Robuchon opens ‘Odyssey’ in Monte Carlo

Joël Robuchon has opened his third restaurant at Monte Carlo’s Hotel Metropole with design help from Karl Lagerfeld.

Joël Robuchon at his new restaurant, Lagerfeld’s mural is in the background

The Michelin-starred chef’s new restaurant is called “Odyssey” and is an outdoor, poolside restaurant offering Mediterranean inspired lunches and dinners.

Robuchon apparently sought inspiration from French, Spanish, Italian, Greek and Lebanese cuisine for his menu, which includes octopus salad with pesto and soft marinated vegetables; lobster with baby spinach leaves and wasabi and beef carpaccio with virgin olive oil.

Robuchon said of the food: “The new concept of Odyssey offers a fresh menu with light and modern dishes inspired by the relaxed atmosphere of the hotel. The new restaurant offers an alfresco dining experience around the pool, evoking a relaxed barbecue style spirit with a Mediterranean touch to be enjoyed day and night”.

The Grecian-Mediterranean theme to the restaurant was inspired by a mural by the hotel’s pool which Lagerfeld, in-house designer for fashion label Chanel, was commissioned to produce at an earlier date.

Lagerfeld explained at the time of the mural’s design: “I chose the theme of Greek mythology for Hotel Métropole Monte-Carlo as everything happens in the Mediterranean – it seems logical to focus on the location we are in. To convey what I have created in more literary terms, I would quote the heroine from ‘Iphigenia in Tauris’ by Goethe who says: ‘And days together stand I on the shore, seeking, in my soul, the land of Greece…’”.