Le Suquet Laguiole - FRANCE
Voyage and Anchorage
If the Aubrac of Sébastien Bras is his reference point, the chef at Le Suquet retains an open-minded, uncomplicated, contemporary vision of it, enabling him to freely incorporate the influences and ideas which he brings back from his travels around the world.
"To open my mind, my heart, my senses, there is nothing better than travel."
Japan is certainly one of the cultures whose influences have marked the chef. "It took me several years to understand the vastness of the differences in texture in a grain of rice and the role salt plays in this" concedes Sébastien Bras. I love visiting Japan, because I always come back enriched with something, which may emerge much later in the construction of a dish, a seasoning, a combination. This was true in the case of miso, a taste that you find everywhere in Japan and one that I initially disliked, but which I'm now keen to share with our customers, now that I have become aware, thanks to numerous producers, of its different varieties, white, brown, strong, mild...
"I often think about umami as well, the fifth taste which sits alongside acid, bitter, sweet and salty, very widespread in Japan. Its underlying effect is to balance and harmonise the integrality of the flavours of a dish. This sometimes guides my choices when, for example, I use a pastre infusion (literally "a sack of pigs' bones", a type of charcuterie unique to Laguiole) or I add a touch of anchovy to a sauce.
But sometimes voyages of discovery are nearer at hand. "With my brigades, all very cosmopolitain, we are always mixing ideas as well as ingredients and putting the gastronomic world to rights. Which can lead to fortuitous combinations, such as recently, a chocolate-chilli sauce of Mexican inspiration, destined to elope with a piece of prime Aubrac beef. For, whilst Aubrac remains my anchorage, it often serves as both the point of departure and the destination of my voyages."
