Or rather: two chefs, one dish, as Salmon with Sorrel (Saumon à l'oseille) is an iconic
French dish, created by the no less iconic chefs, the brothers Jean et Pierre Troisgros...
The Troigros
brothers ran a Michelin 3-star restaurant, the address of which was famous all
over the world, by the Roanne railway station. Despite Jean’s death and
Pierre’s retirement, the restaurant still exists and proudly displays its three
3 Michelin stars obtained for the first time in 1968. Only one restaurant in
the world has been showing the highest global culinary recognition for a longer
period of time, and this is another myth, the Paul Bocuse’s restaurant near
Lyon, since 1965. However, unavoidable compromise to modernity, the Troisgros recently
quit the place de la gare de Roanne and was relocated to a beautiful estate
in the countryside of Roanne. It is now run by one of Pierre’s sons, Michel, who
has very brilliantly continued the tradition of excellence initiated by his
father and his uncle since, on top of keeping the three stars, he was elected
by his pairs as the “best chef in the world” in 2018.
The idea behind the saumon à l’oseille is in fact
very basic. Jean and Pierre Troisgros just had the idea to associate abundant early
fall products, the sorrel growing in August and September and the salmons running
up the Loire river to hatch… well for
the salmons, this was before numerous dams were built to canalize the river.
Well, like would like, I did somehow the same thing, taking
advantage of both the sorrel that grows like a weed in our garden and the run
of Coho salmons in our favorite grocery store. For this recipe, albeit a few
personal twists, I was inspired by three chefs, Troisgros obviously, the
regretted Joël Robuchon, and Thierry Marx, an innovating 2-star chef.
For instance, I stole Marx's idea of marinating for a couple
of hours the raw salmon in a mix of coarse sea salt, pepper and sorrel leaves
(those three ingredients being crushed together to literally "melt"
the sorrel). Through this treatment, the salmon is infused with the sorrel
flavor and is also precooked. Obviously, I rinsed it abundantly afterwards. I
prepared a reduced sauce with shallots, sorrel leaves, Noilly Prat (a French
dry vermouth), a dry white wine (Sauvignon blanc), and crème fraiche added at
the last minute. I seared the salmon à l'unilatérale, on the skin side, for
around three minutes. Needless to cook it longer or to flip it as it was
already "salt-cooked". Served with steamed potatoes (or with
tagliatelle as also featured here), a chiffonade of raw chopped sorrel leaves,
the sorrel sauce... and an olive tomato for the color!
Aa great dish proving that sophistication lies also in
simplicity…
Nice piece on a classic nouvelle cuisine dish
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