march-2010

on the go
FAST FOOD FRANCE
Some of the world’s best chefs are starting to produce convenience
food, and the French are leading the way
LEFT: Chef Sylvain Girot
preparing a burger at Ouest
Express in Lyon
ABOVE: A Michel Bras takeaway
smoked trout capucin.
The salmon-like colour comes
from the smoking process
The motorway service
station at the Millau Viaduct is quite
unlike any other on earth. First, there is
the view over architect Norman Foster’s
spectacular bridge. This magnifi cent
construction seems to fl oat in mid-air,
hanging from elegant cables that appear
to disappear into the clouds. Then there
is the service station itself, which may
offer the best sliproad snacking
anywhere in the world.
The food is the creation of Michel
Bras, a Frenchman who has a
restaurant in the town of Laguiole in
southern France that was voted the
seventh-best in the world in 2008. His
efforts at the Millau Viaduct have
almost entirely revamped the concept
of motorway service food. Out go the
grisly burgers and wilting chicken
salads. In come cones of crêpe-like
capucin batter fi lled with local foie gras
and mushrooms, or with Laguiole
cheese and apricot chutney, or smoked
trout with lettuce or slithers of lamb
and bulgur wheat.
The drinks are also a local affair.
From Aveyron lemonade to local grape
juice, Coke and Pepsi are yet to break
through. And it all works because
people get to taste the work of a
Michelin-starred creator for a handful
of euros. This is slow food done quickly.
But Bras is not alone. Other
renowned French names have joined
the fast food revolution, such as one-
Michelin star chef Jean-Luc Rabanel. In
2009, he opened a sandwich shop in
Arles called PÂN, with the plan of
“revamping the traditional ham
sandwich.” And how would he do
this? “It’s a question of using your
skill to prepare the kind of food you
would normally serve on a plate – but
serving it between two slices of bread
instead,” he explains.
This philosophy permeates the
whole movement. It’s about taking
the traditional rules of haute cuisine,
like cooking to order, using seasonal
ingredients and setting a menu
according to what is freshest at that
morning’s market, and applying them
to more convenient forms of food.
And if you’re ever passing by Arles,
the confi t-of-foie-gras-with-Espelettechilli-pepper-accompanied-bycaramelised-Balsamic-vinegar-andcandied-orange
sandwich is really
rather good.
As this is haute cuisine, style is
as important as substance. At Miyou, a
fast food joint at Paris Charles de Gaulle
Airport launched by Guy Martin (two
Michelin stars), sandwiches come in
trendy, black-studded, transparent
zipped packets, and the venue itself – all
oak, ebony, glass and stone fi ttings –
looks perfectly at home between Cartier
and Dior.
“It’s what’s known as life’s little
everyday luxuries,” says Anne-Claire
Paré, an expert in catering industry
trends. “We live in an age of the
FAST Holland Herald 37
Words: Emmanuelle Jary/Inner France. Photography: Jean-François Mallet/Inner France