The first time I was lucky enough to cross paths with Gérard Basset was during the 1989 Best Sommelier in the World competition in Paris, in 1989. A few months before the finals in Rio, in 1992, where I was going to represent France, he phoned me to ask if I could host him at my restaurant in Paris, for a while. I was happy to accept and we spent a week studying, even though we were to compete against each other a few months later. The fact that we found ourselves in the first and second place of that competition was a magnificent reward for that time spent together.
