Chefs de France
Chefs de France, known in full as Les Chefs de France, is a table-service restaurant in the France Pavilion of World Showcase at EPCOT in Walt Disney World. It is a classic French brasserie serving lunch and dinner, and it carries an unusual pedigree for a theme park restaurant: it was founded in 1982 by three of the most celebrated chefs in France, Paul Bocuse, Roger Vergé and Gaston Lenôtre. It opened with EPCOT on October 1, 1982, and has operated continuously since.
History
Les Chefs de France was created for the opening of the France Pavilion by Bocuse, a leading figure of nouvelle cuisine; Vergé, famed for the Provençal cooking of Le Moulin de Mougins; and Lenôtre, France's pre-eminent pastry chef and caterer.[1] Together the three also opened the more formal restaurant upstairs, the Bistro de Paris, with the brasserie on the ground floor offering the heartier, more homely style the French call cuisine bourgeoise. The venture gave Bocuse his first restaurant presence in the United States.[2]
The founding partnership shaped the restaurant's menu and identity for decades. Since 1996 the restaurant has been run by Jérôme Bocuse, Paul Bocuse's son, whose company also operates the upstairs restaurant, renamed Monsieur Paul in honour of his father. The partnership of the three founding chefs is still reflected in the menu, which is presented as inspired by all three, and the Bocuse name remains the restaurant's defining association.
Setting
The restaurant occupies the ground floor of the pavilion's main building, on the corner of the pavilion's Parisian streetscape. Inside, it is modelled on a turn-of-the-century Paris brasserie: a bright, high-ceilinged room with tall arched windows looking out over the World Showcase promenade, brass fittings, mosaic and tile detailing, white tablecloths and closely set tables. The windows make it a particularly sought-after seat at dusk, when the promenade lights come on, and the room's bustle is part of the design rather than an accident — a brasserie is meant to feel busy. White-jacketed servers complete a scene that has changed little in character since 1982.
Cuisine
The menu is a catalogue of brasserie standards rather than haute cuisine. Starters have long included French onion soup topped with Gruyère, escargots baked in garlic and parsley butter, and a charcuterie and cheese selection. Main courses typically feature boeuf bourguignon, duck à l'orange, roasted chicken, salmon and ratatouille-based vegetarian dishes, with a prix-fixe option combining courses. Desserts draw on the Lenôtre side of the founding partnership, with crème brûlée, chocolate profiteroles and fruit tarts among the regular offerings. A substantial French wine list, organised by region, accompanies the food, and the baguettes served at the table come from the pavilion's own bakery tradition at Les Halles Boulangerie.
The restaurant's reputation rests on consistency: it delivers recognisable, carefully cooked versions of dishes that French diners would know from home, in a park where most menus are adapted for an international theme park audience.