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Menton Citrus Festival with Maxime Kien
Recently on Fabulously Delicious, I continued my conversation with Chef Maxine Kien from Boucherie restaurants in New York City. This time with a focus on his place of birth, the French city of Menton and its food, particularly its wonderful food festival, the Menton citrus festival.
When you look at the map of France, if you go to the left you will find Menton on the right Chef Kien says and he fills us in on all things about this wonderful city located on the Cote D’Azur.
Each year the city throws one of the biggest food festivals in France. The Menton Citrus Festival highlights all there is to know about delicious citrus, lemons, limes, oranges, and everything else in between. Chef Kien remembers past festivals that he’s been to as well as their themes. That’s right each year the festival picks a theme to highlight citrus.
Chef Klien discusses all there is to know about Menton and who better to learn from than a Fabulous French chef who used to call the city home.
French Chef Profile - Maxime Kien
So if you had the opportunity to work in kitchens around the world, would you take it? Would you stay at home in the city, town or country, you know? How do you decide when you're on a career path that's moving up to work in your own restaurant or somebody else's? Is it about your choices or what fate delivers to you? I'm not sure. But I do think that for some people, what guides them is their passion. It's not just our ambitions or chances.
Chef Maxime Kien now lives a life that some of us might envy in New York. But one thing I noticed, and I think you will as well, when I was chatting with him is that his passion for food, and specifically French food is a driver for him. And I'm sure he's influenced all the people he's worked with and who know him. Chef Kien’s food hero was his dad who was a very good chef. He studied culinary arts in Burgundy, where the family's originally from, and made his way to work in Monaco in the south of France. His dad then moved to Menton where Chef Kien was born. Sadly he was taken too young and passed away in a motorcycle accident when Chef Kien was 6 years old.