After a first autumn-winter season, released in January 2021, narrated among others by chef Cyril Lignac, Audible's audio culinary program, “Sound Chef”, is backing up by inviting Thierry Marx for its summer edition.
In the first episode of this second season, the chef of the restaurant at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Paris is in the kitchen for a recipe for Caesar Bread Maki.
The sound format proposed by "Sound Chef" is also an opportunity for Thierry Marx to recall the importance of hearing and oral transmission in the kitchen.
The sound of an apron being tied, bread crunching and oil simmering, then a familiar voice: "Hello, this is Thierry Marx, welcome to my kitchens". For
Sound Chef's
Summer season
, Audible invited the French cook, chef of the restaurant at the Mandarin Oriental hotel, behind the stove.
Imagined by Audible - Amazon's audiobooks and audio creation app - this paid culinary program offers a unique sensory experience: being guided by the voices of great chefs in gastronomy in the creation of original dishes.
For the autumn-winter season of
Sound Chef
, released in January 2021, some listeners had already been able to be accompanied step by step for ten recipes by the voice of Cyril Lignac.
In this new summer edition, the listener joins Thierry Marx's brigade with a first episode based on a Caesar Bread Maki recipe: sandwich bread makis, stuffed with Caesar salad.
Recipes accessible to all levels
Unlike a cooking tutorial, or a cooking show on television,
Sound Chef
does not include a visual.
Only a list of necessary ingredients, available for each episode, accompanies the voice of Thierry Marx.
For the choice of his recipes, the chef therefore favored simplicity: "I imposed myself a constraint: not to choose dishes with too many ingredients and with complicated techniques".
The cook then opts for everyday recipes, made quickly with few gestures, accessible to any level of cooking and which only require low-cost ingredients.
"If the name sounds technical, Bread Maki is simply cooking in bread, so a sandwich with salad", specifies Thierry Marx.
Sound transmission
In the kitchen, all the senses are awakened: the sight, to observe the dressing of a plate, the smell to smell the sweet trickle of a dish out of the oven, the touch to appreciate the texture of a good crust of bread and of course the taste, to discover new flavors.
But what about hearing?
What role does it play in gastronomy?
“Hearing is a strong benchmark when cooking.
When the crackling of a vegetable which begins to simmer in hot butter ceases, it means that it is almost cooked because it has no more water, ”explains Thierry Marx.
In his kitchens, the chef therefore imposes a golden rule on his employees: silence.
"Far be it from me to punish them!" He jokes.
But this makes it possible not to be disturbed or distracted at the moment of the shot by narratives that have nothing to do with the work.
"
For Thierry Marx, sound is also important when learning a recipe: “The great chefs have been trained in voice, a bit like Japanese martial arts: observe and shut up, learn and understand and then you can innovate ”.
With its audio recipe format, Sound Chef uses these codes of traditional oral transmission and thus simplifies the process of assimilating a technique or a dish.
A very particular storytelling work
Faced with the success of his book
The Dragonfly Strategy
, released in 2018, Thierry Marx was contacted by Audible to publish his work as an audio book.
“I called on Alain Fromager for the narration because I didn't dare record my own voice.
So when I was offered to repeat the experience for Sound Chef, quite frankly, I wasn't very excited either because I found the writing exercise very difficult.
But I don't like to lag behind in innovation.
And it was a good way to disseminate the cuisine in a different way, for people who are not too readers.
», He confides.
Trained mainly in the voice, Thierry Marx had to work on his writing and use a very visual narration to guide the listener at best in the recipe: “If I am talking about a molecular apple pie, you don't know what it is. Whereas if I tell you about my grandmother's apple pie, immediately you imagine apples laid out a bit coarsely and lightly burnt on the side because in general grandma's ovens do not work well. The dishes of great chefs are often complicated because they do not know how to explain them, or even do not know how to write them. The choice of words is important, you have to use mental images to facilitate understanding, ”he explains.
With its sought-after sound environment,
Sound Chef
is reminiscent of ASMR - Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, or culminating autonomous sensory response - this relaxing auditory content appreciated by many listeners on the Internet.
No excuse, therefore, to put on your apron and cook!
Be careful not to let yourself be disturbed by the parasitic noise of our growling belly.
Culture
"Top Chef": In Nantes, Sarah reopened her restaurant with a new "genius but strange" notoriety
Culture
“Gourmet chefs, we all have to gain from doing street food”, says Mory Sacko
Cooked
Podcast
Culture