The fennel exhausted. The exhausted of the frayed. The jaded of the dumpling. How many of us, watching Emmanuel Macron announce the return of systematic teleworking and children at home at the end of March, have thought of leek pie, baked vegetables and carbo pasta? How many have looked wearily, sometimes even angrily, at the electric mixer and the bread maker?
In March 2020, part of the French had been taken from a culinary frenzy, as if “making society” in times of confinement involved both evening applause and the blanquette of veal. Cookbooks, household appliances, photo exchanges on social networks: while flour purchases jumped 142%, the gastronomic fever seemed unstoppable.
How far, today, this enthusiasm seems … A year later, the disillusioned cooks stir the béchamel by rebelling against the possible presence of “ministers” in Parisian underground restaurants, mentioned in a report from M6. In addition to the reactivation of a class hatred, the anger generated by this anecdote reflects the immense weariness of all those who feel tied to the stove, without the possibility of putting their feet under the table from time to time. Fed up with cooking! The cry of the heart is almost unanimous. Back, in three steps, on indigestion.
Act I: Ottolenghi madness and Zanoni pasta
Previously, Stéphane did not have time. No time to cook, no time to think about what he ate at business meals, no time to wonder about his dinner. At 60, sales manager for a media group, he was a man in a hurry, which an investigation in his fridge would have confirmed: ready-made meals, ready-made meals to be microwaved. In March 2020, he experienced the start of an inner revolution. “I subscribed to cooking sites: 750 grams, Chef Damien, Etchebest, Elle à table. Some chefs make participatory videos live, we can intervene while they make their recipe. ” This is for example the case of Simone Zanoni, Italian chef at the Hotel George-V in Paris. So Stéphane makes pasta. “I had to exhaust all imaginable recipes during the first lockdown. My favorites are linguine alle vongole, with clams. ” In his town of Combrit-Sainte-Marine, in southern Finistère, he grew bolder. “With Zanoni, I discovered incredible types of cooking pasta, in two stages, first in water and then in a homemade broth, for example with Parmesan crusts, or chicken carcasses. “
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