Sauce always!
Long abandoned in favor of ubiquitous cooking methods, utopian seasonings and fanciful combinations, sauces are finally making a comeback on restaurant menus. Technically magnified by chefs who are always on the lookout for sensory juxtapositions and tastes obtained through exceptional know-how, juices, vinaigrettes, sabayons, creams, reductions and broths are finally regaining their letters of nobility. These magical potions of a new kind draw their inspiration from the grimoires of yesteryear, while combining processes updated by the latest technologies. Often low in fat, these emotionally-charged elixirs sublimate the seasonal creations of the greatest chefs. From Arnaud Donckele to the Vague d’Or in Saint-Tropez to Sven Wassmer at the restaurant Memories in Bad Ragaz, Graubünden, and Benoit Carcenat at the Valrose in Rougemont, immersion in the wonderful world of liquids of all kinds.
Cheval Blanc / La Vague d’Or
Unique concoction
Historically, sauces have always been part of gastronomic culture. Whether it’s the sorrel sauce of the Troisgros brothers, Jacques Pic’s champagne sauce or Frédy Girardet’s chambertin lees, sauce is life! “In a world where everything is visually accessible, what’s most important is someone’s heart and soul. It’s exactly the same with a sauce. You can have a graphically superb dish, but the soul of this ephemeral creation remains the sauce that gives it its beauty,” says chef Arnaud Donckele. While it’s more important than ever for dishes to be potentially Instagrammable, a sauce is inimitable and remains the property of a fleeting moment that’s virtually impossible to reproduce perfectly. “If you want a regular sauce, you should never use a scale. A sauce will never be the same. If you take a vinaigrette of fresh herbs picked that morning or put them in the fridge for two days, they won’t taste the same. That’s the magic of a sauce.
The thinking behind sauces is such that some are created like perfumes, respecting the seasons. Which product will give the sauce a sensibility that won’t overshadow the raw material? In some cases, the roles are reversed, with the product becoming the sauce’s condiment. There’s no doubt about it: the chef, who twice boasts three stars in the Var village as well as in Paris, is a master of his craft and creates his cuisine around these unique preparations. New to the Vague d’Or menu is the Mediterranean Anchovy sauce, the quintessence of chanterelle juice transformed into a warm, ephemeral sabayon. Made as a girelle soup, escorted by a vegetable sabayon, then enhanced with an essence of bouillabaisse, the resulting osmosis is then delicately placed on a checkerboard of smoked anchovies.
Le Valrose
Memories, memories
With a complete change of scenery, we head for the heights of Rougemont, a village in the heart of the Vaud Alps, where chef and Meilleur Ouvrier de France Benoit Carcenat officiates. A fervent defender of culinary traditions and the culture of the beautiful gesture, each of his menus revolves around a sauce and the local produce he uses. “I bring back all my emotions in a sauce. My travels, my memories, my childhood…unconsciously, my whole life goes into these preparations,” reveals the chef.
Insofar as they are feasible, the chef with the blue-white-red collar refuses to impose any limits on his creativity. His watchword is innovation based on tradition. Fermentation, reduction and even evaporation… it’s all there. While the chef can be proud of his mushroom and snail tartelette accompanied by a chartreuse sabayon, it’s the incredible meat consommé, yellow wine reduction, lightly creamed, mixed with kale extraction and a black garlic coulis from the Pays d’Enhaut that makes hearts skip a beat. A trio of juices in the same sauce, topped with a Bresse guinea fowl and cabbage variation.
In Graubünden, chef Sven Wassmer concocts his sauces at his restaurant Memories in the Hotel Bad Ragaz. The very mention of the restaurant’s name conjures up dreams, and the two-Michelin-starred chef also incorporates his personal and professional experiences into his preparations. It’s hard not to succumb to the creamy pine-oil caramelized sauce accompanying the char smoked with fir thorns.
