‘I really liked the flavours of rice and lentils in India’
Nascimento Pinto
It is easy to get intimidated by Michelin star chef Philippe Conticini’s stature but it is even easier to be overcome by his humility as he passionately speaks about his one true love — desserts. “Over the last 35 years, I have been trying to re-innovate with the help of my philosophy, pastry and chocolate and always ask the question, ‘Why am I doing this?’” says Chef Conticini, who opened his first restaurant, the now Michelin-starred La Table d’Anvers, in Paris, in May 1986.
In India for a collaboration to create a mind-boggling chocolate, the 56-year-old goes on to emphasise that while making pastry and chocolate, it is important to have two aspects in place. The first is the technique to arrive to the finality and the second is the kind of sensation one wants to evoke in a person when they taste the dessert.
“I think about how I can incorporate my sensibility with ingredients and technique, and they are really important for me when I work on a pastry or a chocolate,” he adds. Talking of one of his favourite creations, the Frenchman says he doesn’t know why but the sensation of white chocolate, basil, lemon and jasmine tea always intrigued him. It all started in 2009, when he opened La Pâtisserie des Rêves in Paris. Being the perfectionist that he is, he immediately knew it was going to be perfect, but also that it might take long and taste different from the last time he tried it but finally achieved it.
What he is working on right now? Inspired by India, Conticini says, “I am going to take the flavours of India back with me, and get the sensation without actually using the ingredients.” He adds, “I really liked the flavours of rice and lentils (the southern Indian dish pongal) and I am going to work on perfecting that flavour when I go to France.”
Conticini doesn’t want to try replicating Indian food, which he ate while he was here — it is all about this culture and story and not his, love it as he might. Likewise, he has never used Japanese or American produce even, and only taken the feelings the food evoked in him, back home to Paris.
It is evident by now that Conticini loves to experiment, and there is definitely a new flavour at every stage, so has he ever made an accidental creation? While it wasn’t really accidental, in 2009 to 2010, he worked on a French classic pastry called Paris-Brest, which uses buttercream and he didn’t want to use the amount of fat it usually has and yet retain the sensation. “I realised that I could replace part of fat by air. Using fish gelatin, I was able to incorporate a lot of air into the cream without losing any of the density,” he says. “So, when you put it in your mouth, you have the sensation of buttercream with 70% less fat,” he adds.
Conticini tells us that he is currently working on his winter pastry menu. But he doesn’t want to limit himself to one season. Starting his famous pâtisserie in India isn’t on the cards for now but it could happen in the future, hopefully. As far as London is concerned, the chef informs us he could take his La Pâtisserie des Rêves to the English capital because “it all fell in place”.
So, with so many aspiring pastry chefs in the world looking to make it big, what is the one piece of advice that he would give them? “Two important things — one is technique and the second is to discover themselves, and, in fact, to put what they are deeply into what they do because that is art,” he says.
CONTICINI DOESN’T WANT TO TRY REPLICATING INDIAN FOOD, WHICH HE ATE WHILE HE WAS HERE. IT IS ALL ABOUT THIS CULTURE AND STORY AND NOT HIS, HE SAYS