POLO GASTRONÓMICO
DICIEMBRE DE 2017
pañado de zanahorias vichy y puré de
papas.
Cedric fue el encargado de elabo-
rar el menú, en compañía de otros dos
chefs franceses, David Bozec y Paul
Henri, quienes también entrenaron al
equipo de cocina. Y el mismo Cedric
en ocasiones examina los platos antes
de que se sirvan, a fin de comprobar
que sean de excelente calidad. «Si
pierdes un cliente, pierdes cien, así que
el plato debe saber igual cada vez que
el cliente vuelva», asegura. Todo esto
parece estar dando frutos: el embajador
francés, Brice Roquefeuil, cuya ofici-
na no queda muy lejos del bistró, ya es
un comensal frecuente. Incluso Lorena
Varela ha visitado este magnífico lugar
y asegura que volverá con su esposo, el
presidente. Quién sabe, la próxima vez
que una estrella de Hollywood venga a
Panamá, puede que se aparezca por el
bistró a curiosear y saludar.
Cedric con Ben Affleck y Jennifer Garner
Cedric on Bistrot Lesseps
La especialidad de la casa: La sole meunière
Bistro Lesseps opened its doors in mid-August. It was named
after the first promoter of the Panama Canal and it’s the only
French restaurant in Casco. Bon appétit!
C
edric Adegnika, the owner of
Bistro Lesseps, who’s from
Southern France, welcomes
me with a pastis: an anise-flavored
aperitif.
Cedric, 44, grew up in Aix-en-
Provence and even after almost 25
years living outside of France, you can
hear the accent from Marseille when he
speaks.
Although he looks more like an ath-
lete than a foodie, Cedric has a long
history with catering.He dropped from
school and opened his first restaurant
at 18 shortly after his mother passed
away in a car accident. At 20 he moved
to Miami and entered the nightlife,
climbing the ladders from bartender to
doorman then PR and manager, until
he opened his own venue in 2012, “The
Flat”.
It was around that time that he met
his wife Barbara. Curiously, it was not
in one of the VIP areas where photog-
raphers could find him next to Matt
Damon or Mike Tyson, but during a
holiday in Corsica.
Together they moved to Costa Rica,
a country Cedric had been going for
15 years as a getaway from the Miami
vices.
The couple bought some land near
Samarra and started building a small
gated community. However, the change
from bright lights big city to beach life
was a bit too radical.
“I was bored to death” Cedric ad-
mits. So he started looking for a new
challenge and discovered Panama
City and Casco Viejo. “Panama re-
minded me of Miami, with a touch of
La Habana. I did my market research
and realized there were few real French
restaurants in town, and none in Casco.
It looks a bit like the French quarter in
New Orleans and considering the com-
mon history between the two countries, I
thought it would be a great place to open
a Bistrot.”Inside, the decoration and the
food are reminders of the atmosphere of
a typical Parisian brasserie. Nonethe-
less, Cedric insists on the denomination
Bistrot, which refers to something more
casual than a restaurant: a place where
you can come for just a drink at the bar
after work.
He has recently started offering draft
beer and some snacks, including the
home-made terrine de campagne, served
with, prebaked baguette and pickles both
imported from France. Though, the sig-
nature dish is the Sole Meunière: whole
and frozen fish imported from Spain,
which is then baked with oil and butter
before being cut at the table, served with
mashed potatoes and Vichy carrots.
The menu was elaborated by Cedric
together with two French chefs: David
Bozec and Paul Henri, who trained the
kitchen staff. Cedric himself often checks
the dishes before they are served, in order
to make sure that has the best quality. “If
you lose one client, you lose a hundred,
so the dish has to taste the same every
time a client comes back”, Cedric says.
This seems to be paying off: the French
Ambassador, whose office is a couple of
blocks away, is already a regular. Even
Lorena Varela has come and promised to
return with her husband, the President.
And next time a Hollywood star comes to
Panama, he or she might pop by just to
say hi.
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