Vrooming around is this french chef’s recipe to chill

BENGALURU: When chef Stephane Calvet is not cooking in the kitchens of Four Seasons Hotel Bengaluru, he’s probably zipping across the world on his bike. For this executive chef raised in Perpignan amid the Pyrenees of France, biking has always been a great way to ‘chill’. “The mere thrill of a leisurely time on the wheels, with cool breeze on my face, casting aside all my worries….this is the essence of biking,” says the chef who moved to Bengaluru last year.

While he used to grab his bike initially to meet friends or peers by the sea, it later became a part of his daily life. “Half of my family owns farmlands and we grew up with cattle and farmstead. We were brought up very close to nature, also because the other half of my family had vineyards. From my early years, I have enjoyed riding into the wild on my bike,” says Calvet.

He started riding a moped (50cc moped Malagutti MDX) at the age of 14 with his friends. And having grown up in the South of France in the Catalan region, they were surrounded with places of immense natural beauty. “Our bike rides were a way to really enjoy the picturesque countryside, including stretches of vineyards, lush orchards with berries and figs in the summertime and the abounding seashore
on the other,” he recalls.

Since then, every time he finds some time off his schedule, he hits the road. He has ridden across the French countryside, Northern Vietnam, Thailand, and in Bengaluru as pillion rider with his other chef friends as he didn’t have a licence until recently. “It took me a while to get my licence in India, but now that I have one, I am on the lookout for that perfect ride. I am in the process of doing my research on the ideal bike. I have been on 3 to 4 rides, but as a pillion rider,” he says.

Many of his rides have been unplanned, but these, he says, have been the most memorable. From getting lost in Vietnam to crossing the Chinese border accidentally and also reaching Myanmar border of Mae Sai after three days of an off-road mountain ride in Thailand, the rides have been enriching. “I go without a plan and come back with so many  stories and experiences,” he says, recalling a  2012 ride to Northern Vietnam, starting from Hanoi and riding all the way to Halong Bay. “The trip was for a week or so, and
at the time, I was riding a Minsk, a Belarusian brand of motorcycle. After a few days into my journey without GPS, I reached the mountains of North Vietnam. I kept riding and kept getting lost. I was circling around and around the same place. Suddenly, far across the peaks, I noticed a flicker of some lights.
I realised it was a village. When I rode towards the village and reached there,to my utter surprise,
I had reached China. As I knew there were many ‘border tales’ that were quite diverse, I just took off from there and attempted to return,” he narrates.