Christophe Michalak’s flan: “It has to be sexy”

PAsed by Fauchon, Ladurée and the Plaza Athénée, Christophe Michalak is also a regular on the small screen. At the head of the brand that has borne his name since 2013, the pastry chef will open three new addresses in Paris between now and the summer.

“The flan is my Proust madeleine. Every time I travel, or get up early in the morning, I treat myself to one. I grew up in Chamant, in Picardy, where my mother was a caregiver. She worked nights and did housework during the day. I was looked after by my grandmother, who didn’t cook at all, it was Mousline puree, Buitoni ravioli, just anything, but… she bought from [le boulanger] Monsieur Carbonneaux, in Senlis, an enormous flan, 26 centimeters in diameter. When I was 7-8 years old, I ate at least half of it during the day, one part in the morning, another at lunchtime, then at snack time… I loved it. In the family, they called me Bouboule or Monsieur Flan.

When I started an apprenticeship, I prepared a flan with a mixture of water, sugar, and powder which was poured into a sweet dough. It was a poor man’s pudding, but I still enjoyed it. At the Plaza Athénée, I made one without dough, but a flan in a palace in the 2000s didn’t interest many people. Apart [le chef de cuisine Alain] Ducasse, who loved it in the form of cuteness.

In Paris, after the cookie and the macaroon, the flan fashion began around 2015. I am quite basic: I thought that the pastry chef who made the best flan would be the most successful. In fact, we’ve seen a lot of stupid ideas flourish, like cookie flans. When we are young, we want to prove things to ourselves, to show ourselves that we are a good man, that we have technique. It’s normal, it’s a passage. But we are going too far in the Insta delirium[gram]. What I’m looking for today is simplicity.

I’ve been on the flan subject for ten years and it must have been three years since I last touched my recipe, which is pretty phenomenal on my scale. If I taste a better flan than at home, I don’t sleep at night. I’ve found lots of great ones, basic at Léonie, creamy at Yann Couvreur, puff pastry version at Ladurée… Tasting them always keeps me going.

The taste of free-range eggs

Mine, I’m not saying it’s the best flan in Paris, that would be too pretentious, but it’s the one I like to eat. I didn’t want puff pastry because it always gets moist too quickly, so I worked with a Basque cake dough with brown sugar that stays crisp throughout the day. And I don’t put any on the edges. I think it’s great not to have the crust, which is the bit of pavement that you never want.

For me, flan is the taste of free-range eggs. And a percentage of liquid cream is always good, vanilla too. And orange blossom, I love that! I mix my device to have a very smooth cream. It cooks for less than thirty minutes. And best of all, I eat it straight out of the fridge. A flan that stays out for two hours makes me lose my temper!

Flan is common sense. It has to be sexy. That it cuts perfectly. That it can be transported. That it gives emotion thanks to its texture, its temperature, its taste. Since I passed the age of 50, I have also been thinking about digestion. There is little flour and noble, quality products, but I don’t want to make marketing arguments about it. Some colleagues overdo it. If it is very good, if it pleases, we have succeeded in our job. »