The story
In Perpignan, Chef Christophe Comes runs a kitchen that is both exacting and free. His restaurant, La Galinette, earned its first Michelin star in 2007, an award it continues to hold for its "high quality cooking." The recognition is rooted in an unusual advantage: a two-hectare garden that supplies the kitchen daily.
The core of the project is a single, seasonal menu that changes with the harvest. "Like the seasons, it varies and adapts to the picking and the fishing of the day," the restaurant states. This is not a fixed list of dishes but a tasting journey. The evening menu offers six or eight services, priced at 79€ and 89€ respectively, while a more spontaneous lunch formula is available Wednesday through Friday at 35€.
Chef Comes’s path to Perpignan included a four-year tenure as sous-chef at the three-Michelin-starred Bristol in Paris under Michel Del Burgo. He returned to his native region in 2000 to open La Galinette. The restaurant describes his drive as a "passion for products and flavors, the taste of the earth, the sea, the vegetable, the fish… the 'taste of taste.'"
The garden is not a garnish. It is the engine of the menu. Dozens of varieties of a single vegetable are grown, allowing for experiments in texture and cooking—a Rosa Bianca eggplant turned into a crisp chip, a Provençale long eggplant for a classic flavor, another puréed to support a rabbit dish. The kitchen works at speed: produce picked at dawn is prepared in the morning and served at lunch.
The wine list is described as a meticulous selection, chosen for precise pairings rather than trends. The dining room is air-conditioned, and an outdoor terrace is available. Private parties are accommodated, and the restaurant is wheelchair accessible.
The result is a restaurant where the chef’s freedom and creativity are given full expression, anchored by the rare luxury of a true kitchen garden.
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