering a vibrant palette of colours and flavours, scrambled eggs with frog's legs, a reminder that traditional products can become exceptional dishes. And the wonderful warm foie gras in a vegetable pot-au-feu is the stuff dreams are made of! It all reflects the continual inventiveness of a man and his team who wish to surprise and to charm, to share their love of the fine and the beautiful.

The Lameloise family are close and supportive of each other, working and moving ahead as a united force. They are solid and loyal, like the Chagny coat of arms which shows an oak tree and gold with the motto: "E solo robur: From the soil I draw my strength."

Who is the man behind the chef?
Jacques Lameloise is a joker and a collector. Always ready to stir things up a bit, he has been know to surprise those nearby by jumping into the pool with all his clothes on during a party.

A long-time soccer-player, he is his team's biggest supporter. You have to see him standing near the field, clutching the fence with both hands, his eyes glued to the ball. No need for a megaphone, since his voice takes on unusual volume! Go blues! He also devotes part of his time and money to buying classic cars, with a predilection for old Lancias.

He is just a bit crazy, adorable, a combination of joie de vivre and professional rigour… He and his wife Nicole have three children growing up amidst the saucepans and Burgundy bottles, all still too young to sense their vocation… but surely one of them will carry on the family work!