Anne-Sophie Pic: The Illusionist of French Gastronomy
Once she has the mix of flavors right in her head, Ms. Pic goes to her cooking school on Tuesday mornings with her second-in-command. The school is closed then, so she has the run of the stainless-steel kitchen, with the Gaggenau appliances all to herself. She is meticulous in preparing to taste the test dish. She wears no perfume, so no scent will disrupt her senses, and she always cleanses her palate with Earl Grey or green tea.
She takes a first bite, and then a second and a third. “The first spoonful is always deceptive because your taste buds are just warming up,” Ms. Pic said. She is always the first to voice an opinion of the dish. “I don’t want to be conditioned by other reactions.”
Ms. Pic said that it often takes as many as six trials to fine tune a recipe. She records her impressions of each taste test in a Moleskine notebook and takes a picture of her creation. “Cooking is all about thinking, reflecting and writing it down,” Ms. Pic said, pointing to a wall in the restaurant decorated with her father’s handwritten menus.
(Source: The Wall Street Journal)
