Chef Guillaume Burlion Creates Mystic Magic
Passion. It’s what inspired 13-year-old Guillaume Burlion to know that rolling out pastry dough with his grandmother or creating a cassoulet with his mother was more than fun. Cooking, he decided, was his calling in life. He would become a chef. And, like so many of his fellow French countrymen before him, he would work to become a great chef.
It was also Burlion’s passion for food that helped him survive his tiring teenage years as he attended high school in the mornings and served his apprenticeship at night in some of Paris’ most exclusive restaurants. It also helped him cope with some harsh taskmasters who would accept nothing less than perfection from him.
“Chefs weren’t very politically correct in those days,” he says as he recalls how a chef’s temper could ignite when an apprentice made a mistake.
But, as harsh as this hands-on training might have been, Burlion feels that it made him and others of his generation much better chefs as a result.
“It come from the old school,” he smiles. “It’s all about perfection. If it wasn’t perfect, I was in trouble.” And because Burlion accepted the challenge to excel, he quickly rose through the ranks becoming a sous chef at Pavillon Elysee Restaurant by the time he was 18. At 19, this young culinary superstar was selected to prepare a special dinner held by Francois Mitterand, France’s President at the time. And, at 30 years old, Burlion was inducted as a member of the prestigious Confrerie de la Chaine des Rotisseurs, an honor reserved for the world’s greatest chefs.
Since his apprenticeship days, Burlion, who since migrated to the United States, has racked up numerous culinary coups. He cooked for former President Bill Clinton and at OPSAIL 2000 and has been hired by numerous stars such as Candice Bergen, Sally Field, Rod Steiger and John McEnroe to showcase his talents at their private parties. He has served as the private executive chef for La Coquille Blanche in trendy Malibu, California, and the executive chef for Europa, a stylish Relais & Chateaux restaurant in Palm Springs, California.
Today, Burlion has been lured to the well-known Flood Tide Restaurant at the Inn at Mystic in Mystic, Connecticut, by owner Jody Dyer. Professionally, she is pleased with her selection but, personally, notes that she has put on 20 pounds since the chef’s arrival. Obviously, it was a good management decision.
Here Burlion works with two 20-person kitchen teams to provide diners with an array of creative cuisine for breakfast, lunch, tea, hors d’ourves, dinner, and a spectacular Sunday brunch. At the same time, they also host numerous weddings and other receptions and corporate functions.
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