INTERVIEW
Roquefort terrine, marinière of scallops with lager beer, duck pie with foie gras, iced nougat ... Under these slightly humorous titles are hidden quite simple recipes, within everyone's reach. The great chef Pierre Gagnaire has just published Les Copains, first at Solar, 80 recipes that are meant to be convivial, specially imagined for evenings with friends, in good spirits. Invited on Monday of Ça fait du bien , Anne Roumanoff's program on Europe 1, Pierre Gagnaire told how cooking for his friends had allowed him to overcome an unhealthy shyness and to open up to others.
"I was more than shy, I was someone completely paralyzed," says the cook. Educated by particularly authoritarian parents, Pierre Gagnaire hardly mixes with others. Having become a young apprentice cook - more by family tradition than by desire - he hardly succeeds in blossoming in the sometimes brutal world of catering. The trigger, however, occurs during a New Year's Eve with friends. Pierre Gagnaire was barely 17 years old at the time.
>> Find all of Anne Roumanoff's programs in replay and podcast here
"And there, suddenly, I became the hero of the evening"
"I find myself in the mountains on December 31, with friends, and in the evening we had nothing planned," he said. "I open the fridge, and with the few things lying around, I managed to please this little assembly," recalls the cook. "And there, suddenly, I who was shy, reserved, fearful, worried and not very skilful with the girls, I became the hero of the evening. I had saved this Christmas Eve!"
This adventure made Pierre Gagnaire realize that if he was not very clever with words, his gift for cooking could allow him to communicate what he could not formulate. "I understood that cooking had an incredible power of seduction on people, a terrible emotional power", continues Pierre Gagnaire. "With cooking you can talk, tell stories. You can say to others, 'I love you'."