Italian chef Giuliano Sperandio in the Taillevent restaurant in Paris on October 17, 2022 (AFP / Christophe ARCHAMBAULT)
“One, two, three…eleven. We use the fire to the fullest”: while he is preparing a translucent scallop, chef Giuliano Sperandio counts the pans where the sauces of his starred Parisian restaurant Taillevent are simmering, which must also show inventiveness to save energy.
The Italian chef arrived more than a year ago at the stoves of this institution of traditional French cuisine, decorated with two Michelin stars, to modernize the plate by bringing raw, more crunchy vegetables and reducing the portions. .
An approach which already contributed to the energy sobriety which is essential today everywhere in the high gastronomy. Cutting the gas at night, finishing cooking in ovens that are off, making smaller pieces, favoring less energy-intensive recipes, even giving up meat: so many avenues that great chefs are exploring.
– The luxury concerned –
“Everyone has to be careful. It’s not because we’re in a luxury restaurant that everything is allowed”, underlines Giuliano Sperandio.
Last week, a customer complained that she was cold during dinner in her light evening dress. “She was almost naked, we can dress a little more knowing that we are asking everyone to make an effort”, exclaims the chef.
For him, the question goes beyond the kitchens even if, by paying attention to his gestures, one can do better without “cutting short cuts” on the essentials: sauces and juices which require between two and six hours of preparation.
Among these gestures, let the meringues dry overnight in the ovens that are turned off, do not boil the water once more each time –“we cook 2-3 lobsters in the same water, 3-4 ravioli”–, serve the fillet of beef at 150 grams once morest 220 previously: “The piece is smaller, the cooking faster”…
We are entering the season of hare à la royale which requires hours of cooking. So this year, Giuliano Sperandio will make room for him to cook it during the day when the stoves are on and not at night as was done before.
– 7 o’clock lamb? –
Guy Martin, chef of the Grand Véfour, the oldest restaurant in Paris since 1784 which overlooks the garden of the Palais Royal, has another technique.
“The hare à la royale, we put in the oven very hot, we heat in the casserole very strongly, we sear, we turn off. It remains at least 5 hours in the ovens off”, he explains to AFP .
The properties of the cast iron casserole, which helps maintain the heat, will ensure that simmered dishes such as beef bourguignon or pot-au-feu “will never disappear”, he assures.
“For the seven-hour lamb, (going to) five hours, it doesn’t change much” and the oven-off solution “works very well”.
“We have to rethink the kitchen to find the same flavors but not with the same processes”, declares to AFP Pauline Séné, a former of the popular show Top Chef who has just opened her restaurant, Arboré.
“My candied shoulder, I make it in three hours. I increase the temperature or I just braise my meat upstream. I’m going to put it at 200 degrees for half an hour, go down to 180 for an hour and then to 160 for an hour. hour and a half rather than 90 for eight hours”.
Manon Fleury, who runs an ephemeral restaurant on the trendy Parisian site Perchoir Ménilmontant, does not serve meat there.
“I offer a purely vegetable offer. With this overconsumption of meat that we see everywhere, I will balance the trend on my small scale”, says the cook who has just published a recipe book around cereals.
For her dish of eggplant with figs, she marinates the eggplant with salt: so it will be ready in the oven in just 10 minutes. “Ripe” figs do not need to be cooked, and the pulp from their skin macerated in vinegar will serve as a sauce.
