The evolving signature dish: innovative and reassuring at the same time
Does the signature dish still have a place on restaurant menus? Some chefs have found a way to keep it there, while innovating. Here's a selection.
While the signature dish was the prerogative of chefs for a long time, today it seems a little outdated. Nowadays, most chefs play with the seasons, and don't want to be tied down to a particular specialty, preferring the magic of almost daily creation. But is the in-between possible? Sébastien Bras, Mathieu Viannay, Arnaud Lallement, Anne-Sophie Pic and Thomas Chisholm all have a signature dish on their menu, which they develop over the years. It's a way for them to innovate, while reassuring their customers, who absolutely must try the dish in question.
A hundred versions of Sébastien Bras' coulant
Mathieu Viannay's artichoke and foie gras "hommage à la Mère Brazier", Anne-Sophie Pic's berlingots or even Arnaud Lallement's Lobster "hommage à mon papa". by Arnaud Lallement... These emblematic dishes have been on the menus of these chefs for many years, but never quite in the same way. A filling, seasoning or cooking method may change from one season to the next, as long as the main theme remains the same.
The champion of the evolving signature dish is without doubt Sébastien Bras. At Le Suquet restaurant (4 toques) in Laguiole, he still serves the famous chocolate coulant that his father Michel Bras imagined in the early 1980s. "This dessert is the transcription of a family moment. We'd just come back from a day's skiing, and my mother had made us a big bowl of hot chocolate, the smell of which filled the room. It may seem trivial, but it was a moment of togetherness that my father wanted to recreate in the form of a dessert, with a cake that was solid on the outside, but runny when cut," the chef tells us.
Forty years later, Michel Bras has given way to his son Sébastien, who has been unable to take it off the menu. "I tried it a few years ago, but all the customers were asking for it!" So, to satisfy diners without getting bored, the chef at Le Suquet decided to offer different versions of the coulant, while leaving the chocolate one permanently on the menu. "I keep the same structure, with a rigid outer shell and a heart that flows when cut. Today,over a hundred versions have been proposed, both sweet and savoury", says Sébastien Bras. His favorite version? The squash coulant, with a chocolate envelope and hazelnut butter ice cream. "It's a triptych that works wonders," he assures us.
"Adaptation is the essence of our business".
For Thomas Chisholm, of Chocho restaurant (1 toque) in the Xᵉ arrondissement of Paris, the story is a little different. While still working at Grive, the young chef wondered what the best part of a meal was. "The moment when you sauce was obvious to me", he recalls. The result is the famous "sauce dish", which has been on the menu since the restaurant opened. "It's always made up of a purée, a sauce, a flavored oil and a condiment, which we sauce with homemade bread. We adapt it according to the season, taking it to a different universe each time, but it's always there," explains Thomas Chisholm, who is currently offering the tenth version of this dish. "Since Chocho opened, several chefs across France have taken up the idea. It's very flattering, but it makes me all the more determined to keep it on the menu, because it means it's a good idea," he smiles.
For his part, Sébastien Bras can't get enough of his constantly evolving coulant, just like the gargouillou, another signature dish based on seasonal vegetables. "It's never exactly the same from one day to the next, because it's a snapshot of nature at a given moment, depending on what's picked. That's the whole point of this dish! From the day before to the day after, even from lunch to dinner, you never really know how it's going to evolve. In my opinion, this adaptation is the very essence of our profession!"
At 52, the chef at Le Suquet even admits that chocolate coulant remains his guilty pleasure. "Often, after the break around 5pm, I'll pop into the patisserie to see if there's any left. The texture is different from that of the cake served to customers, because the chocolate has cooled. The cookie has softened and the inside is less fluid, but it's still my favorite snack! I've even wondered if we could offer this version to customers, but I've never done it", laughs the chef. Proof that this signature dessert still has a bright future ahead of it.
