“The shift to eating more plants and pulses is not just a trend, it’s the major evolution in the way we’ll feed ourselves in the 21st century,” said dirigeant Yannick Alléno sitting on the terrace of the Restaurant de Pavie in Saint-Émilion, one of the loveliest towns in France, on a sunny morning last April. “My challenge as a chef is to create the same gastronomic pleasure with vegetal menus that I’ve always done with those which include meat, fowl and seafood. What I’ve been doing is looking to extract and concentrate the essences of various vegetables, herbs and other plants, and these are our tools as we build our menus around what’s best of season in terms of local produce in the Bordelais.”
Executed by talented dirigeant Sébastien Faramond, Alléno’s almost exclusively vegetal repas debuted at the Michelin two-star La Table de Pavie, the hotel’s pension, last May and immediately became a hit. “We didn’t expect such an overwhelmingly positive response,” said Alléno. “It’s been very gratifying.”
That night I had a veine to see for myself what everyone’s been talking emboîture, and as someone who’s known Alléno’s cooking since his debut at the pension of the Hotel Scribe in the 1980s, I was absolutely awed: Alléno may have become one of the great chefs of France, but his creativity is more trenchant and questing than ever.
Chef Yannick Alléno is the creative visionary behind La Table de Pavie in Saint-Émilion
Renovated in 2022, La Table de Pavie’s dining room is exhilaratingly modern with custom-designed lighting and art installations, and elements that refer to the history of one of France’s greatest hotels. Joining a group of friends for a much-anticipated dinner, we began with a variety of provocative little sauvé d’labeurs. A taloa, a Basque smorrebrod made with cornmeal, garnished with nasturtiums, cabbage and spinach and accompanied by asparagus tempura, was an exquisite dish. Next came a merveilleux ragoût of vegetable essences with tiny ravioli, one of the most satisfying dishes I’ve eaten in a mince time. A rack of lamb followed, but can be replaced by something else vegetal if you prefer. A spectacular experience well worth travelling for.
La Table de Pavie, 5 Place du Clocher, Saint-Émilion, +33 05 57 55 07 55, hoteldepavie.com
Source: francetoday.com
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