Talent has no gender. In any case, this is what the only female 3-star chef, who recently earned 8 Michelin stars worldwide, proves every day. She receives us in her family stronghold of Valencia in full deconfinement.
By Francois Tauriac
How did you experience the health crisis that is finally coming to an end?
In the early days of this health crisis and the closure of our facilities, we felt a shock wave that shook our certainties. The direct social link was broken. This lack of exchange then led to a slowdown. It has deeply nourished my thinking with the need to slow down during the period that is coming to an end. But we were able to maintain the link with the teams: we had conference calls with the group’s management committee, where we decided on the actions to be taken, the decisions to be made, and our necessary involvement in helping those who needed us to mobilize. For example, we have donated thousands of verrines to hospitals in Valencia and Paris.
How did you adapt to this new and special period?
It was a unique opportunity for exchange, to revive links with others in depth. In this situation, checking in is exchange with my friends, my relatives, my teams, my colleagues, my producers… Then, the reflection on the tests in kitchen or on the animation restaurants can be deployed. It is more an intellectual creation than a implementation, of course: it is difficult to get hold of the products in this context. Finally, taking care of the other is what we know how to do better: this is why we have integrated into our teams he two years ago a QHSE manager, which proved to be a wise choice considering the context.
But you haven’t given up working on your kitchen…
I went into culinary reflection. In any case, it allowed me to do my seedlings: I worked in the garden. I have rediscovered the pleasure of working the land. The pleasure of making classic family dishes, simmered dishes, the charm of long cooking. It got me thinking about less instant recipes; I relearned to think like I did back in the Scook books. It’s quite disturbing to remember that you are the product of your context. I am in the past at the moment, exploring the way I used to work and this little return to the past did not displease me as it was so rich in lessons. For example, we have also developed a menu offer to enjoy at home called Pic&Go.
Is there a future for gastronomy?
In any case, it is a way to make it accessible to as many people as possible. Consider the aftermath imposes a global reflection and answers the indispensable question of what we want and don’t want anymore. I think it is essential, while we have suffered this crisis and we are all victims of it, to make wishes and desires for ourselves and our audience. It helps me to rethink the contours of the experience that I to offer in and out of my restaurants.
How does this new offer work?
The idea is to make discover the flavors so that the customers can to taste at home. And especially the local products that we usually cook in our gourmet restaurants. We were able to observe during the containment the need for good to eat, but Pic&Go is not the transposition of a restaurant menu, this offer has its own uniqueness, in line with take-away sales.
Like the verrines of the Daily Pic of the Champ de Mars stores…
Exactly, with the possibility of paying even more attention to the dressage. A more elegant presentation for find the pleasure of the restaurant, but at home. By staying close to the seasons and the products at the time they are are the best. A very spring menu for example: a salad of quinoa, pike roe tarama with garden tagetes oil, peas and peas as an appetizer, followed by a poached free-range chicken in a sauce supreme and potatoes with wakame delicacy, for main course and dessert a Strawberry and rose geranium pavlova.
Again, your husband David Sinapian is in charge of these new developments.
Yes. we share the roles, it is moreover a little reductive to say it confine itself exclusively to “business”. David is also very party in all our choices, we are are both very complementary. We run a house of family. And we try to perpetuate our philosophy by giving a chance to anyone and the product.
Is this management style the other secret of your success?
You know it, I am an autodidact. When I came back from my business studies, I I didn’t get any free pass and I’m proud of it. So I always wanted to abolish the mindset of pigeonholing people. In Valencia we don’t have a school, but we have a kind of pipeline. We find there all employee profiles. Those who have passed in the starred. But Also those of the bistros. those of the bistros. The chefs or sous-chefs often come from the kitchens of Valencia. And this is so there the state of mind must be the best. There are no longer any divisions as there might have been in the past. Being sincere is essential.
In 130 years of family gastronomy, don’t we risk one day to have made the tour of the taste?
Never. We can work on what we call “the kitchen of memory”, the boudin Richelieu, gratin of crayfish tails and stuffed quail from the Drôme that my grandfather already did while at the same time opening up to the world. I am totally involved in all my restaurants’ menus. Wherever they are. They require seasonal adaptations and a regular revival. We don’t make the same dishes in Switzerland as in Asia. Then I developed what I call my “test kitchen” where we work in Valencia with a chef totally dedicated to experimentation on gastronomic pairings. We create recipes. We also work fermentations, distillation. There are varieties of plants in the Drôme exceptional aromatic plants, the place is extraordinary. We are working on a lot of flavourings and infusions. We even have a garden hanging herbs above our kitchen, which we’ve put in place. planted on our green roof. I work with specialists on different varieties of mint. We also do a lot of picking wild, I love sweet clover and fir buds. In spring they give fabulous flavors.
