The Man Behind Le Monde

Regis Courivaud has been an important figure in the Columbia community for years. Two of his restaurants, Le Monde and Deluxe, are long time favorites in Morningside Heights. Originally from Limoges, France, Courivaud came to America 15 years ago and has since established his presence in the culinary world. He has appeared on the Food Network several times and has gained prestige in his field by placing third in the 2005 U.S. pastry competition and second in Classic Gourmet's 2001 Southern Pastry Classic. Courivaud is a specialty pastry chef, as well as a sugar and chocolate sculptor.

Spectator: Your specialty is sugar sculpting. What does that entail?

Regis Courivaud: Well, it's a lot like working with glass, you know, you can blow, you can pull, you can cast, and that means you can do a lot of artistic work. You can do figurines, you can do animals, or you could do flowers. Also with casting, you could recreate large things, like a house.

Spec: What's the most elaborate thing you've made out of sugar?

RC: Actually, I hold the Guinness record for the tallest sugar showpiece in the world. I recreated the Empire State building for show casing last year, and the piece was 17 feet high, completely made out of sugar.

Spec: Do you sculpt with any other type of food?

RC: I mostly do sugar, but also chocolate and sometimes pastries

Spec: What's your favorite food to make as a chef?

RC: Very traditional dishes, like home cooking. I like cooking up a nice stew like a good fish stew or meat stew-very simple and traditional things.

Spec: What's your favorite food to eat?

RC: French. But I like things outside of French food-I like Japanese food a lot. I love trying all different kinds of food, like Chinese food sometimes, or fast food, because I have to keep up with the times and sometimes I'm forced to go to McDonald's.

Spec: Do you have a favorite dish?

RC: It depends- if you take Japanese food, I like sushi. Italian food, I like pizza. If you take Mexican food, I like nachos. If you take French food, then you know, I like it traditional, like a stew, like Coq au Vin. I even love fast food burgers with American cheese.

Spec: What's the weirdest food you've ever eaten?

RC: Crickets, from Mexico. They were dried in the sun and served with lime juice and spice

Spec: What's a food you wouldn't go near?

RC: Well, one day I was in a Japanese bar with a Japanese friend of mine, and he gave me some raw seaweed-and that was worse than the crickets by a lot.

Spec: If you had to make yourself dinner, but you were on a college student budget and you only had $20 to spend on ingredients, what would you make?

RC: You can do a lot of different stuff-you could buy a little beef, or you could buy a little chicken. You could easily make a nice chicken stew. Or if you had some rice and some red peppers and some tomatoes, you could make chicken Spanish-style. There is always a way to get around a small budget.

Spec: What advice would you give a Columbia student to help improve his or her cooking?

RC: You need to like to cook and either you like it or you don't. And if you don't, you could always make yourself simple salad dish. You could very easily make yourself a chicken dish, but you have to use your time very carefully.

Spec: Do you have any sort of secret weapon you use when you cook?

RC: It's not really a secret: when I cook for other people, I need to be interested in what I'm cooking and the people need to be interested too. Your menu needs be interesting to people-so you want the way you want to eat to be interesting to other people. I need to change my menu soon to include some more bread dishes because sometimes changing the menu is what keeps people interested. I guess you could also say that my secret weapon is to be confident in your work.

Spec: If I'm at Le Monde, what should I try? What do you recommend?

RC: Try everything. But really, it depends-if you like fish, we have a very nice salmon in a wrap that I recommend. Here, I love the Coq au Vin. I also love the chocolate tart and a coffee cake.

Spec: Do you have any last words for your Columbia public?

RC: Columbia is a great thing for all of the restaurants around here. All of the students and teachers seem to be interested in what all of the restaurants around here are doing. So I guess I have to say thank you to Columbia because Le Monde would not be Le Monde without Columbia.