Where did you say?

On top of the range,  34 km west of Casino and 45 minutes from Lismore  stands the only genuine French "with altitude" restaurant this side of Sydney and the Gold Coast. Restaurant Jean-Claude is the most photographed restaurant and has the most copied menus in the Northern Rivers.

In this family affair which started on Anzac Day 2007, Jean-Claude invested in the big gamble of bringing people to Mallanganee, Northern Rivers, New South Wales, not by the melody of the squeeze box but by the taste buds and swore he would stop dead the traffic on the Bruxner Highway just by the aromas of his kitchen.

Evelyn is the wealth of knowledge behind the Jean Claude Restaurant team. Raised in a restaurateurs family (Grandmother had two restaurants in the Alps, father and uncle another two). Food is her life hobby and she becomes the worst critic when it comes to cooking standards....a real bottomless pit of knowledge.

After the 25 years spent in Sydney she firmly maintains only a handful deserve the name of restaurants there. She has 40 years of cooking behind her.Being also a senior French teacher, she teaches both the language and the culture in a boys' school, and is currently writing a book about the Australian's new venture into food  (to be published.

(Click the small picture for a larger version of Evelyne at college}

Second-in-charge of menus is son Benjamin, taught in  Lyon, world capital of gastronomy, place of world icons ( Paul Bocuse, Mere Brazier)...  formation : cook  .

Benjamin has been raised in French cooking and flavours, so he is now an expert in authentic flavours, sauces and wild game preparation.

Third comes the view. Situated at the Mallanganee lookout, the view is fantastic from the verandah. The visit to the restaurant is worth it if only for the landscape alone. Very few restaurants can boast views like these.

Now Jean-Claude runs the kitchen .Like wife Evy he was born in Savoie, (best known for skiing, monster fondues and dahu hunts). Raised in Lyon, JC discovered gastronomy at its highest...
 "it is the local Rugby over there"...Classic training Tournon-Tain l'Hermitage 1964, Perpignan, Avignon, Aix-les Bains (city often visited by the Windsors  in pre-war times). The family moved to OZ in the early seventies when top restaurants rolled in gold making eggs mimosa as entrees, kidneys in Madeira and creme caramel as desserts...(The garlic bread-which is Italian, not French- appeared on tables later.)

Jean Claude, who also makes his own patisseries (croissants-eclairs-brioches-palmiers-croque en bouche etc), worked in Sydney with chef Didier - La Renaissance- La Ganache.

"La bonne cuisine est la veritable recette du bonheur" (good cooking is the genuine recipe for happiness)."

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