“It’s a jewel”… When Naïs Pirollet’s dish sublimates the great chefs

On the screen, the countdown is started. Ten seconds left to finish. 2:09 p.m.: this time, the timer stops. First smiles on the face, hitherto very concentrated, of Naïs Pirollet. The satisfaction of a job well done. Surpassing oneself. The culmination of eighteen months of hard work. The young chef from Lyon, who represents France at the Bocuse d’Or, has finished her ordeal. She embraces her teams, congratulates her brigade. Now we will have to wait. Wait for the jury to taste their dishes, wait for the other competitors to pass, each in turn. And wait to find out who will succeed his mentor, Davy Tissot, winner of the previous edition and president of the jury this year.

“This morning, I had a little tear in my eye,” confesses the person concerned. Naïs “left the same box” in the kitchen and “at the same time” as him, a year and a half ago. Pure coincidence? In the game of predictions, the man does not risk so much “there are big teams” and a “beautiful audience of champions”.

Sublimate the squash for children

Each candidate had five and a half hours to create a “children’s menu” based on squash, and a platter where the monkfish tail was queen. “Simplicity is the hardest thing to do,” smiles Davy Tissot. The challenge is to manage to make something elegant out of it. The visual will play, the colors too. But, on this first theme, the whole difficulty is to find the right measure. Not being too childish, but knowing how to touch the hearts of children”.

“I want to taste the squash”, specifies the three-starred chef Dominique Crenn, honorary president of the jury. The criteria for winning? “Working on emotion. I want dishes that take me into the universe of the candidates, she replies. If they touch me, the candidate has already won…”

” A jewel “

Visibly touched when tasting Naïs Pirollet’s second course, chef Régis Marcon stammered: “It’s wonderful… It’s a gem”, he exclaims to the audience. The platter is tempting: poached monkfish tail on the bone, land and sea stuffing, cream of scallops mixed with coral accompanied by creamy pumpkin, pointed and curly cabbage and creamy cauliflower. Without forgetting the blond peas from the Planèze in yellow wine and its saffron mussels. “We immediately understand that it was a woman who made it, it’s so delicate,” adds the chef. It’s incredible “.

At his side, one of his colleagues is also full of praise for the dishes presented by the young prodigy from Lyon. The children’s menu, consisting of a crunchy squash croissant, a squash praline, a soft-boiled egg and béchamel sauce, a nutmeg squash velouté and a meringue top filled with pumpkin milk mousse as a dessert, left him baba. “We go from surprise to surprise on this plate,” she admires. It’s very risky and I like taking risks”. Enough to climb on top of the world? The answer will be known at the end of the afternoon.

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