Chez Maguy

Rarely does one discover such a pleasure as Chez Maguy – not a restaurant, but a place to experience foods from the sea, caught the same day and cooked in Maguy’s home kitchen in Batroun, 45 minutes north of Beirut. It's an authentic fishing village that is Unesco-protected and one of the oldest functioning towns from the days of the Phoenecians.
 
The story of Maguy is as old as the sea; she grew up on the shores of the Mediterranean in her parents' home, which sits directly behind her own. As a young girl, she was a diver, not just as a leisurely sport but also to explore her passion and interest in all fish and sea creatures. As a young woman, she married the love of her life and then lost him just one year later, finding herself alone with a beautiful baby girl, Crystel, and facing the reality of having to move back in with her parents – luckily a situation that is more than welcomed in Middle Eastern cultures.
 
Maguy lived with her family for four years while trying to figure out how to plan for her daughter’s future and be independent once again. She turned to what she knew best, the sea, and began diving day and night for a broad variety of seafood that she would sell to local fish markets. Because of her passion and deep-rooted understanding of fish and crustacean varieties, she made a name for herself very quickly.
 
She created a make-shift shack below her parents' home and began to add to it bit by bit. Initially it was just a place for her to fish, then she added a kitchen, a living room and then bedrooms. All of this was done discreetly since it was illegal, but the local officials turned a blind eye – most of them were her customers. Today, she would technically be classified as a squatter, albeit a welcomed one, but it is in no one’s interest to remove her as she has become an institution in this town.
 
Catching and selling fish turned into Maguy preparing her many catches of the day, whether it was baking or frying them. She admits that she left home without knowing how to cook an egg, but quickly figured out how to prepare seafood and the many Lebanese mezze, a task daunting enough to overwhelm a trained chef.
 
In the past five years, Chez Maguy has become the defacto stop for anyone visiting Batroun or docking their boat on a sailing adventure, and with this has come a kind of fame that Maguy shies away from. Anthony Bourdain recently visited for his hit show, and she has been written about in The New York Times, Paris Match and Le Figaro. She seems to offer what many of us yearn for; authenticity.
 
Today, Maguy and her beautiful young daughter greeted us as they greet all their customers; with warmth and kindness. When you speak with Maguy, you see she is the real thing – there is no pretense. She is not a chef, but a lover of food. You will be amazed by the simplicity and humbling charm of her little operation. No restaurateur anywhere in the world could create something as simple, earthy and magical. There is no recipe for recreating the Chez Maguy experience, because there are too many variables that contribute to its natural existence.
 
First, Maguy’s home is perched on a large rock growing out of the Mediterranean. The location is an anomaly that defies kitchen logic. To get there, you have to walk through the village along the edge of the sea and ask for directions, because it is unmarked. Once you reach an alleyway that is basically the neighbor’s driveway, you walk along a narrow bridge with a pink-painted picket fence over a gorge toward a wall made by the Phoenecians over 4,000 years ago (on the other side of Maguy’s is a small Roman ruin that used to be a house). Walking by her kitchen and open-air living room, you end up standing on her terrace amid a mish-mash of tables and chairs, looking onto the glorious Mediterranean.
 
During the winter months, which tend to be very rainy and windy, Maguy serves her guests in her dining room, but the rest of the year you get to dine on her beautiful terrace, which is, in essence, the top of the rock. The views are simply magnificent. Below her home, different kinds of baskets catch shrimp and langoustines, and during our visit, one of her neighbors brought in his catch of the day, which she loved. Then suddenly someone brought her four scallops in their shells, and she demonstrated how she cracks the shell open, places it on a charcoal grill and adds a hint of olive oil, lemon juice and garlic on top. Then it was ready to be devoured.
 
We came early to capture the setting before darkness and Maguy's beautiful story. That day, we planned what we would be feasting on for dinner. Maguy showed us a squid covered in its ink, an octopus on its way to be tenderized, a large grouper, small red snapper, tuna, langoustines, shrimp and baby smelts. All were caught by different people that day, right there, from the sea just below her home and restaurant.
 
The meal that evening was one of our most memorable ever. The stars aligned – we had a gentle breeze, the waves were smashing up against the rock and the food was simple and delicious, each dish prepared to ensure that we could actually taste the freshness of the catch. I will sum this story up by quoting one of her visitors: “While I eat seafood abroad, I feel like I had forgotten the flavors of the sea. Thank you for reminding me of the beauty of our sea.”