Yannick Alléno in 5 dishes
The chef at Pavillon Ledoyen is one of those who have revolutionized French gastronomy. For Gault&Millau, he looks back at five dishes that have marked his career and perfectly represent his world.
Based in Paris at the Pavillon Ledoyen (5 toques), in the heart of the Golden Triangle, Yannick Alléno is one of those chefs who embody French haute cuisine at its most demanding and lively. The chef, who heads a constellation of addresses around the world, offers a cuisine that is unmistakably French. A five-course encounter with a chef on the move.
The dish he's most proud of: the one to come
"What I'm most proud of is not just the dishes of the past, but those yet to come. These are the creations that my teams and I imagine today, the ones we test and adjust. It's in this constant movement that I find my energy," says Yannick Alléno. The chef speaks of the future with the same passion as he describes a dish in the making. Orient Express, Qatar Airways, Maison Dior: his recent and future collaborations open up new territories for French gastronomy. Each project becomes a laboratory of ideas, a new way of telling the story of a constantly evolving cuisine.
Customers' most popular dish : La Balade Végétale
Present at Alléno Paris (5 toques), 1947 at Cheval Blanc Courchevel (5 toques) and La Table de Pavie (4 toques) in Saint-Émilion, La Balade Végétale has become a landmark for fans of his cuisine. "Through this seasonal stroll, I wanted to convey the delicate spectacle of verdant nature awakening. It's a dish that lives to the rhythm of the garden, composed of over 30 elements: vegetables, herbs, flowers, roots, fermented condiments..." A tribute to nature, but also to the collective: the gardeners, pickers, craftsmen and teams who bring this plant-based score to life. It's also a manifesto for his modern cuisine, based on extractions and fermentations, the signature techniques that give each note its purity and precision. A journey where nature becomes culinary poetry.
The work that marked a turning point in his career: sauces
"Sauces are the beating heart of my cuisine, and were the starting point for a veritable work of research and innovation", says the chef. It is through sauces that Yannick Alléno has revolutionized contemporary French gastronomy. With his extraction technique, he has isolated the quintessence of taste, lightening the material without losing its soul. Today, this work permeates his 21 restaurants around the world and even his chocolate factory, where he transposes the same principles to reveal the complexity of cocoa. A scientific and sensitive approach that restores the sauce to its central role.
The dish linked to a memory: the soufflé
"The soufflé is one of the first dishes I learned to make, a symbol of rigor and precision. Today, I'm reinventing it in my own way, with my own extraction techniques, to give it back all its lightness and modernity", explains the chef. Under his hands, the soufflé becomes a tribute to French tradition, but also a field for experimentation. A bubble of air and memory, between heritage and innovation.
His weakness: chocolate
"Chocolate is, without a doubt, my guilty pleasure. it even led me to open a chocolate shop in the 7ᵉ arrondissement of Paris and now in the 6ᵉ and within Galeries Lafayette Gourmet!" the chef enthuses.
Assumed passion, natural extension of his research into flavors: for Yannick Alléno, chocolate is a living material, as complex as a grand cru. With Chocolateries Alléno & Rivoire, he explores this territory as a chef explores a product, in search of balance, texture and precision.
