The Provençal village of Cotignac is not wanting for places to eat. Within a short drive of its pale stone houses, you can find a wealth of high-end dining options. La Table de Mentone, set within the beautiful Château Mentone wine estate, is famed for the produce it grows on site.
The Michelin-starred Restaurant Bruno offers dazzling variations of truffle dishes. More locally, Picotte Provence offers the sort of charming village dining that showcases the best of what the region has to offer. However, despite all these wonderful options, there is one thing that Cotignac does not yet boast, and that’s a celebrity vanity project.
But that is all about to change, thanks to the news that George Clooney is planning to open a restaurant there. According to reports, Clooney, who lives locally, is keen to open a restaurant in partnership with the Canadian owner of a nearby hotel, with an elegant dining room and an outdoor terrace. No formal application has been submitted, but it is thought that the restaurant will open next year.
Some aspects of this make more sense than others. After all, Clooney and his family have been French citizens since December, so it would make perfect sense for him to want to lay deeper roots within the community. In fact Clooney is so French that he turns up for the only memorable scene in the recent Call My Agent! movie.
However, it has also been reported that Clooney’s proposed restaurant would be Italian, which seems a little odd given that Provence is one of the major food capitals of the world. Becoming a citizen of one country and then immediately building a temple to the food of the last place you lived in could be seen as a little vulgar. But only a fool would rule Clooney out here.
This is a man with a habit of making a success of himself whenever he turns his hand to something new. His tequila company was so successful that not only did he sell it for $1bn but now you can’t walk into a supermarket without tripping over a dozen alcoholic drink brands created by performers desperately hoping that it will make them enough money to stop acting. In fact, Clooney’s tequila money is probably his saving grace here.
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