A part of this article has been drawn from the curtain-raiser I wrote for the Mail Today dated March 7, 2012.
By Sourish
Bhattacharyya
IN THE 13-year history of the India Today Conclave, the only chef who has had anything to do with
the country's definitive festival of ideas is a self-effacing man named Rajesh Wadhwa, who presides over the
kitchens of the Taj Palace, New Delhi, and ensures that each gala dinner is more
memorable than the one before.
A little later today, for the first time in the history of
the India Today Conclave and its many copycats, a chef is going to take the
centre-stage. France's most celebrated pastry chef and the god of macaroons, Pierre Herme, will showcase his world
of flavours, first at a solo session and then at high tea, where the delegates will
get to sample the confection that has the world from London to Qatar, Dubai and Tokyo eating out
of his hand.
.jpg) |
| Pierre Herme is the youngest man ever to be named France's Pastry Chef of the Year. Picture Copyright: Jean Louis Bloch Laine |
Herme, who's on his first visit to India, is being presented
by the Embassy of France. The Ambassador of France, Francois Richier, a master of nuclear diplomacy in the mould of our
own Rakesh Sood, the Prime Minister's Special Envoy on Disarmament and
Non-Proliferation, was worried that Herme's macaroons may sideline weightier
matters such as nuclear power and the space programme.
It may happen, though, that the Picasso of Pastry, which is
how Vogue magazine has described the
patissier, wakes up the delegates and get them into the mood to discuss the
eclectic range of subjects lined up for Conclave's Day Two -- from psephology
to robotics, terror to space exploration, cinema to sanitation, and finally,
Salman Khan on 'Being Human'. France is the Conclave's partner country -- and
you can't imagine it without good food and wine. Hence Herme.
The youngest person to be named France's Pastry Chef of the
Year, and the only member of his profession to be inducted into the Chevalier
de la Légion d'honneur, the French equivalent of a knighthood, Herme is best-known
for his unusual macaroons, his most famous creation being the one with olive
oil and vanilla.
Christophe Gillino, a world-travelled Frenchman and Executive
Chef of The Leela Palace New Delhi, underlined the importance of Herme when he
said that the extraordinarily talented pastry chef was responsible for turning
around the fortunes of two old French gourmet institutions -- Fauchon and
Laduree. Then he went on to create an international chain of gourmet patisseries.
Herme will interact with the city's pastry chefs and gourmet bloggers at Le Cirque, The Leela Palace New Delhi's
signature restaurant, on Monday, March 10.
Heir to four generations of an Alsatian bakery and pastry-making
tradition, Herme is not a stranger to generous accolades. Paris Match magazine has called Herme the "magician with
tastes", The New York Times
hailed him as "The Kitchen Emperor" and The Guardian described him as "The King of Modern
Pâtisserie".
Herme, 52, started apprenticing with the pastry-making
legend, Gaston Lenotre, when he was
14, and then went on to revolutionise his craft with his original philosophy of
taste, sensations and pleasure. He was the one, for instance, who promoted the
idea of the use of sugar as salt -- "as a seasoning to heighten other
shades of flavour".
When Desserts by Pierre
Herme was released in 1999, the world therefore wasn't surprised to see him
overturning established norms by marrying unusual ingredients, such as black
pepper and an optional sliver of habanero in his Warm Chocolate and Banana
Tart, or a basil chiffonade as garnishing for his Basmati Rice and
Fruits-of-the-Moment Salad.
He is a thinking person's pastry chef and a successful
business baron who made the idea of 'Patisserie Haute Couture' an international
statement of style, which has powered the growth of his chain of pastry shops
from Tokyo in 1998 to France, England, Hong Kong, Qatar and Dubai.
Before he launched his empire of taste, Herme was the pastry
chef for 11 years for the French fine food merchant, Fauchon, and in 1997, he was powering the expansion of another
French institution, the luxury bakery, Laduree.
He brings to New Delhi this vast experience and he will be here to talk about
his life's journey with "pleasure as the only guide".
No comments:
Post a Comment