Instagram: sparklivefire
Open Tuesday - Saturday
19:00-22:00
Closed Sunday and Monday
Just look for the Live Fire
My only regret in life is that I did not drink more wine.
Ernest Hemingway
I knew that I was dying.
Something in me said,
Go ahead, die, sleep, become as them, accept.
Then something else in me said, no, save the tiniest bit.
It needn't be much, just a spark.
A spark can set a whole forest on fire.
Just a spark.
Save it.
Charles Bukowski
No.
I'm just a guy who loves to cook. The idea of the "Chef" implies that he is the leader of a brigade. I don't want a whole brigade, I want to be the one in the kitchen actually cooking the food. Too many so-called "Chefs" these days almost never set foot in their own restaurants.
I will also add that I do love to create, but I disagree with creation for its own sake. Some chefs feel like they have to change or alter the form of their indgredients in order to justify their existence. I believe our job is to get out of nature's way and present each ingredient in a pure form with as few alterations and adornments as possible.
Yes.
I cook whatever I want, hopefully also something that you want.
For me it's less important what I'm cooking and more important how I'm cooking it. I'm a big believer in the old ways, taking a bit longer to make things better. The flavors you taste here will echo the places I've lived throughout my life: Calgary, Las Vegas, Chengdu, Bangkok, Paris, and now, Nice.
Fire is cool
Seriously, fire is beautiful, bewitching, enticing and entrancing.
But more than that, humans have been cooking with wood-fire for ages, and one of the great advances of civilisation was ovens that could retain heat. Everything I cook is based on the idea of using every part of the arc of my oven's heat.
During service the oven is super hot and acts like a broiler that sizzles and chars carrots and fennel in seconds. After service the temperature goes down and I can roast and braise my pork and beef overnight. The next morning there is enough retained heat in my oven to create a perfect environment for smoking the ribs, pork belly, chicken wings and prime rib. Even our desserts are cooked in the wood-fired oven.
4 months
Almost. But by the time you read this it will have been.
Admittedly decoration took a bit longer than expected, the war in the Middle East delayed the shipping of our custom made bar by four months. I had to learn how to rock-climb so I could build a chimney in a 213 year old conduit between our building and the next. Even getting our fridges delivered into Old Nice was an unexpected nightmare.
But the response since we've opened has been incredible. We've met so many great people who share our passion for food and fire. We're slow, but we're getting faster. Luckily our customers have been very patient.
Work is Love, made visible. Food is love, made edible.
Kahlil Gibran and Michael James
That's often the first question people ask and it's really not an easy answer. Usually my canned response is to look up at the sky and say, The Weather, but that's not the whole truth. The chain of events that led us here is long and complicated, but it is also expressed in the food I cook.
I first came to France in 1998, as a 19 year old student unable to drink in Las Vegas, but of legal age in France. There were a lot of firsts for me that year, my first espresso, first duck breast, first rabbit, and of course, my first sip of wine. More importantly, my second sip of wine.
Then China. After France I knew I needed to live abroad again, but I wanted an even more exotix experience. It was a toss-up between Russia and China, I'm glad that China won. Chengdu in the year 2000 was amazing. People still pedaled their bicycles everywhere, the cars on the road were either taxis (super affordable), government, or really rich people who could afford a Honda Accord. The sidewalks were filled with bamboo chairs for the teahouses where people played mahjong. And the food was amazing. My western North American palate was forever changed. Spice, Sweet, Sour, Garlic, Ginger, Numbing Pepper, Umami. I was there for a year, then I came back for two years, then I came back for the rest of my life.
At least that's what I thought.
Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans.
Chengdu was good to us and for us. Our restaurants flourished, but I wanted more. I needed to elevate my skillset. I had to move to Paris.
I was in France in 1998, and again in 2018. Both times Les Bleus won the world cup. Coincidence?
I weaseled my way into a 3 michelin star kitchen. By then I was 40 years old, everyone else working there was in their early 20s. What was I thinking? But seeing Chef Barbot's eyes light up every time the produce arrived was an education you'll never find in any classroom.
Fast forward a few years, we all know what happened in 2020, let's just say that things were different now and we were looking at the rest of our life in a new light.
We had only been in Nice for a few hours once on our way to Menton, hardly enough time to make an educated life-changing decision. Still, it felt right, so when the opportunity came to move here, we seized it with alacrity.
I don't want to taste the ten thousand dishes you've made one time, I want to taste the one dish you've made ten thousand times.
Bruce Lee and Michael James