Cooking is a science of mixtures. From seasoning, this balance of flavors which enhances and perfects a dish, to sauces, this very French art of taste combinations magnified by cooking games. But they are also the aggregates of influences and provenances, the cultural mixes, the fusion food of the 1980s and 1990s who weaved the fabric of “new cuisine”, put Chinese dumplings, Indian spices, distant vegetables on our plates and combined ingredients from here and elsewhere that would perhaps not have been never had to cross paths.
The trends of sweet-salty, hot-cold, crunchy-soft, land-sea have given rise to brilliant combinations, like vitello tonnato, but also to sad amalgamations, like the foie gras burger or the pizza with pineapple. Today, some make improbable associations their trademark, like the young chef Adrien Cachot, who unabashedly mixes the standards of “poor cuisine” with the codes of haute cuisine. This explosive and rebellious cook made himself known in 2020 on the show “Top Chef”, of which he was a finalist, when he was already at the head of a small restaurant in Paris. Having spent a residency at Le Perchoir, a mecca of trendy Parisian gastronomy, he is preparing to open his new restaurant, rue Faidherbe, in 11e borough.
Nothing is more natural for this chef of Catalan origin than to play the game of mixtures. Long before he was a professional, he was already playing land-sea marriages with offal, roots and seaweed. Surrounded by his two teammates, Gratien Leroy and Emine Drissa, he imagined for this Taste of M breathtaking combinations, alliances of textures and flavors, which twist cosmopolitan classics (mochi, risotto, carpaccio, soufflé, etc.) to rearrange them and push the cursor always a little further.
Butternut, mango and bottarga risotto
“This orange dish is our idea of fall, the season of squash and mango. A recipe which is also the assembly of the near and the far. The sugar is brought in by a reduced citrus broth. The butternut squash is cooked in a stew, the mango is fermented and candied in oil, the bottarga is added to salt everything. It is eaten with a teaspoon, with relish. »
Ingredients for 4 persons
- 1 butternut squash
- 1 fermented mango
- 1 liter of vegetable broth infused with lemon peel
- 1 piece of bottarga (dried mullet roe pouch)
Preparation
Peel a butternut squash, cut half into pieces and cook in a little water. When it is very soft, mix with a little butter and a pinch of salt to obtain a puree. Peel and cut the mango. Cut the second half of the squash into brunoise (small dice of 1 to 5 millimeters).
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