Learn to Cook Professionally with our chef Benoit Witz
Black Truffle and Lobster: the Chef’s Masterclasses
enoit Witz is opening up the doors of his kitchen! The chef that worked alongside Paul Bocuse and Alain Ducasse, and now cements the splendid reputation of the Jardin Secret restaurant, offers to share his talents. In a small group of up to five people, with both amateurs and experienced cooks, you will expand your knowledge of cooking by working with authentic Provençal ingredients to craft the best dishes.
Black Truffle
This masterclass will take place after a truffle hunting demonstration with specially-trained truffle dogs. Meet at 2pm at the Canut family’s farm in Aups (20 minutes from Cotignac), before meeting chef Benoit Witz at 4pm in the kitchen of the Jardin Secret restaurant to learn how to cook with black truffles.
Lobster
This workshop will guide you through delicious lobster recipes to surprise your guests and delight your tastebuds. Benoit Witz will teach you everything you need to know to cook this seafood like a true top-class chef!
Wild Plants
Wild plants are a key cooking ingredient for our chef Benoit Witz, who opens his kitchen to teach you how to work them in a creative culinary way. Vera, our favourite herbalist, guide you to pick these plants in Lou Calen’s gardens from 2pm to 4pm, before joining the chef for a cooking class.
After two hours in the kitchen, you will leave with a three course menu and takeaway meal for 2 people fully prepared under the friendly guidance of our chef Benoit Witz.
Benoit Witz, a generous and passionate chef
Having grown up on a small family farm in Alsace nestled between Les Vosges and Germany, Benoit developed a passion for both gardening and good cuisine. He then followed his vocation to the greatest kitchens in France under the direction of Paul Bocuse, Patrick Lenôtre and Alain Ducasse, who entrusted Benoit with several prestigious restaurants such as Pré Catelan in Paris, or even Louis XV in Monaco, before he took on the role as chef at L’Hostellerie de l’Abbaye de la Celle, then at the Hermitage hotel in Monaco.
Seduced by the enchanting setting of Cotignac and the eco-responsible approach of the owners of Lou Calen as well as the hotel’s exciting heritage, Benoit was content to return to the Var countryside with this newfound source of inspiration. The chef applies his culinary craft to create a cuisine deeply rooted in the Provençal Haut-Var territory. In his dishes, he prefers to return to simple and authentic cooking, and thus explores natural Provençal flavours. In his own way, he promotes a particular idea of sharing and generosity, with olive oil and vegetables for Proust madeleines. Cooking in large soups, or with small stuffed vegetables, fritters, using chickpeas and fennel – there is a joyful and colourful Provence simmering away at the Jardin Secret restaurant.
