CHEFSAlain PassardL'Arpege For 30 years, like an impressionist painter, Alain Passard has added the little touches, searching for and using the best products. He respects produce, interpreting flavors with absolute authenticity, preserving the color, aroma, and purity of product. Passard has to date been refining the essence of his menu by looking at the mirror between earth and sea. The original character of produce is like a musical chord. Within this range, Alain plays with aroma, herbs, spices - things that liberate the expression of earth and sea. He now seeks to begin exploring a new and unrecognized range of vegetables, a painstaking process that provokes within him an enthusiasm to create above expectations. Passard follows his inspiration, a means for deepening his art in the discovery of a palette of extraordinary flavors within a vegetable that can be supremely satisfying. Since 2001, he has been seeking to make the vegetable a novel product, by creating and bringing out the finest quality in the produce, by keeping the cooking process simple. In this inexhaustible register, he invents a combination of vegetables with herbs, spices, flowers, dairy, and shellfish. Passard desires to contribute the development of a cuisine that has not yet been explored. Working the vegetable creates encouragement to replant the earth and work with a new language, a new vocabulary. Amazingly, the art of fire allows Passard to work with vegetables, where work with fire is crucial for their cooking. Passard has rediscovered the pleasure of the alchemist. "Knowing how to make use of a sauté pan on the flame, to not rush the process. It is the manner in which to hold the pan on a journey that will not damage the vegetal tissue, working the flame to avoid evaporation of essences, playing with fire in order to not subdue the color, a dance to keep the luminosity and transparency," he says. Attempting to preserve the essences of cooked white onions with salty butter is a passionate research for Passard. The cooking of vegetables has not traditionally been seen as very exciting, and for some has been inconceivable. But it is important for this cuisine to find its own place in the same fashion as cooking methods for seafood and meats. Perceived as containing insufficient nutrients and lacking depth of taste, vegetables have been restricted to side dishes and accompaniments. Pursuing this research is for Passard the joy of escaping clichés and the freedom of inventing a new universe. The raw product has an origin and identity, a source that should be revealed. In any type of craftsmanship, whether creative or industrial, the raw materials are the most important tools to practice your craft with. You cannot work blind with a product that remains silent. "A chef can only create cuisine when he has knowledge of the raw ingredients," he says. "I believe I have come far in the areas of poultry and meat-based cuisine. Today I aspire to another exploration based on vegetables. I voluntarily erase, without regret, 12 signature dishes of the house with real reassessment. I sense a fabulous adventure in exploring the depths of my passion," Passard says. Pleine terre, plein mer, a new menu, a new journey. Offering nourishing and appetizing dishes with flamboyant colors, entrancing aromas, and unexpected flavors. Like painters depicting the joy of living, who abandoned their studios and placed their easels on a riverbank or the middle of a country field, who knows if Passard, chef of his time, will forge the new nutritional style of tomorrow. ALAIN PASSARD Birth of a Passion Alain Passard's grandmother initiated him to the pleasure of cooking. Like accomplices sharing privileges, together they exchanged culinary secrets around the fire, the favored place of Louise Passard. In this environment he quickly developed a creative desire that they put together in practice and created great joy for both. Louise Passard, now conscious of her grandson's passions, helped him discover the pleasure of treating someone, the excitement of the market, the fever of preparation - everything that makes a meal a ceremony and, above all, a feast. Through a parent's neighbor, a pastry chef at La Guerche, Alain gained the desire for training at the age of 10. There he discovered the rhythm and activity of a laboratory, the evocative and transporting aromas, and rediscovered the mysteries of the fire. His Peers Alain Passard debuted at the Lyon d'Or de Liffré, at Michel Kéréver, one of the rare Michelin Guide-awarded restaurants in Brittany at the time. There he learned the technique of grand classic cuisine as well as banqueting, and the research in poultry chaud-froid, rock lobsters Bellevue, pices montées, les poulardes demi-deuil. Then he moved on to La Chaumiere at Gaston Boyer, a three-star Michelin restaurant. Gaston Boyer worked very traditionally, classically, a memory for Alain of a 'Grande Maison." Then he met Alain Senderens at L'Archestrate. With an exceptional atmosphere, in a small kitchen, the tight team worked, led by Alain Senderens. Alain Passard had a baptism by fire and the relationship with it is constant. The inspiration began there. Solo Career After three years in this whirlwind environment, he commenced his own career at the Casino of Enghien, in the restaurant Le Duc d'Enghien, where he obtained two Michelin stars. Passard was not yet 26. At the Carlton in Brussels, he was awarded one and then two Michelin stars. Finally, he created L'Arpege, previously known as L'Archestrate, on the corner of rue de Varenne and rue de Bourgogne in Paris. In the tenth year of the restaurant, he was awarded the highest accolade, three Michelin stars. He was at the time the youngest two-star Michelin chef in France. L'Arpege Alain Passard settled 20 years ago in the previous restaurant of his mentor Alain Senderens, and baptized it L'Arpege in a tribute to music, his second love (or passion?). He created a décor inspired by the Art Déco style, which he loves. With passion, Alain Passard works the décor of L'Arpege in the same spirit as his culinary pursuits. Therefore, he developed L'Arpege in the same sense of harmony. Along the wall runs a "peau de poirier" undulating like waves, in the rhythm of Bacchanal in Lalique crystal. The seats are dressed in smooth leather, following the texture of the décor. Tune is given, in a refined and pure manner. Jean-Christophe Plantrou, author of the "peau de poirier," works beside Alain to create furniture made of ebony from Massacar, which punctuates the space. The windows, glass waves of Bernard Pictet, contrasted by the transparency of a patina from Venice, play with the daylight. The transparent crystal glassware and fine bone china set on white linen allow each dish and its harmony of colors to express itself. Our interest is aroused by a single painting, a portrait of Louise Passard, Passard's grandmother, to whom he pays homage during all seasons. The Kitchen Garden In September 2002, Passard set up a kitchen garden on 2.5 hectares of sandy soil at Fillé sur Sarthe, 220 kilometers southwest of Paris, near Le Mans. The garden supplies almost 100% of the fruits, vegetables, and herbs used in the restaurant. It produces between 8 and 10 tons per year, 800 kilos per month in the height of the summer. Three gardeners tend the garden using only natural methods: no synthetic chemicals and no mechanical tools. Pesticides are exclusively of vegetable extract, and horses are used to work the soil. The cooperation of animals and insects is encouraged to maintain a balanced ecosystem: There are nesting boxes for birds, four beehives to ensure effective pollination, and a purpose-built lake provides a home for frogs that help to keep down slugs. The honey from the hives is used in the famous mille-feuille desserts in the restaurant. The garden contains 150 varieties of plants, an asparagus plot with 13 different varieties, and numerous herbs and fruit trees. Early vegetables are grown in large greenhouses. The produce is harvested very early in the morning, sent to Paris on the 10 a.m. high-speed train from Le Mans, and can be served for lunch in the restaurant the same day. Because transport time is short and no refrigeration is used, the fruits and vegetables maintain all their freshness, flavor, and color. Wasted food from the restaurant is sent back by train and recycled in the kitchen garden as compost. "The Mysterious Processes" Passard's cuisine answers to very elaborate culinary principles, the correct cooking method, the refined aroma, and an amazing indication of the origin of the produce. His cuisine is easy to savor, with a very high level of creativity, the extreme melting of timeless unexpected flavors. Biography Born August 4, 1956 at La Guerche in Brittany, France 1971 - 75 Htellerie du Lion 'Or in Liffré- Michel Kerever 1976 - 77 La Chaumiere in Reims - Gaston Boyer 1977 - 80 L'Archestrate in Paris - Alain Senderens 1980 - 84 Le Duc d'Enghien, at the Casino of Enghien (Passard at age 26 is youngest two-star Michelin chef) 1984 - 86 Restaurant Carlton, Brussels, Belgium (Passard awarded one and then two Michelin stars within two years) Oct. 1986 Opening of his own restaurant: L'Arpege March 1987 Awarded one Michelin star March 1988 Awarded two Michelin stars Jan. 1990 19/20 at Gault Millau March 1996 Recognizing the culmination of his work, Michelin Guide awards Passard three stars Jan. 2001 Alain Passard gives priority to vegetables in his culinary art Sept. 2002 Birth of the kitchen garden of Arpege at 220 kilometers from Paris in the countryland at Fillé sur Sarthe Sept. 2004 Birth of a second garden at Buis sur Damville (27) Oct. 2005 Publication of Passard's first cookbook, Les Recettes des Drles de Petites Btes, a book for children done in partnership with Antoon Kring's |