The Oscars may have decided to serve a 70% plant-based menu this year, but chef Wolfgang Puck, at the helm of one of Hollywood’s most prestigious parties for the 26th year, will not give up some of his classics, like caviar, wagyu beef or its famous "statuettes" with smoked salmon.
"We work all the products because even if many people like vegan food, the vast majority still eat meat, fish and everything", explains the Austro-American chef at AFP, presenting his recipes in the building where the Oscars will take place on February 9.
A chef trained in France
Trained in traditional cuisine in France, where he studied in prestigious restaurants before emigrating to the United States, Wolfgang Puck, 70, insists that he is not himself vegan, which does not prevent him from liking to cook vegetable products. “It's also fun for us. We want everyone to be happy and finally we can make vegan food that really tastes without regretting the meat or the fish, ”he says.
At the head of a gastronomic empire of dozens of restaurants, from Beverly Hills to Singapore via the United Kingdom, Wolfgang Puck already offers “vegan tasting menus” in his establishments and says that he had little trouble s 'adapt to this last minute change decided by the Oscars.
18 more vegetable dishes
"It's easy because we have all the chefs from our different restaurants that I can call and ask," What do you make as a vegan dish? "Says Wolfgang Puck. As a result, the chef and his armada of cooks were able to add 18 vegetable dishes to the menu they had already concocted in preparation for the gala dinner which will be served to some 1,500 guests.
The sweet potato tempura with a mint aioli and coriander will be among the appetizers with the miniature wagyu burger, signature of chef Puck. And the black truffle chicken pie will have as much of a place on the plates as the tagine and couscous with vegetables or the eggplants in Hunan sauce on a bed of black rice.
"We used a lot of almond milk and coconut milk"
For pastries, depriving yourself of butter and eggs, "all the raw materials that make an exquisite dessert", is always a heartbreaker for French pastry chef Kamel Guechida. "So we used a lot of almond milk and coconut milk, and there are lots of techniques to get around these difficulties by finding a substitute," he explains.
A chance for him and the team of 25 pastry chefs he leads for the Oscars, the chocolate maker Valrhona from whom he buys already offers vegan chocolate, strawberry or yuzu, to allow him to make the famous golden statuettes in chocolate imitating that of the Oscars. Around 5,000 will be produced for the evening of February 9, i.e. some 400 kg of chocolate.
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