The quiche, he knows its regressive side and he loves it. Leader Norihisa Semboshi cooks some every weekend for brunch Royal Monceau. “Rather lobster quiches”, he specifies, palace obliges. But hey, when it’s the King of England who treats, we don’t be choosy. And the Japanese chef, who has worked at the Ritz, the Bristol and the George V, knows his stuff, he who loves the regressive side of this dish, which he admits he only discovered during his studies in France, at theCordon Bleu school. “I prepare it with leeks, it’s very good, or with sauerkraut, it goes so well with smoked bacon,” he says.
The crispiest dough possible
For this young chef, the whole secret of a successful quiche lies in the cooking of the dough. “It has to be as crispy as possible, in order to contrast as well as possible with the mixture in the middle, which is very soft. For this, as we can see in the video, it is enough, the nice trick, to double the thickness of the edges. “When it cooks, it hardens to the point of becoming crunchy,” he says.
As for the apparatus of a quiche, king or not king, it is always the same according to Norihisa Semboshi: a mixture of eggs, cream and milk. It is the other ingredients, those of the filling, that will make the difference. “You have to choose them according to your tastes and affinities”, specifies the chef: simple bacon bits for the Lorraine quiche or broad beans, spinach and tarragon for the quiche for the coronation of Charles III. A royal quiche that the Royal Monceau has agreed to prepare for 20 minutes scrupulously respecting the recipe and the proportions indicated by the Buckingham cooks.
A first at the Royal Monceau
“This is a first for me and for the Royal Monceau Raffles Paris, admits Norihisa Semboshi without trembling. I have never prepared such. I guess the future king of England must have chosen it for its vegan side or for its lightness. Where does he think this UK passion for quiche comes from? “You have to be in a country that produces very high quality cream and milk. But the English have them, as do the French. »
And that’s it for the recipe. A first baking for fifteen minutes at 190°C of the dough alone, covered with dried beans to keep it at the bottom of a mold that we will preferably choose “in stainless steel to do without parchment paper and with a removable bottom to facilitate unmolding”, insists the chef. Dry beans are then replaced by the garnish and the mixture and it’s off again for twenty minutes of cooking, this time at 160°C only, “so that the dough does not brown”.
Then comes the crucial moment of tasting in the salons of the palace’s Bar Long. “Hmm, it’s true that it’s good,” says Norihisa Semboshi. Maybe a little bland? “No, the tarragon does its job well, it just lacks a bit of fat. Yes, bacon bits, that’s it! The people of Lorraine were not wrong to insist! “At least this quiche doesn’t spoil the appetite,” continues the chef. And it’s light, spring-like. Like the season chosen by Charles for his coronation.
The recipe for the “coronation quiche” according to Buckingham
Ingredients :
125ml milk
175ml double cream
2 medium eggs
1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon
Salt and pepper
100 g grated cheddar cheese
180 g cooked spinach, lightly chopped
60 g cooked broad beans or soy beans
Recipe :
Roll out homemade or store-bought shortcrust pastry.
Line the mold with the dough – be careful not to make holes.
Fold the edges if necessary and cut them by sliding the knife around the mold.
Poke holes in the bottom of the pie with a fork.
Line the bottom of the pie with parchment paper, add baking beads (which allow your dough to be blind-baked by preventing it from puffing up or getting soggy during cooking).
Bake the pie shell in a preheated oven at 190°C for fifteen minutes.
Meanwhile, lightly chop the spinach and grate the cheese.
In a bowl, whisk together the milk, cream, eggs, herbs and seasoning.
Spread half of the grated cheese in the pre-cooked base.
Top with chopped spinach, broad beans and tarragon.
Pour the mixture from the bowl evenly over the quiche.
Cover with the other half of cheese.
Bake at 160°C for 20 to 25 minutes, until the pastry is set and lightly browned.