From Bocuse to Maison Pic to L’Eau Vive, three Momentum dinners made history.
Momentum Les Grandes Tables du Monde was one of the most ambitious ideas in recent fine dining history: 19 simultaneous four-hands dinners across 13 countries, pairings decided by lottery, menus created for a single night and never to be repeated. When we first wrote about it in February, the promise was extraordinary. The reality has been even greater. Here is what three of those nights looked like.
Lyon: Bocuse x Mélisse
On April 15th,Josiah Citrin of two-Michelin-starred Mélisse in Santa Monica walked into the kitchen of two-starred Restaurant Paul Bocuse in Collonges-au-Mont-d’Or. By evening, 80 guests would be seated. But first, there was a kitchen to inhabit, one of the most storied in the history of French gastronomy.
“It was one of the biggest honours of my life,” Citrin told FEAST Journal. “Growing up idolising Mr. Bocuse, I never thought I’d be cooking in that kitchen representing my restaurant. It was euphoria.”
The menu was structured as a true dialogue. Bocuse held the house with a spring lobster fricassée with seasonal vegetables, a line-caught pollack with shellfish jus crémé and Vichyssoise garniture, a Limousin veal chop rôtie au sautoir with petits pois à la française, and L’Altapaz, a dark chocolate Grand Cru Guatemala showpiece. Citrin wove three courses into the framework, each carrying a distinct Californian imprint: a scallop with violet artichoke, fennel, smoked pork knuckle and hibiscus; a roasted pigeon to die for with celeriac, hazelnut, fresh morel and aged Comté; and a passion fruit parfait with coconut sorbet and lemongrass tapioca. Every course was paired with French wines, from a Chablis 2022 by Thomas Pico to a Hermitage 2021 and a 1999 Maury from Domaine Mas Amiel.
The scallop dish, Citrin explained, was a deliberate choice: “We wanted to bring something that represented California but also was deep in French heritage.” The dish has roots in Mélisse’s original cookbook, In Pursuit of Excellence: “Chef Ken and I kind of reinvented it, made it modern from 15 years ago. All the flavours are the same, but it’s a completely different version.” A dish that bridges past and present, served in a house that embodies exactly that.”
Ask Citrin what he remembers most, and he does not mention a dish. He talks about a moment in the kitchen, early in the service, when the reality of where he was finally landed. “Just looking at the bee on top of the hood, in that kitchen you’ve seen in so many books and magazines and videos, and thinking, we’re cooking in here now.” He paused. “It was the second biggest achievement of my career, right after the phone call when we got our two Michelin stars.”
Out in the dining room, something unexpected was unfolding. The guests, mostly local Lyonnais, were not just receptive but warm. Citrin found himself moving between tables, explaining his dishes in French, reading their reactions. “‘I think they were kind of blown away by how well I spoke French. I was explaining the food to them and I really got the sense they enjoyed it.” For a Californian chef cooking in one of the most traditionally French dining rooms in existence, that welcome was its own reward.
And then came the ending. The sommelier appeared in the kitchen, sabre in hand, and in one clean, theatrical sabrage, opened a bottle of champagne. The room erupted. Citrin just smiled: “How much more French could it get?”
Valence: Pic x Nakamura
Two days earlier, on April 13th, the International Day of Gastronomy, Anne-Sophie Pic of Maison Pic had welcomed Tohru Nakamura of Tohru in der Schreiberei in Munich. Six Michelin stars between them: three for Pic, the most decorated female chef in the world, and three for Nakamura, whose Tohru in der Schreiberei in Munich earned its third star in 2025. Can one imagine a more rarefied evening in recent gastronomic memory?
Before the event, Nakamura had told us he was curious to see “how I, a chef who is half Japanese and half German and deeply influenced by French cuisine, exchange ideas with a French chef who has a very deep connection with Japan”. Seeing the understanding and chemistry between the two chefs, it is hard not to read the menu as the answer.
Pic opened with her prémices: a rose petal feuilletée with tarragon mayonnaise and a carrot tartelette with géranium rosat. Nakamura followed with Gillardeau nº1 oysters, pea teardrops and mussel bouillon, then Koshihikari rice with Mediterranean bluefin tuna, akami and shio koji. From there, the two chefs alternated through nine courses.
Pic deployed her signatures: Les Berlingots with Banon, matcha, lovage, citron and black cardamom; her white asparagus from the Rhône Valley with blonde beer, bitter orange blossom and onyx caviar; the Agneau de Pays with bergamot mint and Brousse du Rove; and her Millefeuille Blanc 2.0 with orange blossom and jasmine. Nakamura wove in a Truite Saumonée with flame-seared cucumber, karashi and kombucha; a Chawanmushi with morels, smoked eel and sauce riche; a King Crab au Torchon with spring turnips, caper leaf, sansho and white miso; and a Dim Sum dessert with rhubarb, sandalwood and raspberry.
Japan ran through both voices. Pic’s géranium rosat and Nakamura’s shio koji were not opposites but echoes. This was not fusion. This was two chefs, shaped by different paths to the same culinary crossroads, speaking in a shared language they discovered on the night itself. A night that those of us lucky enough to be there will not easily forget.
Liernu: L’Eau Vive x Odette
The same evening, 800 kilometres north, two-Michelin-starred L’Eau Vive in Liernu, Belgium, hosted Julien Royer of three-starred Odette in Singapore. In the intimate setting of a 17th century mill by the river Burnot, Pierre Résimont’s vibrant, flavour-driven cooking met Royer’s French technique filtered through Southeast Asia. Two stars and three stars, the Ardennes and Singapore, coming together for what both teams described simply as ‘a unique moment driven by passion and sharing, and a true success.
When Les Grandes Tables du Monde drew these names at random, they trusted that chance could spark something extraordinary. In Lyon, Valence and Liernu, it did.
Les Grandes Tables du Monde: the association behind Momentum
What began in 1954 as a gathering of six Parisian restaurateurs united by a shared vision of culinary excellence is today, under the name Les Grandes Tables du Monde and bearing a logo drawn by Jean Cocteau himself, an association that brings together no fewer than 206 exceptional restaurants across 28 countries.
Under the presidency of David Sinapian, the association has entered a new chapter of ambition and openness. Momentum is only the most visible expression of a broader drive: from Les Rencontres, a series of public gatherings that bring chefs and food lovers together in cities like Lyon and London, to the official Les Grandes Tables du Monde app, alongside L’Itinéraire, a digital membership programme that invites gastronomy enthusiasts into the world of its member restaurants. With 18 new members welcomed in 2025 alone, spanning from Mexico to Thailand, Les Grandes Tables du Monde is no longer just preserving a tradition of excellence. It is actively shaping its future.
