Chef and restaurateur Yannick Alléno has accolades coming out of his ears. Boasting 15 Michelin stars attached to a comparatively modest 18 eateries across France, Monaco, Italy, South Korea and Dubai, the 54-year-old Frenchman lays claim to being the second best chef in the world — if you believe the Michelin man’s hype. And no matter which rankings you choose to follow, in a global industry worth more than $2.5 trillion, this carries some serious weight.
Given such success, and all the bells and whistles that come with it, you’d be forgiven for assuming Alléno might be a touch The Menu. After all, much of the discourse around hyper-successful chefs implies they must be neurotic, controlling and insular, driven to madness in the pursuit of perfection. Though after a 24-hour stint with Alléno, exploring his Parisian restaurants and meeting his teams, I’m fairly certain he’s anything but. Instead he’s warm, patient and charismatic, attaching his success to the science behind the carefully honed, pioneering techniques that have become his calling card.
Now cited as cuisine moderne, back in 2013 Alléno found the secret in the sauce, and has since turned the country’s cuisine on its head, with admirers following suit the world over. ‘Sauces are the verb of French cuisine, they’re hugely important,’ he tells me, sitting in a private dining room within the historic Pavillon Ledoyen in Paris, which houses three of Alléno’s restaurants holding a total of six Michelin stars, and where the concept of the menu is said to have been invented in the 1700s. ‘If there are no sauces, there is no celebration. If you want to understand modern French food, you have to speak about modern French sauces because if we want to have a revolution the bases have to change.’
According to Alléno, you have to rethink the fundamentals: how one cooks. ‘Usually, sauces are reduced for many hours, but fire can destroy flavour.’ Therefore, instead of using heat, he and his team decided to treat ingredients much more gently, using lower temperatures and more time to extract flavour from individual ingredients, each of which requires a different treatment. This, in turn, releases more flavour from fresh produce and also negates the need for much of the butter and cream found in traditional French cooking, resulting in overall healthier dishes.
Sauces are the verb of French cuisine, they’re hugely important. If there are no sauces, there is no celebration
Convinced? You can now make up your own mind without so much as a whiff of the Eurostar, for this week Alléno is unveiling two new destinations within the Four Seasons Park Lane: Pavyllon and Bar Antoine. The former is a version of his luxury bistro within Pavillon Ledoyen, which holds a Michelin star. This take, however, will utilise British ingredients, which head chef Benjamin Ferra Y Castell has spent some time testing. ‘We have taken what we have in France and developed the menu using local produce. The oysters and mushrooms in London are amazing. We don’t want to import things from France to say it is French food, we want to use fresh. You can have fresh fish every day, so the seafood in London is the main focus.’ On the menu you’ll find Alléno’s signature ‘surf and turf’, featuring Scottish Wagyu and blue lobster, as well as an innovative steamed cheese soufflé and ravioli served in a seasonal vegetable extraction broth.
Meanwhile at Bar Antoine, a more casual spot named after his late son who tragically died last year, you’ll find upmarket takes on hearty, hotel-like fare. The star of the show? A burger developed with Antoine before his passing, featuring a unique crispy, fried bun and a patty seasoned and treated like a peppercorn steak. Moreover, there’ll be a ‘French take’ on fish and chips with a ‘lighter, crunchier batter’, and a selection of cocktails crafted by mixologist Michele Lombari, which also utilise Alléno’s extraction techniques — such as a Bloody Mary with tomato and celery ‘essence’ and a mushroom-foam Espresso Martini. Now to find a way to extract myself from work…
