Lhe Aveyron chef Cyril Lignac, star of the small screen, who hosts and embodies several cooking shows on M6, also has six restaurants in Paris and an address in London.
“The avocado galette was born in 2017, about a year after the opening of the Bar des Prés, my restaurant on the left bank of Paris where I imagine travel cuisine with Japanese influences. You should know that before, this place was a tanning salon… therefore without an air extraction system. Therefore, nothing can be cooked in it! So we share sushi, tartars and salads at the counter or around a large table. A small corn cake seemed to me to complete the offer. In its first version, I covered it with homemade tarama and slices of tuna with sesame oil. It was good, undeniably. But I felt we could do better. Make it more memorable.
At the flavor level, the reflection was quite easy. I wanted to work with a shellfish to change fish, very present on the menu; and I had a meal/apple/curry starter at the gourmet restaurant which worked very well. These are consensual tastes, and I don’t cook to demonstrate my talent, but to please the customer. With Aude [Rambour, sa cheffe exécutive], we transposed it to a flatbread format by binding the brown crab meat with a light cream mayonnaise. There remained the visual part: the Bar des Prés is a restaurant without a tablecloth, where you don’t worry about the presentation. I wanted that on a dish, only one, we feel the technical mastery, that it is manicured, that it slaps! And since there are only 40 seats, we could afford to spend a lot of time cutting the avocado.
At first, I arranged the slices of avocado like petals on the galette, but as soon as we cut it, it was carnage! After a month of testing, we found the right formula: a very fine cut that allows you to store the slices tight against each other, so that they completely cover the cake. I add a little olive oil with a brush, lemon, herbs, fleur de sel, and presto, it’s good! When I saw the final result, frankly, I was happy. I had never seen this anywhere else, and god knows I travel!
The success was immediate. When the galette arrives at a table, those who discover it exclaim “Wow! “. And the table next door orders “the same thing”. Quite quickly, the customers of my adjoining restaurant, Aux Prés, began to ask for it, the plates were passed from one sign to another… until I also put it on the menu. Today, there are almost on all the tables, many customers come especially for it. The novelty is important but I understand very well that we go to the restaurant to find a dish that we like. It’s like at a concert: if you go to see the Stones, you’re happy to hear their new album. But your favorite moment is when they play their old repertoire, and you hear the first notes of start me up. »
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