Interview on the phone with the French chef Arnaud Lallement from the Assiette champenoise restaurant in Tinqueux (Reims)
His restaurant in Tinqueux (Reims suburb) got 3 stars in the Michelin guide. The chef was a member of the jury of the competition between young chefs of the region, at the Good and the Taste Festival in Reims.
Legend:
Q: question
AL: guest (Arnaud Lallement)
After a brief introduction about this blog and the aim of my phone call:
Q: Do you think that the regional cuisine from the Ardennes could get into globalization, like for instance, the burger was born again with the association to the foie gras or the French pancake? Or is it too marketed as a local produce?
AL: The burger as the French pancake as well, has been successful to get into the “thread of sweets”, because to become globalized, you have to be sweet and both they managed to exploit this potentiality and they dug into it to emerge on the world scene. While the problem is that we haven’t explored this possibility with the white pudding for example yet.
Q: The black pudding belongs to the traditional English or Scottish brunch menu by the way. Could we imagine to switch the white pudding with the black one or even if to create a new brunch menu, made of regional products only? Like with eggs cooked “à l’ardennaise”?
AL: We definitely could, indeed. If you look for a second, you could compose this menu with plenty of ingredients. Because of the flavour of the vinegar, the taste of the mustard from Reims, the sweetness of the pink biscuits, the red and white wines from the Hills, you get the chance to do unique and original recipes.
Q: Let’s talk again about this “thread of sweets” that you mentioned before. Actually with the pink biscuits we couldn’t launch it, could we?
AL: Yes indeed we are working on it. Even if any restaurant has dedicated its menu to the biscuits yet, they are really famous up to the United States.
Q: So I guess that they became famous because of the historical match with the champagne?
AL: Every time I go travelling, I pack samples of products from the region, to make people trying them abroad and then I explain that back in the past, the biscuits were served with the champagne. But otherwise, you can use the product in different fashions, like with the powder of the biscuit to make cakes, or to let your creativity to express itself, like to make a sauce or the stuffing in a savoury meal or quite simply, in a dessert.
Q: Let’s talk about the cuisine legacy. From the past generation of famous French chefs, do you keep any name in particular?
AL: We can of course mention the “great Paul”, Paul Bocuse who worked hard to change the French cuisine, but we can’t forget Robuchon, Ducasse and all the others, less famous. They all let to us a huge heritage and we can’t split them up; they are all equal on this point.
Q: United Kingdomwise, sorry I am talking about what I know, do you have any name in mind neither? Over there, chefs are real celebrities, invading everywhere they possibly can, from cooking blogs to TV programmes and magazines.
AL: True, for instance I can think of Nigel Slater, Gordon Ramsay…
Q: Yes but they count plenty of others, like Jamie Oliver, Nigella Lawson… By the way we can notice that in the UK they count more female chefs than in France, excepted Anne-Sophie Pic, Hélène Darroze…
AL: Plus she works in the UK too…
Q: Exactly she plays the two games, but so even if the equality between the rate of men and women working as a chef in the UK is not perfect yet, do you quote anyone specifically?
AL: I learnt cooking for ten years by travelling abroad all around the world, so it means that the way I cook nowadays is the product of all these experiences gathered together. I don’t have a name on top position from the UK then.
Q: About the regional wines, can we find out still wines?
AL: Yes you can! Like the red or white wines from the Hills.
Q: How are they used most of the time?
AL: They match very well with most of the savoury meals, but you can use a white wine as an appetizer, or to serve a red wine with the cheeses too.
Q: Do you have any favourite blend you could recommend or all of what matters, is the meal served?
AL: The meal is the main thing to choose a wine indeed. But I could quote the red “Côte aux enfants” wine by Bollinger as a good one, among many others.
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Q: Well, I think we have reviewed pretty much everything that I wanted to talk with you, thank you very much for your time and your answers then!
AL: Bye bye!
Q: Good bye Sir, have a good evening.
https://www.assiettechampenoise.com/
https://www.dubonetdugout.com/
https://www.fossier.fr/fr/recette/les-originales-c10