Le Domaine Chef Chris Meynell says that he enjoys bringing order to the natural pandemonium of a professional kitchen.—STAFF PHOTO BY JACQUELINE WEAVER

“We’re trying to get away from the hoity-toity image,” said Meynell, whose resume at 24 is as impressive as chefs twice his age. “We would like to attract more local people as well as summer residents.”

The strategy he developed with restaurant and inn manager Beth Clark, also of Sorrento, includes a $35 prix fixe dinner and a Sunday a la carte brunch.

Meynell also changed cooking styles so that the standards are every bit as high as they were, but diners can be served much faster than the usual leisurely pace of two to three hours.

“They can be in and out in less than one hour,” he said.

The menu also has been changed to include classic dishes favored by longtime diners — Pate de Maison, Filet Mignon, Grilled Local Halibut — as well as innovative offerings developed by Meynell — such as Ris de Veau and Vegetarian Cannelloni.

The Meynell-designed prix fixe menu includes Petit Vichyssoise Cordial, Roasted Salmon and Veal Vienoisse, among other items.

The a-la-carte brunch ranges from Quiche Lorraine, Silver Dollar Pancakes with Blueberry Confit and Eggs Benedict to Maine Crab Cakes with Tangy Lemon Aioli Sauce, Mini Sirloin Burgers with Spicy Herbed Mayo and Pommes Frites, Grilled New York Strip Béarnaise and Apple Beignets with Caramel Dipping Sauce.

The changes are a contemporary evolution from the restaurant’s founding 62 years ago by Marianne (Mano) and Donald Purslow, French restaurant owners who secretly served in the French Resistance.

In 1944, once it was revealed they had been hiding Jewish refugees in the basement of their hotel, the couple fled over the Pyrenees Mountains with their three young children in tow.

Mano opened a tearoom across the street from the present restaurant, which was constructed in 1946.

Their daughter, Nicole Purslow, began working with her mother in the kitchen when she was 13 and earned the Grande Diplome of the Cordon Bleu in 1968 after two years of study in Paris. She became the chef at Le Domaine at age 18.

Unlike Purslow, Meynell did not grow up in a cooking household. His parents preferred eating out. They did notice early signs of a discriminating palate in their son. Even when he could barely read it, he invariably ordered the most expensive dinner on the menu.

At about 14, Meynell’s mother told him he needed to find a part-time job, and soon he was at Le Domaine’s doorstep, where Purslow hired him as a dishwasher.

“Right away I loved all of the commotion in the kitchen,” he said. “From where I was I could see the whole kitchen and it just made sense to me.”

After the first year Purslow let him prepare ingredients for dishes and eventually let him cook. By the time he was a senior at Sumner Memorial High School he was cooking full time.

“I was one of the few seniors at Sumner who had a job, or who had a job he liked,” Meynell said.

When he talks about cooking, he never uses the work “technique” or “skill.” His sense of cooking, Meynell said, is more visceral.

“I know the feel of it,” he said. “I can touch it, look at it, and I know if it’s the way it’s supposed to be.”

The kitchen, to him, is equally organic.

“It’s like a dance,” he said.

After his teen experiences at Le Domaine, Meynell attended Paul Smith College in Saranac Lake, N.Y., where he learned the proper names for what he had been doing for some time — distinctions such as “pan sear” versus “dry sear” and “braising” versus “grilling.”

This cozy nook (right) diagonally across from a wood-burning stove appeals to those seeking a little more privacy than the main dining room at Le Domaine. Veal sweetbreads (below) sautéed in olive oil with a black truffle sauce and topped with watercress is among the entrees at Le Domaine in Hancock.—STAFF PHOTO BY JACQUELINE WEAVER

“I learned how to do things we don’t do in the United States,” said Meynell, who stayed there two months. “Things like making puff pastry, picking cherries outside to use in the dessert that afternoon,” he said.

There wasn’t a heat lamp in sight. When a dinner was ready, the server was waiting by the chef’s station, cloth napkin in hand.

Substitutions were verboten.

“You would never use olive oil instead of clarified butter,” Meynell said. “You would hold the dish until you had what you needed.”

That experience opened yet more doors and Meynell found himself working at a mega-resort in Ocean Reef, Fla., near Key Largo.

It was six hotels and 10 restaurants, and although Meynell was placed in the most challenging spot — sauté — he was soon bored.

He said he did learn one skill, making 500 dinners instead of 50.

Three months later, Meynell was just about to leave for a pre-Christmas holiday in Thailand when he received an invitation he couldn’t refuse from Charles Masson of the famed La Grenouille in New York City.

Meynell had cooked for Masson once while he was dining with Purslow at Le Domaine.

“I did everything at La Grenouille,” said Meynell, who stayed one month. “The fish and meat stations. Meat fabrication. Prep.”

In addition to that experience, he spent two winters cooking in Frisange, Luxembourg with renowned chef Lea Linster, winner of the “Bocuse d”Or,” the highest distinction in the world of cuisine. With her, he has cooked for royalty and heads of state.

And this is also where Meynell met his wife, Angelica, who has greatly expanded the dessert menu at Le Domaine from crème brulee and chocolate mousse to items such as champagne sorbet with champagne grapes, lemon cheesecake, lemon curd gelato and frozen berry mousse.

Last winter Meynell was a chef for two weeks aboard a private 125-foot yacht, for which he was paid $300 per day. While cooking aboard a vessel that leases for $52,000 per week might sound plush, he said he did earn his keep.

“If they wanted a snack in the middle of the night, I got up and prepared the snack,” he said.

His most consistent home is Le Domaine, where he has been chef since the restaurant was purchased four years ago by the Dixon family of Philadelphia and Winter Harbor.

It is there that Meynell thrives on bringing order to the naturally chaotic conditions in a professional kitchen.

“It’s having your heart race, seeing a problem and having to fix it immediately,” he said.

“You can be having the worst day possible, but as soon as the service starts, everything is fine.”