Toulouse. Culinary Leisure Fair. All Chef Seeds<

It is not on television that we will follow the latest cooking competition today, but at the Toulouse exhibition center, on the fires of the “400cooks”, the first culinary leisure show. After a chocolate dome and macaroons successful in yesterday's events, the young Toulousaines Fanny Chaumette and Bénédicte Candia will have to make this afternoon (4 p.m.) a dish with a basket of local products. The winner will win, among other things, dinners with the chefs of the region who will have judged them today, and perhaps the hope of going further in the cooking competitions.

When the soufflé will fall...

Driven by television competitions, the kitchen trend is more than ever on the front page. The first show in Toulouse will total nearly 15,000 admissions, most of the region's chefs have been there and cooking classes rub shoulders with equipment retailers. Because we find everything in modern kitchens: plastic spoons have replaced wooden ones, the oven puts on steam, silicone molds promise the easy success of cannelés or fish in foil, coffee machines take the step “post-pod” and the robots are accessorizing more and more (they can even make cubes, shown on the Magimix stand)… What is all this for? To apply what we have learned in the cooking classes that are opening in all cities, either behind the scenes of starred restaurants, or in structures created for the purpose. By chance: "The culin'R moments workshop" opened by Boris Lehman, now creator of the "400 cooks"... "The trend in cooking is currently at its maximum", he believes, but it's like the decor a few years ago, when the soufflé drops, only the best will hold on”.

Values ​​to transmit

The craze for small dishes, forgotten vegetables and the 7 o'clock lamb does not, however, hide the reality of today's diet. The latest restaurant to open in the Toulouse region is a "KFC" in Balma, a fast food restaurant that serves buckets of chicken "wings". And if young people feast on nuggets or kebabs, they are rarely able to differentiate a steak from a turkey cutlet. So much so that in the impetus of Alain Ducasse, Thierry Marx or Michel Guérard, a brigade of chefs created last Tuesday in Paris the "culinary college of France" which wants to promote and transmit the values ​​of gastronomy. Among his projects: to designate laureates of the vocation to bring out a new generation of chefs. It is not yet known which television channel will broadcast the event.

the chef's workshop, a €9 million recipe

Midday and a half in the center of Toulouse, in a warehouse transformed into a bright loft: about fifteen young guests put down their cell phones and their suit or suit jackets to put on a small white plastic apron. On track for the cooking class. That day, a duck fillet with mashed potatoes in truffle juice. The success of “L'atelier des Chefs”, inaugurated last fall in the former “L'Office” cooking class, is undeniable. The recipe is simple: a 3/4 hour lesson given by a young chef, Aline Schneider, around a simple dish, followed by the tasting of this dish. For about €15, you will have had the course and the meal (the house offers dessert and a coffee) and a pleasant break in your day... "There were already courses with starred chefs, explains the Lyonnais François Bergerault, founder of the Chefs' workshop with his big brother Nicolas… What we have put in place is a formula of quick lessons accessible to everyone, during which we have a good time. If they like good food, the Bergerault brothers arrived at cooking classes through their business degree, smelling the good economic vein. By investing 40,000 € in 2004, their small business of 4 people achieved a turnover of 350,000 €, which jumped in six years to more than 9 million € collected in 14 workshops around the world: Paris, Bordeaux , Dijon, Lyon, Dubai and London. Here, everything is trendy: in the "Atelier" cookbook, there is even the "flashcode" allowing you to find the film of the preparations on your mobile phone... Around the long table, the apprentice cooks taste their duck in a friendly atmosphere: some work in the same office and have been trained by a colleague, others have come as a couple from the Airbus site. We get to know each other and we don't just talk about cooking. By putting on his jacket, we promise to see each other again next week, for the salmon lesson.

In the kitchen

My first macaroons lesson

On this Saturday afternoon, Jean Daudignac is giving a class on macaroons every hour at the Toulouse Culinary Leisure Fair. Price: €6 to leave with your cakes under your arm. This workshop is always full. “It's my first workshop,” says Carmen. It's an opportunity, I seized it. After buying the book, I follow the course. The macaroon is a cake that is both beautiful to look at, tender and good”. Carmen, who is definitely a big fan of small round cakes, also paints them: “All these colors are ideal for a painter”.

Hugo, 13, is also there to learn how to make this trendy delicacy: “I like pastry. This cake inspires me.

The know-how of macaroons is on the rise. Proof is the crowd around this workshop where the project manager, Jean Daudignac, creative pastry chef, himself the son of a pastry chef, explains: “I learned everything in the 80s with Lucien Pelletier. I then left for the United States before joining the family business in Montgeron in 1987, specializing in the manufacture of pastry utensils”. In 1999, Jean Daudignac felt the need to pass on his knowledge and make the task of future pastry chefs easier: “In 2010, I created this silicone mat for macaroons, ideal for making all kinds of cakes and baking them in the oven”. The macaron, worn in the media by professionals, is a great success: “In 2011, this cake is a real fashion phenomenon. Anyone can make this pastry at home. Jumping on the bandwagon, Jean Daudignac then launched a kit with a recipe book and two mats of 28 prints for macaroons, not to mention a spatula with thermostat. "With such paraphernalia, it's impossible to draw a blank." Jean Daudignac, supplier of the greatest pastry chefs from Pierre Hermé to Fauchon via the Pillon house in Toulouse, says: "This workshop eases the public's complex". And the trend of this star cake? “We are heading for the savory with a macaroon stuffed with fennel or tomato”. A stand further on, Manu Création even offers to crack on fine paste jewelry in the shape of… macaroons.

Expert

“At home, no yes boss…”

Is cooking a passing fad or a deeper phenomenon?

In any case, it pleases a lot, and more and more. Since I give lessons every other Saturday at the restaurant, it's always full.

Who are your students?

They are often my clients, and I would say men and women half and half, because there are a lot of women who offer the course to their husbands!

The difference between a hotel school student and an adult in your class?

At school, we teach students all the basics, whereas in my class, people come for a dish, a truffle preparation or macaroons for example. Their goal is to do it again at home, to their friends. And the atmosphere is different, they don't call me chef, just Yannick...

You teach them stuff, but do they give you ideas in return?

It is true that there is an exchange, in particular thanks to the questions they sometimes ask. I say to myself hey, it's true, why am I doing it like that?

If you teach them the trade, they will desert the restaurants, already that we can no longer drink or smoke...

It's an old debate. People desert restaurants that disappoint them, I can smoke and drink, that won't stop me from eating with my colleagues.

Alain Ducasse and other chefs want to create a "City of gastronomy" in Paris. Is French cuisine in danger?

No, but it has been discriminated against in recent years by specialized critics who have highlighted the Spaniards, the Japanese or the Italians. They are very good, they are well in their time, but the base is French. I have two Japanese in my kitchen, it's no coincidence that they come to learn in France.