En cuisine avec Alain Passard

by Christophe Blain, Alain Passard

Alain ne crie jamais. Lorsqu'il reprend un cuisinier, c'est sec et précis. Il a l'air décontracté puis il rentre soudain dans l'action. Il est rapide, tout à son geste. Lorsque le rythme s'accélère, il profite de l'énergie et de la tension. Il est totalement absorbé par sa cuisine, presque en transe.Pendant plus de deux ans, Christophe Blain a suivi le chef trois étoiles Alain Passard (L'Arpège) du piano de ses cuisines à ses jardins potagers. Avec un sens de l'observation singulier, il nous livre le portrait passionnant d'un chef qui a su redonner aux légumes leurs lettres de noblesse. Un récit truculent et la découverte d'un personnage hors du commun.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Food, Cooking, Nonfiction, Cookbooks, France

96 pages, Hardcover

First published May 20, 2011

About the author

Christophe Blain is a French comic book writer and artist.

Reviews

[Romain · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gastronomie et bande dessinée font souvent bon ménage. Alors un grand chef, Alain Passard, raconté par un grand dessinateur de BD, Christophe Blain, donne forcément un grand livre ? Eh bien, pas forcément. Comme en cuisine, le tout n’est pas égal à la somme des parties, le syndrome de la mayonnaise ratée, même si on n’en est pas là, on reste un peu sur notre faim. Ce résultat en demi-teinte est la conséquence d’une indigestion de scènes trop similaires, celles des recettes. Elles se ressemblent toutes et apparaissent comme répétitives et lassantes. Dommage car la partie qui relève le livre, la visite dans l’un des jardins du chef est relégué vers la fin alors qu’elle constitue la matrice de ce qu’a voulu créer Alain Passard lorsqu’il a fait le choix audacieux et courageux de retirer la viande rouge de son menu, alors même qu’il était un spécialiste renommé de sa cuisson, pour laisser le champ libre aux légumes. La visite du potager sarthois est un petit bijou, j’ai été ébahi par un tel savoir faire, une telle exploitation raisonnée de la nature.

Ça, c’est notre broyât de cannes de topinambour. Ça sert à couvrir les parcelles pour l’hiver. Si tu regardes à l’échelle de la planète, jamais un sol n’est nu. Regarde les forêts, les prairies. Sauf sur l’agriculture conventionnelle ou dans le désert. C’est ce que l’on essaie de recréer ici. Le broyât protège la couche superficielle du sol. Il y a une température homogène dans le sol. En hiver, les vers descendent profond parce qu’il fait froid. Là, ils peuvent travailler en zone intermédiaire. Et puis ça évite de désherber.

Alain Passard croit aux terroirs pour les légumes. Quand on y pense c’est logique puisqu’il a tant d’importance pour le vin, pourquoi n’en serait-il pas de même pour les légumes ? Il suffit de leur accorder suffisamment d’importance, de changer leur statut d’accompagnement à celui de met principal, de les mettre au centre de l’assiette. Facile à dire, mais c’est moins facile à faire lorsque l’on dirige un restaurant trois étoiles et pourtant.

On fait des essais. J’ai demandé aux mecs de planter des graines sur les trois terroirs. La même graine de navet globe. C’est un navet blanc et mauve. L’idée, c’est de voir comment réagit le produit à des terroirs différents. Dans la Sarthe, on a un terrain sablonneux. Dans la Manche, on a des alluvions et dans l’Eure, on a de l’argile. Une pluviométrie différente. On va voir où le légume va être le plus parfumé, le plus élégant. Au bout de deux mois, je demande aux gars de m’envoyer les trois navets et je les vois arriver. Je juge la couleur, l’esthétique, le parfum, le toucher. Ensuite je l’ouvre, j’observe la texture, je prends le parfum, je goûte cru, je le fais cuire, je le goûte cuit et à la fin je le goûte comme un vin.

Voilà on y est et rien que pour ça cette BD mérite d’être lue.

Également publié sur mon blog.

[H. Givens · Rating 4 out of 5]

An elegant book. I'm soothed by minute descriptions, and this book was perfect. Plus the inspiration of cooking, even if almost all the recipes are beyond my reach, either for their ingredients or for their "feel when it's right" quality. I do wish there had also been photos of the food, maybe in a section at the end -- it would've spoiled the flow of the drawings in the main book, but I'd like to see.

[Raina · Rating 3 out of 5]

How very French.

I mean, duh, it's a translated piece, and it's a French guy interviewing and observing a famous French chef who has a fancy restaurant in Paris. How much more French can you get?

The observer perspective is very on display here. Blain is in awe of his subject. He gushes about the food, shows intimidation at Passard's prestige, is duly impressed with everything. In some ways, this transparency was refreshing. Many profile pieces are written with a facade of objectivity, which will never be quite the truth about anything. At other times, I found myself rolling my eyes at the swooning.

The content itself is primarily in border-free panels with speech bubbles. Frequent, but not constant, color throughout. The recipes introduce the sections of comics (some of which illustrate the preparation of the recipe, some with additional content).

As someone who enjoys an insider perspective on industries, I enjoyed it. Not sure I'll ever make any of the recipes, tho. And I'm perpetually weary of books by, about, and centering pale-skinned people these days.

Read with other books on my newly created kitchencomics shelf.

[Karan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Completely worked, the author/artist with the chef/artist. Loved the recipes.

[Alan (the Lone Librarian) Teder · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is likely as close as many of us will ever get to dining at Alain Passard's Arpège in Paris, France where the lunch is €175 and the tasting menus range from €320 to €390 (prices as of March 2018). The book does provide recipes for a selection of Arpège menu items though, so you can always attempt to recreate the experience in your own home. Of course you won't have the benefit of an army of chefs and gardeners to support you but you can always use your imagination!

The most charming part of this graphic novel was actually the visit to the Arpège garden in the Sarthe and the extensive tour and history provided by the gardener Sylvain. It was a portrait of work even further behind the scenes than the kitchen itself. There is a nice running gag over the 8 pages where writer and artist Christophe Blain tries to recall which American actor's appearance is similar to Sylvain's.

The drawings by Blain were entertaining and often humorous and along with text stories & recipes gave a good sense of the entire operation. I found out about this unique graphic novel/recipe book from reading Christophe Ribbat's In the Restaurant: Society in Four Courses from Shakespeare and Company's 2018 Year of Reading subscription.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a delightful confection! A book by Christophe Blain about the working life of Alain Passard, chef-owner of the 3* Parisian restaurant, L'Arpège.

Envy Christophe Blain, getting to work closely with Passard for 3 years - observing the inner workings of the kitchen, visiting the country gardens, questioning the great man, and, of course, getting to eat phenomenal food.

The book is a series of vignettes, mostly revolving around a recipe or two, but sometimes there'll be a depiction of a discussion, or an incident. There's little narrative, little drama. But I found it a very satisfying and interesting book.

The thing that really carries it for me is that you get a good insight into Passard's character and philosophy. It may just be a tossed off aside at the end of a recipe, but I really felt like I got a sense of the man and his cooking.

Blain's art is lighter, and more spacious than it normally is (few panel borders, for example) and it works well for this book.

I wouldn't necessarily recommend buying this book purely for the recipes - unless this kinda stuff is really your thing (i.e., mostly very showy vegetable dishes) - for anyone with an interest in food, restaurants and comics it's a great read.

[Emilia P · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ehhhhhh. I love Blain's tight, scribbly, cleary *very French* illustration style. I wish he had a bit more interesting of a subject! I felt like he did what he could with a moderately expressive, fairly delicious-food making chef. It did, admittedly, make me hungry, but it expected you to accept a notion of haute cuisine that's fairly foreign to most readers (hopefully?) and so some of the stuff they were doing walked a tightrope between fascinating and ridiculous -- pea caviar? vegetable infused oils? SO MANY RADISHES. I think the best part was the visits Blain paid to Passard's farm and the conversaton with his extremely dedicated, horse-plow-using, gardener. I could have just stayed there for the whole book.

[Loretta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Totally enjoyed this book--I'm a fairly indifferent cook & the recipes are over the top but the enthusiasm for good food is contagious. I especially enjoyed the longest chapter, "the garden in Sarthe, " a wonderful depiction of integrated gardening where nothing is wasted. I now understand asparagus. Agree with others about the beets--too many beets.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

A read as chaotic as the inner-workings of the chef's mind. Made me hungry for fancy food.

[Octavia Cade · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a quick enjoyable read, and a type of graphic novel I haven't tried before - one that's a cookbook as much as it is cartoons. Blain spends time in Passard's kitchen, watching food being prepared, but he also spends extensive time with the gardeners who supply the produce used in those kitchens. And when I say produce, I mean mostly beets. Alright, that's an exaggeration, but Passard does love his beets... though I can't say that I blame him, because I love them too. Beets are yummy. I do like the emphasis on vegetables here, and the simplicity of the culinary approach. It's always a limited number of ingredients, treated respectfully, nothing overwrought.

I do miss photography, though. If there's one thing most modern cookbooks are very good at, it's that gorgeous imagery, and given how much emphasis Passard gives to colour in his food, I would have liked a better look at it, I think.

[Visda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first graphical novel on a serious topic, and I had reservations on whether I'd enjoy reading inside the bubble heads, while looking at pictures of characters. Maybe it was the topic, or the art of Christopher Blain as an illustrator, the pictures and words were harmonious and they provided so much more content to the reader to think about. The pictures gave a visual to the step by step process of making a dish, and the words are from conversation that takes place during this process.
You will see Alain is a big fan of vegetables. He says in the book, that he wants to see people talk about carrots the way they talk about grand crus.
Really liked the book, so much more because after a long period of e-reading, I had to hold this book in my hand and turn its pages to read. :)

[Anna – ARC reader extraordinaire! · Rating 4 out of 5]

As somewhat of a gourmand, I am always eager to pick up books that show a different side of the culinary arts. In The Kitchen is unique. It presents chef Alain Passard’s daily routine in the form of a graphic novel. Christophe Blain’s art has a Sunday paper cartoonish disposition, which I like. There are recipes mentioned in between, but this is not a cookbook by any means. If you are interested in knowing more about Alain Passard or what goes on behind the doors in a top fine dining restaurant, pick up In The Kitchen

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simple graphical story book that lets you into the vision of Alain Passard as he interprets high vegetarian cuisine for his well-heeled French veggie-fueled customers. Interesting details. Sprinkled with recipes throughout; a fun summer read for the amateur chef.
I came upon this book after enjoying a short documentary on him, in a short series on French Chefs (Netflix).
Caveat: small handwritten comics! Would recommend larger book format.

[Stella · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nonfiction graphic novel about a famous French chef, going into his kitchen and gardens to get a behind the scenes viewpoint. Includes fifteen recipes, so it is also a cookbook. Fascinating. The chef is portrayed as likable though precise and the author laughs at himself relishing every dish he gets to sample. Nothing here I’m likely ever going to make, but I will pay more attention to color and plating after reading this book.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Attention, cette bd donne faim !
Christophe Blain nous emmène en cuisine avec Alain Passard et sa brigade dans une alternance de récits du quotidien et de recettes toutes plus alléchantes les unes que les autres.
Je recommande pour les gourmand.e.s, pour les amoureux.ses de légumes et pour tous les autres aussi !

[Bruce · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you've ever watched one of those Food Network shows (what, you mean you've never sat in a dentist's waiting room or randomly flipped hotel channels while your bathroom was occupied?), then you've come across one of those star-chef-centric programs. You know, one of those whose plot and title is something like, "The Ramen Whisperer." That's this book to a 'T,' only substituting a dollop of philosophy for the glossy, steaming, condensation-dripping, high definition images of actual food.

Christophe Blain has a line and style that's somewhere between Tony Auth and Jules Feiffer. It looks a bit like two-dimensional scribble, but with flow, movement, and detail where it's most wanted, in the varied expressions of faces and hands (and so many of these pages are just faces, hands, and sprawling, late 9th-century word bubbles, such as the chapter dedicated to Passard's part-time assistant Julie). His coloring is gorgeous, definitive. It not only serves its traffic cop design function of establishing panel boundaries and distinguishing foreground (read, most important or salient, not just nearest) from background but mood as well. Just check out the bottom left panel on page 65, of Chef Alain working on a camping stove at night on his farm in Normandy:
or Blain's attempt to visualize the experience of enjoying a garden mousse (at bottom of page 8). These two examples also make it clear that readers will be better served (ahem) if they can find this book in its original French edition. Clearly the translators got stuck with the same bubble space, but couldn't capture the elegance of Blain's lettering. The chicken scratch English detracts slightly from the overall feel of the work.

Of course, there's more to this book than just art. There's story. Sort of. The book presents a portrait of the cuisine-artist as a series of vignettes, capturing the chef and his staff alternately creating and opining on their creative process, all interspersed with implausible recipes. The simplest of these involves slicing fresh strawberries lengthwise and rolling them in crushed berlingots, strewn across a plate highlit with olive oil sprinkles. This isn't hard, provided you have garden fresh strawberries, good olive oil, and whatever Passard uses as a source of hard candy. Even when not met with impossible ingredients (purple basil, acacia honey, a langoustine) or tools (an eggshell topper -- a specialized saw that cleanly shears off the tops of shells while leaving the remainder intact and unmolested), reproducing his methodology requires years of experience, practice, and a gourmet's instincts. Passard includes two recipes built on your basic frying pan-sized hash brown. In the French this is either a potato paillasse or galette, but hey, I figure a potato pancake lies well within my heritage. Mais oui? Non! I didn't need a mandoline or rotating peeler to get a proper shred, but the result was more a gloppy mishmosh than a crisped, slow-fried platter of a tater. Moreover, unless home cooks seat their guests about a foot from the stove, they'll have a devil of a time managing the near instantaneous cookpot-to-crockery service that proper savoring of any of these how-to delicacies require.

But who cares? Like any professional cooking show, all this food we can only see others eat is so much sleight of hand. It's a thrill just to be in the kitchens and fields with these masters and eavesdrop on their wisdom. Sylvain, the gardener who acts as Blain's field guide through Passard's Sarthe plantations, is a revelation as he describes the flavorful yields derived from cultivating diversity in the landscape and its denizens. His experiments in natural balance are every bit as inspirational as Passard's culinary flourishes.

Passard throws out his share of pretentious nonsense. Shown chuffing away on a cigar on page 92, he distinguishes the terroir of turnips from three different regions of France "to see where the plant becomes tastiest and most elegant.... I evaluate the color, the look, the smell, the mouthfeel.... I taste it raw. I taste it cooked, and finally, I taste it like a wine. I put it through the juicer. I sip the turnip juice. And I say, 'Ah, voila.' It's the Eure. Because the turnip feels at home there.... I bought Renaud a smoker so he could smoke vegetables with different kinds of wood." Not that he prepares it that way in his dishes. Not that harvests from future seeds are guaranteed to bring the same nuanced aromatics. Not that -- I imagine after having inhaled enough burnt tobacco leaves (!) -- the juice extracted from a smoked turnip might have any flavor at all.

Yet any great artist must cultivate mystique. In the Kitchen plates us a Michelin-starred god. Blain's brief book is a bonbon, a soupcon of saucy, sensory overload, a hagiography of haute journalisme that will end up leaving its readers happy... and hungry.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

The recipes are interesting and the chefs philosophies are clearly illustrated, but they seem impractical for most amateur cooks, either due to the ingredients or techniques necessary to produce them.

[Marion]

Fascinating and mouth-watering read about life in the kitchen of L'Arpège, chef Alain Passard's award-winning restaurant. it would have been interesting to hear more about the story of L'Arpège but the recipes included are a nice touch to try to replicate some of his inventive work.

[Walter · Rating 5 out of 5]

J'ai adoré les dessins dynamiques et les recettes représentées! J'avoue que certaines d'entre elles me donnent vraiment envie de me mettre plus sérieusement envie de cuisiner :)

[Esther · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bouquet of roses apple pie. Salivating hunger.

[Avi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun fast look at a brilliant chef in graphic novel form. I think I have some garden envy though. Why can't I get three gardens of my own?!

[Nat · Rating 2 out of 5]

Me han gustado las partes en las que habla de los huertos y las escenas "fuera de cocina", por lo demás es un libro de recetas en forma de cómic. Flojete.

[Aurora]

Got 32 pages in. Not interested enough to keep reading.

[Ashley Olson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this graphic novel cookbook biography gardening book. Accidentally spent $250 on groceries today because the vegetables were so beautiful.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

i wanna go there

[Yolanda Rmiz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this idealistic and artistic view of cuisine. As well as the attention to every detail along the food chain, in a way it seems activist, which in my opinion it's a good thing considering the subject.

[Kerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the serious foodie/graphic novel enthusiast who covets the world of a famous chef (In this case Alain Passard). It gives you some glimpses into a fancypants French restaurant kitchen and the mastermind behind the recipes. I really enjoyed the idea that he arranges all his ingredients in a sort of mural and appreciates them for what they are. I don't think I have the planning skills or patience to do this, except in rare circumstances. However, it is clear that he is a very gifted chef with impeccable culinary skills and a passionate dedication to the farm to table ethos. Some of the book is a bit snobbish for my taste about serious restaurant culture.

The recipes scattered throughout the book aren't necessarily things I would make, but interesting to see nonetheless. (Although, I did make one of them, well improvised).

I loved the portions where the author/illustrator ventures to both of Alain Passard's country homes/gardens and tours them. They sound amazing! In particular, I think I just want to go work with Sylvain at the garden in Sarthe! It sounds like an amazing and creative operation! It's good to dream right!

[Fredrik Strömberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delightful little book. Not a biography and not a traditional cookbook, but a mix of comics reportage, visual recipes and interviews with co-workers and employees of Passard. Blain followed Alain Passard on and off for more than three years at his restaurant and his country estates where all the ingredients are produce and recorded it all in the comics format. All is done with the trademark ease of Blain, the only one as far as I'm concerned, to rival Joann Sfar as the true master of the French la Nouvelle Vague of comics.

I was most surprised by the fact that Passard, one of the most celebrated chefs of France today, was actually more or less a vegan cook. That I did not expect from a cuisine so infatuated with meat, but as we are more or less vegan at home, it made me stop and consider the recipes as potential dinner alternatives.

All-in-all, this book really shows what comics can be, and as a fan both of good food and of Blain's art, this book was a breath of fresh air.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up on a whim from the new non-fiction shelf at the library, but once I got it home I just couldn't get interested in reading it. Finally, with my last renewal coming up I decided to give it a try - and I'm so glad I did. I have mixed feelings about graphic novels but this one I found to be fascinating. The look inside the life of a famous French chef was perfect in drawings. The way Passard pictures ingredients on the plate before cooking them, the ideas he has for his gardens, the way the kitchen is run - all were such interesting and new ideas for me. The recipes sound delicious but aren't really something I am interested in trying at home for the most part, but I appreciate the new way I've discovered at looking at food (in particular, vegetables) and just a new way of seeing in general. Very recommended.

[Ame · Rating 5 out of 5]

I stumbled upon this graphic novel while casually browsing our library's OverDrive selections, and good grief! I'm STARVING. Passard's descriptions of presenting food, tasting food, cooking it, and later in the book, all about growing it. This is THE book to help anyone develop a passion for the art of cuisine. What I love is Passard's scholastic passion towards using not only the freshest food, but growing it in the ideal environment. At one point, he explains to Blain that he had his gardeners plant turnip seeds in three separate farming locations so he could evaluate the turnips by look, raw taste, cooked taste, and blended taste and determine which location would yield the most flavorful and beautiful product. Absolutely fascinating stuff.