Bocuse on the Menu

This weekend (20 January 2018), Paul Bocuse passed away in his native village near Lyon at the age of 91: the personification of nouvelle cuisine. His influence on French gastronomy is unparalleled, as is his legacy. As a tribute, these Amsterdam restaurants are putting Bocuse’s classics on the menu.

‘A butcher in the kitchen, but a god in France.’ With these words, chef Ferry van Houten talks about his mentor Paul Bocuse in de Volkskrant. In the early 1980s, Van Houten worked in the kitchen of L’Auberge du Pont de Collonges*** near Lyon. He remembers that period as an extremely tough school, while also recalling Bocuse’s eccentricities, such as his collection of barrel organs, which he was only too happy to display. 

‘Just break the crust, Mr President’

As a tribute to his mentor, Van Houten is serving the famous soupe aux truffes at his restaurant Het Bosch from today: a beef consommé en croûte with black truffle and foie gras. Bocuse first served this legendary dish in 1975 to the then-president Valéry Giscard D’Estaing, who had awarded him the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur – the highest and most important French distinction – earlier that day.

Poulet en vessie

Paul Bocuse was one of the founding figures of nouvelle cuisine: the eclectic style of cooking characterised, among other things, by the use of fresh ingredients, regional dishes as inspiration and unusual flavour combinations. That is, compared with the classic French cuisine as we know it from the first half of the twentieth century.

A dish in which these elements come together superbly is poulet en vessie: Bresse chicken poached in a pig’s bladder with black truffle demi deuil (under the skin), white wine and foie gras. A variation on this Bocuse house speciality will be on the menu at Kaagman & Kortekaas from Tuesday 22 January. Available to order for a minimum of two people.

Alain Caron and Peter Lute prepare the poulet en vessie, not in a pig’s bladder but in a beef bladder