I will remember you every time I see 3 ingredients on a plate.
I will remember you every time I taste the flavor of a vegetable, clear and pure.
I will remember you every time I make a drawing, because it was there at Septime that I started drawing, keeping in my notebooks everything that was on the plate, and gradually, too, what lay beyond it. The wooden tables, the spiral staircase, the tiny kitchen, the flower arrangements, the glass walls that separated us from the bar, the blue windows and doors that looked out onto Rue de Charonne.
I will remember you every time I go to Paris, because going to Paris always meant paying you a visit.
I will remember you every time I recognize beauty and simplicity on someone’s table, because sparking an aesthetic and creative emotion through cooking was a gift of yours that always disarmed me.
I will remember you.
Thank you for everything, Bertrand.