“English cuisine is simple: when it’s cold it’s beer, when it’s hot it’s soup”: a quote from Coluche that many French people could also claim as much about cooking English arouses contempt and ridicule on our side of the Channel. However, a small revolution, English this time, is affecting the world of Parisian restaurants, if we are to believe the number of table openings claiming to be british in a few months.
A stone’s throw from the Opera, British chef Calum Franklin has just inaugurated Public House, the new popular address for neighborhood executives. The decor is spectacular, with its huge bar and large leather and tartan benches. Instagrammable as you wish, an essential quality for rapid success, Public House also seduces on the plate. It must be said that its chef has received numerous awards and is nicknamed “The Pie King” by his compatriot Jamie Oliver.
And indeed, there are several traditional pies made from beef, poultry, cheddar and potatoes that are on the menu. An English specialty which has everything to please the French, lovers of quiches and savory tarts, with however the London price which makes the experience more typical (between 19.50 and 29.50 euros per magpie individual). Another dish is also in the spotlight, the famous fish and ships which has already conquered Parisian brasseries and street food brands for several years.
Is it this dish that would have opened the way to the discovery of other English specialties? Alexandre Chapier, a chef from the South-West has just opened The Blossom Arms in the 17th arrondissement. He had initially thought of opening a brand entirely dedicated to this dish before finally expanding his offering with a pub specializing in seafood: “I have worked at a lot of very varied restaurants in my career, from starred restaurants to coffee shops. , and I fell completely in love with London where I worked for four years.”
Including its gastronomy? “It’s true that we often eat poorly in pubs, because it’s almost always frozen. Fortunately, there are now gastro pubs that showcase good cuisine,” explains the chef. Why open a pub in Paris if its memories are not so unforgettable? “What I like above all about pubs is the conviviality, the fact that we can meet there at any time with family or friends,” adds the chef, “And then, outside of pubs, we clearly eat better in London than in Paris. It is a much more mixed cuisine, which has remained less stuck in tradition than French cuisine. »
Parisians conquer “sausage rolls”
An opinion shared by Marine and Marine, two friends who have just opened the counter Very French Beans not far from The Blossom Arms in the 17th. They also lived in London and they also fell in love with this gastronomy that they wanted to import.
“A lot of people around us didn’t understand why we were opening an address with English specialties. For them, it’s a tasteless diet, really not good. But we tested it during our stay in London, so we knew that we would be able to appeal to Parisians, because it is a very cosmopolitan cuisine, with a lot of borrowings.”
On the menu, they offer simple everyday dishes such as magpies, of the sausage rolls (sausage puffs) or even egg and watercress sandwiches. They confide that, when they opened their shop, some were doubtful but after nine months, they were able to build customer loyalty: “People are happy to discover this gastronomy. At the beginning the sausage rolls weren’t selling, but now that customers have tasted it, they’re asking for more! And we also have some customers who have lived in London and who tell us they are delighted to find the flavors from there.”
So is it Brexit, the starification of certain chefs on TV like Gordon Ramsay or even the success of the series The Crown who explains this sudden interest in the plates of our British neighbors? Or the taste for something new, when many taste regions have already been explored by Parisian chefs?
For Sarah Lachhab, co-author with Aurélie Bellacicco of a “bold” book of English recipes, England, Tea, Piccalilli, Pasty (Ed. de La Martinière), it’s a bit of all that: “The French have a sort of obsession with England, whether in football or in terms of food, it’s a bit like who likes to be punished well. But English cuisine has evolved, notably thanks to its imperial past. It is a cuisine that has been less codified than French, which has been very well written by chefs like Escoffier. English gastronomy is more liberating, less restricted, and many French chefs always have an eye on it.”
Could a dish have the same success in Paris as American burgers or Japanese sushi? “The Battenberg cake, a cake made of squares of colored pastry, will be the next star of Instagram! “, predicts Sarah Lachhab. The bets are open. It remains to be seen whether the fashion for English cuisine will be as obsolete as the reign of Edward VII or will pass into posterity like that of Elizabeth II.