How is eggplant conquering chefs and plates?

Toooften confined to ratatouille and tians, eggplants have been emancipated in recent years by chefs such as the famous Anglo-Israeli Yotam Ottolenghi and the Franco-Lebanese Alan Geaam. Thanks to them, eggplant is reconnecting with its origins through authentic recipes.originating in Cochinchina and India a century BC, Hindi vatin-ganah made a slow journey to Europe in the 14th or 15th century. Via the Persians and Arabs, it reached Muslim Spain where, fried in oil, its mushroom-like flavor was quickly adopted, followed by Italy and Greece. The red variety from Rotonda - which originated on the African continent - and the oblong, crimson Tsakoniki from Leonidiou, both now enjoy PDO status.

Hard to win over the French

It wasn't until the 17th century that traces of its cultivation were found in Barbentane, Provence, and its name derived from the Catalan alberginia.unlike Italy and Greece, which continue to call it melanzana, melitzána, mela insana ("fool's apple"), respectively), while cooking it generously in alla parmigiana, caponata or moussaka, northern France, and the rest of Europe, are wary of it."In the 16th century, Flemish botanist Rembert Dodoens asserted: " Fruits bring little nourishment to the body and are even evil.

A cousin of the dangerous belladonna, in the Solanaceae family - like the tomato and potato, which came from across the Atlantic - it owes its sulphurous reputation to the latter. Few greengrocers in northern Provence offered it in the 19th century, and its recipes remained rare.

It appears timidly in seven dishes in Auguste Escoffier's 1903 Guide culinaire. In the 1938 Larousse gastronomique, its repertoire expanded to 21 preparations, including simmered, fried and stuffed dishes with meat, rice or vegetables.vegetables, inherited from its Arabo-Persian history, including the legendary stuffed eggplant of Imam Bayildi - "the fainting Imam".in addition to Levantine inspirations, the current eggplant revival owes a great deal to its other chosen region, Asia.Asia, where, from Japan to Thailand via China and the Philippines, there are dozens of colorful variants of the vegetable and just as many tasty recipes.among the most widespread, Ping Tung, a long, thin, sweet Chinese variety, is enjoyed fried and marinated "Hong Shao" style, combining soy sauce, garlic and ginger.

In France, some market gardeners are diversifying their offer, proposing milder varieties such as tigrées, New York's monstrous - a large-format berry, often sold organically - or the round white eggplant, with white flesh and skin, from which the British eggplant takes its name. And there are many more to discover...