RESTAURATEUR IGNACE LECLEIR LAUNCHES HIS NEW VENTURE

It takes a lot to flabbergast Ignace Lecleir, but even the ultra-smooth restaurateur was open-mouthed and stalk-eyed with disbelief when inspecting a hutong location to see if it had potential as a restaurant.

It wasn’t so much the place itself that amazed him — although it was, indeed, a rather special spot — but the fact that Lecleir had run past the location almost every day for a year while training for a marathon, without realizing the walls were shrouding a 600-year-old temple complex from view. The Tibetan-style temple, located in an ample courtyard, just to the northeast of the Forbidden City, had been neglected for decades; even some neighborhood residents were only vaguely aware what lay behind the high walls.

With just one look at the decaying structures, Lecleir immediately saw potential, and concluded that it would make a fabulous location for a contemporary restaurant, where modern-day visitors could enjoy the novelty of eating and drinking in an early Ming Dynasty-era setting.

Originally built by Emperor Yongle, who ruled in the early 15^th century, monks, scholars and artists at the Zhi Zhu Si temple complex produced sutras and texts for the emperor’s religious tutors, which were then printed on the site. Up to 1,000 people were thought to have been engaged in the process.

Mass-production work of a radically different kind took place there in the 1960s and 1970s, during the Cultural Revolution. A factory was set up in the compound where workers assembled parts for China’s first ever black-and-white television sets.

The original wooden buildings, some of which were erected 600 years ago, have undergone sensitive, delicate-touch restoration. Modern lighting, state of-the-art sound systems and gleaming new kitchen equipment were also added.

TRB, Temple Restaurant Beijing played host to a few private functions and corporate events last year — one such bash featuring a disco that went on almost until dawn — while Lecleir fine-tuned the details of his new venue. The restaurant opened for business last month.

Everyone in Beijing who appreciates European-style fine dining knows Lecleir, who had been the low-key but formidable driving force behind Maison Boulud de Pekin, the restaurant that established the benchmark for gourmet fare and slick service. Lecleir admits it was major professional decision to cut the Boulud ties, relinquishing a top job at an established operation, to embark on a solo venture that he had to build from scratch. The move also involved a significant financial commitment for the father of three young children, and a year without any significant income while the new premises were being readied for opening.

If Lecleir is in the least bit worried, he hides it with the skilled aplomb of a natural diplomat, exuding an air of optimistic anticipation. “It is a bit scary putting your own money into it, things change, but it is something I always wanted to do,” he says. “In our business it is not really about the money. If you look at all the time and effort you put into it there are probably easier ways to make a living.

“I think Beijing has a lot of opportunities and I do like the city, it has something unique to offer. I am very much aware it is a big gamble but it is the right time in my life, it is the right moment, time for a change.

“It has been the biggest learning experience ever for me, I have changed quite a lot. The biggest surprise was that sometimes you forget about all the support that is in place in restaurants and hotels. You have the responsibility for the staff and your family – I consider the staff part of the family.”

Lecleir’s actual family comprises American wife Jennifer and three children aged ten, three and two, the younger two born here. The Belgian met his wife while working as a cruise-ship sommelier with the five-star Crystal Cruises; marriage meant swapping the high seas life for dry land, in the US city of San Francisco, later followed by a move to New York to work for renowned French chef Daniel Boulud. It is a measure of Lecleir’s standing with his boss that he was chosen to head up the launch of Boulud’s first Asian project, the Maison Boulud de Pekin restaurant in the Chien’Men 23 complex.

The indefatigable Lecleir took on the arduous task of training up local staff to international levels, implementing service that was superior to most five-star hotels. The food, using Boulud recipes executed by chef Brian Reimer, was top notch, making Maison Boulud by far the best western fine-dining experience in the city.

All of which means Lecleir is opening the new restaurant with a huge groundswell of goodwill from gourmet-appreciating patrons. The menu is largely modern Mediterranean, executed by Moroccan-British chef Zak El Hamdou.

“It is a very unique restaurant, it has a lot of charm and character,” says Lecleir. “We want to create a place that becomes part of society, a place [to come] with your family for your daughter’s birthday when she is six and where you also come back here when she is 18.

“I want to have an old-school approach, a place where you feel well taken care of. We want to pamper you without over-pampering you. It will be calm – and entering will be almost like a voyage.”

That voyage, through the archway where the emperor and his retinue likely walked in days of yore, en route to religious ceremonies, brings diners initially into a spacious courtyard. It houses several ancient buildings, with paintwork and peeling wood that have purposely been left untouched, to ensure historical verisimilitude.

A series of quirky, red sculptures, and subtle mood lighting, give the compound a magical, otherworldly night-time atmosphere. The actual dining room — which has double-length glass windows overlooking the vintage buildings — once housed a factory, where workers produced the capital’s first black-and-white television sets.

It is a location which will have diners marveling at what an extraordinary city they live in, where the ultra-modern can be found cheek-by-jowl with the deeply traditional.

Lecleir’s high hospitality standards were finessed by training in Michelin restaurants in France and one of the grand hotels of London, the Dorchester.

“When I worked there I learned the British way, the gentleman approach to running a hotel,” he says. “It was very organized and disciplined and calm – the royal family would come to functions there and Tom Cruise was a regular visitor when he was in town.

“It was almost like two hotels because the Sultan of Brunei owns it and has the two top floors, so it was almost like a hotel within a hotel. I started there as chief steward, washing the dishes, after I had finished my hotel management training.

“You can skip this step or you can decide to do it, it is a very hard job, but you learn to work with a lot of different nationalities in your team maybe people who do not have the highest educational skills and then the chefs and managers. You are on the bottom. It was important for me to understand how that works.

“Later when I worked for Crystal Cruises as a sommelier, I really learned how to work and how to live in a close environment with many different people; the ship had 500 passengers, 600 staff and 56 different nationalities!”

Want to know more about TRB's cuisine? Check out our profile of executive chef Zak El Hamoud.

Experience of dealing with so many diverse cultures helped Lecleir adapt quickly to Beijing; huge reserves of patience also came in handy when trying to explain the subtleties of western dining etiquette to local Chinese staff. Not that he regards this, or any element of the restaurant business, as a task.

“I feel very fortunate because it does not feel like work to me,” he says. “Even when I am not working I like to do research on restaurants. I like to spend time with the family, of course, but often I relax by doing something to do with the business.”

Another hobby is training for marathons and triathlons. He still can’t quite believe that while training for the Great Wall marathon, he jogged daily past the temple complex, little realizing that his future lay behind the high compound walls.

“I used to run through these hutongs for a year and never saw the temple. When I was first introduced to it I thought ‘I know this road.’

“It is amazing that I never saw it and never noticed it. You are in the middle of a city of 20 million people and it is quiet, you walk outside and it is so relaxing; sometimes I need an extra espresso in the middle of the afternoon it is so quiet.

“I feel I have been living here for years, I spend a lot of time here and you almost feel that you are in a small village. The moment you go to the big street it is bustling and vibrant again.”