The iconic Pierre Gagnaire earned his Michelin reputation by shedding the conventions underlying French cuisine and spearheading the fusion food movement with dishes such as sautéed shrimp with shrimp hummus, and roasted lobster flavoured with lemon, ginger and baby pak choi.
The French chef, who has a restaurant, Reflets Par Pierre Gagnaire, at InterContinental Dubai Festival City, addresses some myths about French cuisine.
French food is fatty and unhealthy
PG: It doesn’t have to be fatty! I understand that sometimes French food may not be the healthiest. But that also depends on the portions people eat. In France, meals are all about balance. You have to find the balance between light and heavy meals or a light main course and heavy dessert and vice versa.
It’s way too expensive and complicated to cook at home
PG: This is not true. Perhaps it’s the perception created by fine dining restaurants in France along with media reviews, but that is high-end food. You can make so many French dishes, which are tasty and [inexpensive], with fresh ingredients. And complicated? It’s hard to make a good pizza or fish and chips, but people make them anyway.
It’s pretentious
PG: French cuisine does seem pretentious at times, but not any more. We have changed perceptions with our jobs. Authentic French cuisine has its roots in foods made by peasants. There was nothing expensive about that.
It is bland and boring
PG: Oui, I can understand that. For example, my wife isn’t passionate about food. When she was young, her mother made her eat, eat, eat, to grow, grow grow… So now, for her food is not a pleasure but an obligation.
There’s always a strange animal involved somehow
PG: [Laughs] That’s an English perception, just like we have preconceived ideas about other countries. It’s funny.
