Pierre Sang: “Monsieur Paul's wolf in crust is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen”
At the mention of Paul Bocuse, Pierre Sang's voice trembles with emotion.
The chef, at the head of three restaurants in the 11th arrondissement of Paris, met him during the 2011 edition of
Top Chef
.
“It was great spending time with him.
I was fulfilling a childhood dream.
Because for the little guy from the provinces that I was, he was the great ambassador of French gastronomy for whom I would have loved to work.
I took advantage of this moment to ask him lots of questions.
I saw him as a father!
And he kind of took me under his wing.”
Since then, Bocuse has disappeared, but Pierre Sang has formed strong ties with his family and the restaurant team.
He therefore never misses an opportunity to stop at Collonges.
“The cuisine is exceptional and the dressings are magnificent.”
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Also read “It’s not easy to get the keys to the Paul Bocuse restaurant, you have to be up to the task”: in Collonges, two chefs continue to write the legend
Chef Pierre Sang, at the head of three restaurants in XI David Coulon
For him, the place and its great classics are fundamentals that must be preserved.
“It’s important to develop the house.
Vincent Le Roux, chefs Olivier Couvin, Gilles Reinhardt and pastry chef Benoit Charvet do this work.
But they take into account that Paul Bocuse touched several generations and that we come here to look for a story.
There is also this extraordinary service, a perfect and, I think, unique fusion between the kitchen and the dining room.”
Pierre Sang is therefore anchored in the lineage of admirers of Monsieur Paul.
He also draws inspiration from his specialties.
“I wanted to be a fishing guide, so fish is important to me.
Monsieur Paul's wolf in crust is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.
That’s why I wanted to revisit it.”
Even if, he admits, he has a penchant for Elysée soup with black truffles.
pierresang.com
Laëtitia Visse: “He was simply great”
Laëtitia Visse, head chef at La Femme du Boucher, located in a former butcher's shop in Marseille.
David Coulon
On her Instagram account, Laëtitia Visse, chef of the restaurant La Femme du Boucher, in Marseille, posted a photo of herself kissing the statue of Paul Bocuse.
This illustrates the passion that this young woman, who attended the Ferrandi school, and who learned her skills with Bernard Loiseau, Guy Savoy, Alain Dutournier, etc., has for this icon of French gastronomy.
“He is the emblematic figure of the profession.
My cuisine is imbued with his heritage, his generosity.
Bocuse's recipes inspire me, me who prepares homemade charcuterie, who works with the juices, who drizzles my veal chop with brown butter... I like this approach oriented towards pleasure.
She had plenty of pleasure the first time she ate at Collonges-au-Mont-d'Or.
It was three years ago.
She had just met her partner.
They were going to spend their first vacation together, in a van, traveling the roads of France.
“Passing near Lyon, I decided to book with Bocuse.
I asked if we could sleep in the parking lot in our van.
This was not a problem.
We got out of our truck, prepared for this dinner I had dreamed of so much.”
The couple enjoys the tasting menu.
And since Élysée soup is not one of them, he takes it in addition.
“It was a zero foul.
Bocuse was already no longer there, but we felt his soul.
He lives through his team.
It's beautiful !"
It is therefore as a connoisseur that she revisited Monsieur Paul's coq au vin.
“No question of twisting it, otherwise we are moving away from the subject,” insists the one who sees in Bocuse a Cyrano, a musketeer.
“He was just great.”
La Femme du Boucher, 10, rue de Village, 13006 Marseille.
Christophe Hay: “Bocuse was a visionary”
Chef Christophe Hay runs the Fleur de Loire restaurant in Blois.
David Coulon
Christophe Hay met Monsieur Paul at 23 years old.
“I attended the Blois hotel high school, then worked for Éric Reithler, a starred chef in Blois, for four years.
One day, he told me to go see Paul Bocuse in Collonges, remembers the two-star chef from Fleur de Loire.
I was a kitty!
I put on a suit.
I had an appointment at 10 a.m.
We talked, ate in the kitchen.
And, at the end of the meal, he said to me: “You can come back in a month.”
What I have done."
Then, at the age of 25, Christophe Hay took charge of the Bocuse bistro in Orlando, in the United States, a gastronomic brasserie where up to two thousand seats were served per day.
“We offered the great classics of Paul Bocuse, including mullet in potato scales that I reworked for
Madame Figaro
with local perch.
Mr. Paul came to see if everything was going well every three months.
When you pass by a house with such a degree of excellence, you are like branded!
He was a visionary whose work remains relevant today.”
In his restaurant, this child of Monsieur Paul, as he defines himself, committed to local and seasonality, has been able to assert his personality while preserving what, for him, makes the richness of French gastronomy, including the beautiful sauces.
“And at home, as in Collonges, I cultivate the alchemy between the dining room and the kitchen.”
And if Christophe Hay is very attached to his native region, he regularly heads towards the Rhône: “Vincent Le Roux, Gilles Reinhardt, Olivier Couvin, Benoît Charvet do a fantastic job.
I'm sure they will win back the third star.
It cannot be otherwise.”
Fleur de Loire, 26, quai Villebois-Mareuil, 41000 Blois.