Champêtre

Shakespeare said that all the world is a stage—a feeling amply demonstrated by chef Michel Jean who, with his wife, Patricia, owns Champêtre, an intimate little restaurant in Pine Plains.

Jean recently turned his little restaurant over to film producer Caroline Phipps and writer/director Alex Lage for a week to use as a backdrop for a scene in their new film, The End for Me.

The short film tells the tale of three people—a pianist, his wife and a singer—lost in a world of music. Close but unable to truly communicate, these lonely people are faced with the tragedy of discovering love when it’s too late.

The chef himself was pressed into duty, appearing in the role of Bernard, father of the singer, Jacqueline. “Michel has a fairly large role with many lines,” reported Phipps.

“He’s turned out to be a very good actor—probably because, as a top-class chef, he has been on the ‘stage’ his whole life.”

Jean agreed, “I have been acting all my life,” he said. “You always come out and greet your customers. It’s like inviting guests to my house, you want to serve them the best food, the drink. The only difference is here they have to pay!”

The Jeans have been offering the finest in Provençale food at Champêtre since 2021 when they stepped back from their previous 120-seat restaurant at the Stissing House only four doors away. Jean explains that he had been chef at Stissing House for 15 years, ever since he was invited to take over the space by the building’s owner. When his landlord died, just before the Jeans’ lease was to renew, the administrators of the estate decided to sell.

A friend offered to buy the building so they could continue but at age 74 Michel was ready to try something different. The couple relocated to the much-smaller building that houses Champêtre, polished it up for a discerning clientele and opened with a mere 23 seats, giving the restaurant a decidedly intimate aura.

Staff members who worked with him for 15 years at Stissing House followed him to the new endeavor, ensuring that Champêtre operates like a well-oiled machine. The little jewel which hides behind a deceptively modest sign that simply announces “Restaurant” is open for dinner 5 to 9PM, Wednesday through Sunday. It has gathered a large following, according to Jean, and reservations are a must.

Jean, who grew up in Bel-Air, a small town in southern France, graduated from the École Hôtelière in Nice in 1968. He taps into his regional roots at Champêtre, providing his tables with traditional foods à la provençale, with occasional dishes drawn from other Mediterranean cultures such as Spain, Italy and Morocco (he once cooked for the King of Morocco).

“I do all the classic dishes—cassolet, bouillabaisse, duck confit …,” he said.
The menu is limited, this week featuring eight appetizers such as escargots do Bourgone ($19); Terrine Maison, a duck and prune pate ($18), and sea urchins on the half shell ($18). For fish, he is offering black bass or red snapper ($42), steak frites ($42), steak tartare ($35) and three duck dishes—magret, confit and a cassoulet ($35-$42).

Diners are advised to leave room for some very French desserts such as Ile Flottante, Tarte au Citron, Marquise au Chocolate with crème Anglaise and the like—all priced at $12.

The dishes are all crafted to the degree possible with products from area farms. Using the freshest of produce comes naturally. “My mother was a good cook and my father was a farmer so we always had great food with about 20 people at the table,” he recalled.

He said he choose the food industry as a career because it offered a chance for travel and he has enjoyed a very international career, worked in the kitchen of the King Palace Tour Hassan-Mamounia in Marrakech and followed that with a stint on cruise ships, spending his winters in southern climes and his winters in Scandinavian countries. He ended his peripatetic seasonal wanderings in California with Club Med.

He spent two years working at the Aspen Institute in Colorado before returning to Europe to the Hotel de Paris in Monte Carlo. There he was persuaded to come to New York by Regine Zylberberg, a Belgian-born French singer and nightclub impresario, who dubbed herself the "Queen of the Night." He was not initially intrigued but succumbed to her invitation to become the opening chef at her eponymous French restaurant on Park Avenue. Eventually he became the tuxedo-clad maître d’ and it was here that he met his future wife, Patricia, and appeared in his first movie, playing a familiar role—a maître d’ in The Greek Tycoon, a fictionalized account of the romance between Jaqueline Kennedy and Aristotle Onassis.

In 1980 he moved back to Provence to open his own restaurant before returning to New York as chef in fine restaurants such as Le Cirque. By 1986 he was ready to branch out on his own again with a bistro-style restaurant in Soho called Provence, an acclaimed brasserie that became a gathering place for New York’s fashionable set feeding the likes of Mick Jagger, Gérard Depardieu, Patti Smith, Andy Warhol and Martha Stewart. Zagat repeatedly listed the bistro in its “Top 10 Romantic Restaurants” throughout the 1990s.

Provence weathered the vagaries of the New York social scene for 20 years but by then Jean was a weekender in Pine Plains where he and his wife had discovered a charming 19th-century Greek Revival farmhouse. An enthusiastic rider and gunman, he enjoyed the local fox hunts and bird shoots—sports he enjoys to this day.

“I love the country,” he says—indeed, Champêtre means “rural.” He enjoys the small town feel of Pine Plains and his ability to work closely with small farms in the region. In Champêtre he is again in the kitchen while Patricia manages the front of the house, the intimate dining allowing them to interact personally with their guests.

Champêtre is located at 2938 Church Street and can be reached at 518-771-3350.