The power and freshness of expression of the sauce
Georges Blanc’s cuisine claims to be classic, an embassy of French taste – people come from the four corners of the world to enjoy it – but it does not shy away from side roads, from innovations based on great products according to the seasons. The imagination of the cook is in ambush.
When Lafont suggested that he create this original dish in connection with his region, the chef thought of the petit-gris snails of Jean-Luc Martin in Quincieux, another quality supplier with whom the inn works. A creation for the occasion. “It’s a first to have made this forest stuffed cabbage with spring morels and snails. I wanted to give a little unusual touch to two traditional dishes by marrying them in a particularly tasty and unexpected preparation”, he enthuses, adding immediately, “I prefer a cuisine that delights to a cuisine that surprises”.
The sauce expresses my personality, it is in a way the living language of the dish. Without sauce, there is no French cuisine
The recipe in pictures
Cooking chicken is a matter for the experts. The chef advises to take the chicken out of the oven at 2/3 of the cooking time, and to lift the legs which are put back in the dish with the cooking juice. The whites finish cooking on the boat, for 18 minutes, at 185 degrees.
“With the legs and the carcass that remain, we make a fricassee in a lot of butter, an aromatic garnish, a light veil of flour, we make blond and we wet the roux with white wine and cream. The liquid element of the dish that composes the base of the sauce, will recover the cooking juices, which will give a lot of taste. The chicken will cook in the cream and the wine, then we will decant the pieces in a sieve before adjusting the seasoning. The sauce is finished.
The green cabbage leaves are blanched, the rest of the cabbage is sliced and browned in butter as a well candied compote, to which are added the snails, very soft, previously short-boiled, chopped with a knife, to garnish the cabbage. The small morels, just steamed with a bit of buttered shallot, are arranged as a garnish when the dish is served.
Georges Blanc
Georges Blanc, born on January 2, 1943, in Bourg-en-Bresse in the Ain, is one of the French chefs, restaurateurs and hoteliers from the village of Vonnas in the heart of the Bresse region. Three stars in the MICHELIN Guide and 4 toques in the Gault-Millau.