These chefs create cheeses and charcuterie... using vegetables!

Sausage, ham, Parmesan cheese and even Camembert... These charcuterie and cheese products, known to all, are an integral part of our everyday cooking. But at a time when plant-based products, animal welfare and sustainability are taking up more and more space on our plates, chefs are always one step ahead. While some, such as Romain Meder and Mathieu Pérou, are known for their fish-based charcuterie, others have taken to creating charcuterie from vegetables! Claire Vallée, Nicolas Le Tirrand and Jérôme Jaegle have even made this a priority in their respective restaurants. They explain!

Celery cheese

Is creating a "cheese" from a vegetable a far-fetched idea? Not really. According to Nicolas Le Tirrand, chef at Sources restaurant in Lorient (3 toques), it's even the future of cooking. "I sincerely believe that this is a way of working with vegetables that has a future. I love cooking with vegetables, because the field of possibilities is almost infinite. In any case, we have to bear in mind that in a few decades' time, we'll find less and less animal protein, or else at exorbitant prices. So I think we need to think ahead and find virtuous solutions," he says.

In his restaurant in Lorient, Nicolas Le Tirrand enjoys brining, smoking and drying vegetables to give them a concentration of flavors, but also a different texture from what we're used to. And among the most malleable vegetables, celery is a particular favorite. "It's the test that I think has been the most conclusive", says the chef. From a vegetable weighing around 1 kg, Nicolas Le Tirrand managed to obtain a small ball, no bigger than a tennis ball, with completely transformed properties. "Celery that has been brined, dehydrated and smoked becomes a kind of vegetable parmesan. I have vegan friends who sometimes take it and simply grate it over a pasta dish. Often, they say nothing to their guests and no one notices the difference. It's amazing!" enthuses the chef from Sources.

©Philippe Vaures, ©Sources

In 2023, Nicolas Le Tirrand even created a dish based entirely on celery and lovage, to prove that it was possible to create emotions in the kitchen with a simple vegetable. "The celery was cooked in a salt crust, then carved like barbecued pucks. I'd also prepared a reduced juice with the trimmings, a celery caramel, and grated my celery 'cheese' on top at the last moment. It's a dish I was really happy with", he recalls.

Jérôme Jaegle's Alchémille in Kaysersberg (3 toques) is a similar story. While the chef's cuisine is particularly marked by powerful, deep flavors, thanks in particular to fermentation and wild herbs, he has revealed unexpected flavors by transforming the vegetable into a brined celery 'cheese', with a hint of ash goat. "It's an idea that's been germinating in my head for a long time", confesses the Alchémille chef, who has already proposed this creaation in a bluffing dish of fermented radish and pickles with a meaty texture, topped with nettle shoot chips and celery cheese. "It's a process that requires a lot of rigor in terms of hygiene, and every vegetable is different. But when it's well mastered, we come up with something really interesting."

©Julie Limont

Mushroom sausage

Claire Vallée, an expert in plant-based cuisine and long-time head of the ONA (Origine non animale) restaurant in Arès, has also experimented with vegetable "cheese", but in a very different way. Rather than drying it, the chef transformed the taste and texture of cauliflower by adding koji, a micro-organism known as Aspergillus oryzae, used in the fermentation process of soy sauce to give it its famous "umami" notes. "We get quite strong cheesy notes, close to a Camembert," reveals Claire Vallée.

The chef, who also ran an ephemeral table d'hôtes in Paris during the summer of 2023, also had the good idea of creating a mushroom "sausage", with portobello and a little shiitake. "We let them dry out slightly before adding homemade miso. The mycelium develops inside and we mature it in a cellar, with a few spices of course. In theend, you get a lot of chewiness, like a meaty substance."

©Anne-Emmanuelle Thion

Salsify, Jerusalem artichokes and parsnips are other vegetables that can be processed. Nicolas Le Tirrand's latest experiment? Beet, which, when concentrated and spiced, develops almost chorizo-like aromas and texture. For Jérôme Jaegle, the latest discovery is a Jerusalem artichoke preserved for a week, without salt or sugar, used as a "candy" during the meal. "You could even imagine it in a bag of candy, it's so amazing!" In this game, the chefs have not finished surprising us!