There is a Michelin star of Portuguese origin shining in Paris



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The 41-year-old chef, who also received the title of Meilleur Ouvrier de France in 2007, has always been in orbit with Michelin stars such as Thierry Marx, Patrick Henriroux and Gilles Blandin until the end of the year. He is himself rewarded.

It was in 2011 that Jean-Luc Rocha won two stars at Le Château Cordeillan-Bages restaurant in Pauillac, near Bordeaux, where he worked since 2002 and where he replaced in 2010 chef Thierry Marx. had given the house two stars.

Since January 2017, the future chef has moved into the kitchen of Saint James Paris in the French capital, a distinguished restaurant up to now with a star to which Jean-Luc Rocha would like

"If we can to have two stars, that's good.If we can not: a star with happy people is fine.If we do the job well, we will have two stars.is the goal, but if we can "

Basically, the leader considers that" it is not worth putting pressure on him to be able to do it, "he told Lusa, in a hesitant Portuguese. to reach the star "because" if we work well, the reward will come "and because the criterion" is not just cooking, but a set, from the place, to the decoration, to the 39, team, at the reception. "

Rocha, born in Vesoul, inherited from the Portuguese grandmother a passion for cooking because" the family has always been around a table ", where there were, for example, pasta and pasta. Crayfish, pasta with cream,

"Each dish is a story, it is a flavor, an image, a memory, a moment of conviviality, of travel. There is always something behind. Do not put one or another product on the plate because it is beautiful. No, it takes meaning and balance. The person who is going to eat must feel an emotion. A simple fried garlic in olive oil is an emotion because it has a taste and a memory for me. "

While his grandmother conveyed to him the importance of conquering his mouth to snatch emotions, his grandfather and his father, carpenters,"

"I think it's the family: doing good, beauty and precision.They cut trees to make furniture, I take the carrot to make a dish, "summarizes with simplicity the man who has the" chance "of to be "of a family of artists" of Covilhã who arrived in France in the 60s and who imposed the nickname Rocha in the field of artistic locksmithing and the invention of wall coverings to the cutting edge of technology

The bones of the craft are still rooted in the maternal family that has hotels in the Serra da Estrela, but the opportunity to work there does not motivate it at the moment because "c & # It is economically complicated "and you can not imagine" cooking only typical Portuguese cuisine " me if the idea "to have a Michelin star restaurant at 1800 meters altitude is very good"

"made a" French and international cuisine "and n '# not so much that he is asked what his Portuguese recipes do not stick to the label that he only cooks Portuguese things, but throughout the conversation goes

After all, their "author recipes" have strong Portuguese roots, starting with olive oil from their parents' land and passing through the oysters of the Arcachon Basin " which were brought in the Arcachon basin by the Portuguese "even if today the region is" the rendezvous "of the Parisians and all the international jet-set, they were at the beginning of the villages of fishermen, mainly Portuguese. "

"Oysters and caviar, seafood, shellfish, the mixture of land and sea. Fish and meat, shrimp and pork, what's the problem?" – smiles the chef , adding that he loves pork in Alentejo but does not let himself be tempted by the same ingredients as "it would reduce". [19659002] Lobster is also one of your favorite raw materials and likes to mold it, for example, with marjoram – a half-sister herbal aromatic herb – but also likes 'foie gras' who uses "all the year", for

Between French classicism and modernity, Jean-Luc Rocha puts on "an authentic cuisine, supported by products and identifiable", then "between" land and sea "between l & rsquo; Balance of flavors and the rhythm of the seasons, something that can be seen in the tasting menu of Saint James Paris.

After a velvety potato of oysters and caviar from Aquitaine, it There is a hot foie gras with a crispy leaf of sesame and poppy seeds, pic kles of vegetables and chestnut, followed by a lobster, with bouillon broth, herbs and vegetables in risotto, plus a mellow mushroom in cappuccino and marinated pork and tomato breasts with Earl Gray tea pot-au-feu era

For dessert, highlight grapefruit and grapefruit in Timut pepper cream, served with litchi and lime ice cream, with thin meringue leaves, and for Carupano chocolate

Today, when there are Portuguese dishes in the parents' house "it is a true Portuguese identity" and "a pleasure", but the grandmother gets hooked always to Portuguese cuisine and not be converted by her grandson: "For" foie gras ", she calls it" pâté ". When I bring my foie gras for the Christmas and New Year holidays, she tells me, "Give me some pate. "Grandmother, it's not about pie, it's about" foie gras & # 39; ", He concludes with a big smile.

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