[INTERVIEW] Michelin-star French chef shares champagne’s versatility with Korean cooks

French great consuming chef Pierre Gagnaire, globally renowned with 13 Michelin stars and 15 consuming locations worldwide, has welcomed six Korean culinary talents into the Perrier-Jouet Society, an distinctive world circle promoting the celebrated champagne mannequin.

Pierre Gagnaire speaks all through an interview with The Korea Events at Pierre Gagnaire restaurant at Lotte Resort Seoul, Thursday, with different editions of Perrier-Jouet displayed in entrance of him. Courtesy of Pernod Ricard

Gagnaire, the worldwide ambassador of Perrier-Jouet, met the Korean talents in Seoul on Thursday, sharing insights on how the champagne is perhaps paired with and improve the usual of gourmand dishes, along with Korean delicacies, additionally referred to as „hansik.“ Liquor importer Pernod Ricard Korea, which distributes Perrier-Jouet, appointed the Korean Michelin-star cooks as part of its efforts to develop the society into Korea.

Celebrity cooks from France, Japan, Italy, Spain and Hong Kong have already joined the society, sharing ideas on great consuming that features the champagne, which has been cherished since 1811.

“The Korean cooks are superb ambassadors of hansik. I shared with them many ideas on how Perrier-Jouet is perhaps paired with different meals,” Gagnaire talked about all through an interview with The Korea Events at Pierre Gagnaire, his eponymous restaurant at Lotte Resort Seoul.

The 75-year-old chef, who opened his first restaurant in Saint-Etienne, France, in 1993, has taken on the operate of mentor for the Korean cooks. He emphasised that every his culinary philosophy and Perrier-Jouet place good significance on the pure environment. Since 2017, he has been introducing pairing applications for the champagne. He moreover highlighted that vineyards throughout the Champagne space in France, which give Perrier-Jouet, had been formally acknowledged for sustainable farming in 2016 and stopped using herbicides in 2019.

Miguel Pascual, promoting and advertising director of Pernod Ricard Korea, talked about Gagnaire’s apprenticeship will help the Korean cooks “present an unprecedented diploma of great consuming that choices explicit pairing applications with Perrier-Jouet.”

Gagnaire talked about champagne, as compared with whisky or wine, is further delicate referring to meals pairings. He talked about a drop of whisky stays unchanged in top quality when heated all through cooking, nonetheless champagne vanishes and turns into ineffective. That’s the rationale champagne needs to be used on the final stage to guard its top quality.

“Perrier-Jouet has a low alcohol diploma and balanced acidity so it goes properly, notably with seafood and seasonal greens,” Gagnaire talked about. “Each Perrier-Jouet model has a singular floral aroma that gives a fragile steadiness to a dish. Perrier-Jouet Blanc de Blancs, as an example, pairs utterly with oyster, clam, mussel, scallop or shellfish.”

Gagnaire admitted he didn’t start off properly as a chef. Inheriting his father’s restaurant, which he initially had no must run, he labored with no clear purpose or passion at first. Nonetheless, when he discovered that he would possibly infuse ingenious which suggests into each of his culinary creations, he turned deeply devoted to French gastronomy.

“I ground my life and soul to this restaurant in Saint-Etienne. Nonetheless when the city’s commerce slumped, my enterprise didn’t go so properly each,” he talked about. “Nonetheless you perceive, demise solely kills us and each factor else makes us stronger. I spotted my lesson there.”

Pierre Gagnaire, center, poses with six Korean cooks who’ve been appointed as new ambassadors for the Perrier-Jouet Society at Pierre Gagnaire restaurant at Lotte Resort Seoul, Thursday. Courtesy of Pernod Ricard

That led him to think about that meals provides happiness to all patrons and that it must be cooked with a chef’s true emotions. His key elements are the merchandise of Mother Nature.

“Nature dictates my delicacies and gives it which suggests. The right elements are those that evoke the season and the soil from which they sprang, these magical merchandise cultivated with love for nature, the terroir and the native climate,” Gagnaire talked about.

He added that native climate change has affected his dishes. It has made elements rarer and costlier, as fish and poultry are smaller in measurement because of have an effect on of native climate conditions on their growth.

“Nonetheless I must protect inventing new strategies to utilize what’s obtainable at my arms to keep up making my shoppers happy,” he talked about. “I’ve grown earlier nonetheless I really feel my means to fashion has extra sharpened, notably with drinks.”