Frenchwoman wins in kitchen

 
To get away from Ségolène Royal and the gang, here is an item about another French woman who has made it in a male-dominated business. The small sisterhood of grands chefs is celebrating over the award of three Michelin stars to a ground-breaking self-taught cook. No Frenchwoman has won the culinary distinction since 1951.

Anne-Sophie Pic, 37, whose grandfather and father also held three stars at the family restaurant in southeastern France, was one of five newcomers to the elite 26-member group this year. Pic, a business school graduate who came relatively late to cooking, won back the third star that was earned by her grandfather before the war rbut lost after her father’s death in 1992.

She told us of her pride in restoring the award to the Maison Pic, a Relais & Châteaux hotel-restaurant in Valence. But she also hailed it as a victory for women.

“I had to fight because I was both the daughter of the boss and a woman,” she said. “I am an example for women who succeed in the kitchen. Cuisine has been a very male-chauvinist milieu for a long time in France but things are changing.  Women have a different sensibility from men in cuisine but we all have the same goal of excellence.”

Last year Pic won a court case brought against her by one of her father’s former chefs who claimed that he had been denied his trade union rights.

Pic, who specialises in fish and innovative cooking methods, was, with Hélène Darroze, one of two French women with two stars. Her three predecessors, Eugénie Brazier, Marie Bourgeois and Marguerite Bise, were part of the so-called movement of Lyon grandmothers of the 1930s50s. Their prominence was often ascribed to the loss of so many men of that generation in the First World War.

Five women chefs hold the top Michelin award in Italy and Spain. Quite a few French chefs still think that woman are as out of place in haute cuisine as at the controls of an aircraft or the baton of an orchestra. But Pic, who learnt on the job and never received training from her father, scoffed at the adage that men cook with technique and women with their hearts. “I have always done everything possible to be technically strong. It was a way of showing those who mocked me that I could make it,” she said.

The recognition of  Pic’s adventurous cooking was seen as part of an attempt by the Michelin guide, guardian of the French culinary temple, to move with the times after criticism for its conservatism and its excessive demands on restaurateurs. This reached a low point with the suicide in 2003 of Bernard Loiseau, who was depressed about having lost a star.

Among five old restaurants demoted yesterday was Taillevent, the Paris establishment that had held three stars since 1973. Le Cinq, the restaurant of the Hotel George V in Paris, also lost its third star.

Le Monde said that Pic’s award was highly symbolic because she had broken with the traditional methods that had made the Valence restaurant a legend for travellers on the “holiday road”, the old Route Nationale 7. While still specialising in fish, she had replaced its most famous dishes such as gratin d’écrevisses with pared-down modern dishes, including sea bass steamed over kelp, served with oyster bonbons, and milk mousse flavoured with rum. But the purists still disliked the hint of sugar in her fish, Le Monde said.

Comments

[peter kinsley www.peterkinsley.com]

Congratulations to Anne-Sophie Pic and welcome to the Guide. The only reason that French chefs have ever denigrated women chefs has nothing to do with their cuisine, but they claim that they have too much difficulty remembering a long and rapidly-dictated list of orders. French women are the greatest cooks in the world, and the French table leads the world, (followed by the Chinese and the Turkish) and French chefs are proud to the point of arrogance about their superiority. A friend complained about an underdone steak which brought the chef from the kitchen, wielding a large knife. "You Breetish burn your steaks, and you know nothing about cooking, and furthermore, your Christmas puddings do not last for ten years!" said he.

[Ros]

You're right Mr Bremner - let's get away from the "gang" if only for a few hours ! Your article was just perfect & you can see Pic on "Envoyé Special" this evening.

[Actu75]

The real dispute over steack cooking opposes french "pas comme une semelle de cuir" gourmets and argentinians "not like at the butcher" parilleros.

[Roger Goodacre]

No doubt the steamed sea bass is exquisite, but the elegant Mlle Pic looks a little too much like a dentist for my gastric liking! Something of a contrast with the jolly features and roly-poly physique of André or Jacques Pic - instant visual reassurance that you're in the hands of a gastronomic master.

What a contrast also between the sleek plate-glass premises of today and the humble roadside auberge of the 1930's, where André Pic opened his first restaurant before moving into Valence. Charles Trenet left a nice note in the visitors' book "qu'en cette époque épique, déjeuner chez Papa Pic c'est mieux que chanter Pic Pic Pic!"

Maybe Anne-Sophie Pic's cooking does 'vaut le détour', but let's hope the wheel turns and we see the return one day of the old Pic specialities which made its name - chausson aux truffes, ballotine de pigeons farcis et truffés, terrine de bécasse, poularde à l'ancienne and the 'incomparable' gratin de queues d'écrevisses, which made regular patrons of the Aga Khan and Charlie Chaplin among others.

[colin grayson]

well, sitting here in the spring sunshine on the costa del sol it all seems far away , but this has made me think .......the restaurants in france where I have enjoyed good wholesome food [ beautifully prepared but without the gimmicks ] have a lady at the helm in the kitchen

[Em]

Ah, enfin ! Something refreshing ! In a way I'm quite happy to live in England and escape the whole Presidential Elections campaign. Daily news on the French radio cover enough on the political show without having to read it in every single French newspaper and to watch it on TV.
I wonder how women chefs are doing in England...? Just out of curiosity.

[peter kinsley www.peterkinsley.com]

Woman chefs in England. Help! Do we not have enough men posing as chefs on our television screens? One lot making a horse race out of cooking, with the audience chanting five...four...three...two..one,and that nice Jamie Oliver popping his culinery effort into a fiery wood burning oven in Italy and bringing out cinders, and holding a mess of mixed herbs and the Italian onlooker saying: "What are you going to do with that? On the fish! But you will ruin the taste of the fish!" Three fresh fish on a plate have three distinct flavours, but Rick Stein takes any newly-caught fish and smothers it with herbs and sauces. Can't British cooks realise that the flavour is in the food, and you do not have to disguise it or change it with added spices, sauces, etc. Leave it alone! You don't put a Provencal sauce on an Aberdeen Angus steak or a freshly caught fish. The French in Normandy dumped mountains of potatoes (grown by intensive farming) on roads, and, asked why, they replied: "They have no flavour". Just like American supermarket food...

[Em]

>, no I don't mean media chefs, but the ones we don't see on TV, the ones that get recognition from their peers.
And yes I agree about flavours and keeping it simple.

[peter kinsley www.peterkinsley.com]

They exist, EM, but are well hidden, and they are Welsh, Scottish, Irish and English making their own regional cooking. I knew a Scots woman who would spend five hours in the kitchen every Saturday and amaze every guest: beef, lamb, pork, etc with five veg. In with the roast meat: onions, par-boiled potatoes and parsnips, cooked in dripping, not oil. Have you ever tasted "Singin' Hinnies?" from the North-East of England? They are crisp dumplings in minced beef and onions, and they do "sing" while they cook. We all love Delia and Nigella, of course, but the gorgeous N. is killing a generation with fresh cream, clotted cream, butter and sugar, and the poor lass is growing sideways as a result. But, like the ladies mentioned above, she took her recipes from her grandmother. Surely the best way of all for girls to learn.

[Firozali A. Mulla MBA PhD]

EM or AM or PM
Let me have her tel no
or email
even snail mail will do.
What is she doing all alone? She is pretty. That is one thing I can swear on. Rest God knows.
She is preetyyy preetyty

[Firozali A.Mulla MBA PhD]

No Frenchwoman has won the culinary distinction since 1951.
Anne-Sophie Pic, 37
Say how time flies. From 1951 when she was born Anne now 37 is stiill winding the ponytail and Peter Kinsley www.peterkinsley.comon 22 Feb 2007 at 10:49:16 exactly talks so good about the ferench food and the bakers. I admit Anne is pretty and is still looking pretty from 57. But the French part and the English "You Breetish burn your steaks, and Chinese and the Turkish
French table leads the world,Thable has got nothing to do with the eating. I do not eat Tables. So can we keep these out.
French chefs are proud to the point of arrogance about their superiority. Yes are they not? It is the Language they speak. So sweet. VEE Monsioure, Yu wan seet pie, no, The HASSHH PEEE (HP) very hot these days, yes, no, How beeeeautiful the climate todat no? I like to sweem in the river Thams yes, THE LIPS ALWYS MOVING OPEN WITH YES AND NO, It times I feel like sayin NO NO NO NO NOT HASSSS PEEEE it IS HP. A friend complained about an underdone steak which brought the chef from the kitchen, wielding a large knife.French show bigger cucumber also, they too proud of te Cabbges and the porridge pots., but we talk abour Anee. She pretty No, Yes. and you know nothing about cooking, May Be I dont beacuse the MacDonds are near mt house..and furthermore, your Christmas puddings do not last for ten years!" It does it I put in the plasma TV Yes, No!! I say... said he.