Chef Pascal Barbot – The Quirky Chef Who Loves Milk

By Matthew Goudge

Unpretentious, unassuming, humble, genius – those are the words that Chef Pascal Barbot’s colleagues would use to describe L’Astrance chef. They are not far off the mark. Chef Barbot possesses exactly those characteristics and more. He is driven by his insatiable curiosity for culinary arts and his innate desire to offer something new evertytime.

With this kind of drive, it is not surprising that he has managed to create a name for L’Astrance as one of the best restaurnats in France. If asked though to comment on his achievements, Chef Barbot would just like shrug his shoulders. He wouldn’t regale you with his accomplishments. He wouldn’t even likely tell you that his restaurant secured the 11^th spot in this year’s El Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants list.

You wouldn’t know if you would just talk to him that his restaurant is one of the hottest dining establishments in Paris. It’ll take you a month before you could get a table reseravation – and this was before the restaurant earned its Michelin stars. It is even much harder to get a reservation these days with the restaurant earning Michelin stars and Barbot winning Chef of the Year.

The Milk and Barbot

Barbot loves his milk. He loves to use it in practically every dish that he prepares. This is the one ingredients that has flirted with every other ingredients in Chef Barbot’s cooking. It’s amazing what he can create from milk and other ingredients. This is not really surprising if you know where he hails from. He is actually from Auvergine. In this part of France, people are fond of using milk in their cooking. In fact, they use milk in practically everything! Chef Barbot grew up drinking, eating and using milk. Naturally, he also learned how to use it in his cooking. You should definitely try his carrot puree. It is one of his most wonderful milk dishes.

The Magic of Barbot’s Cooking

Aside from using milk, Chef Barbot also insists on using the freshest local ingredients. He personally scours food markets in order to look for the finest ingredients. He likes foraging for unique items that he can use. He likes exotic or in-season ingredients. This is why you wouldn’t find menu in L’Astrance. The selections vary depending on the available ingredients for the day. His daily outing consists of personally visiting several local markets. He buys vegetables in Rungis. He searches for fruits in the markets of Iena. He gets his meats from Marche. He often buys by the bulk. For Chef Pascal Barbot, cooking is the finest form of art. This is why you can only expect the best from him.

Image Source: lo-mejor-de-la-gastro

About the Author:

Chef Matthew, the owner of ProChef360Blog.com, is an expert in culinary arts.  He is after all an outstanding chef, having had worked in some of the finest resorts, hotels and restaurants in the world.  His interest, however, in social media was awakened when he started his own websites.  Over the years, he took it upon himself to learn everything he can about social media.
He endeavored to discover the secrets behind generating huge traffic and leads for his websites.  He studied the secrets behind generating sales by piggy-backing on high-traffic social media sites.  Over time, he has developed 77 techniques on how to generate huge amount of traffic through the use of social media.

Articles Source: Chef Pascal Barbot – The Quirky Chef Who Loves Milk

Top Chef Winners – Where Are They Now?

On the 25^th of February, Hosea Rosenberg was declared winner of Top Chef.  This was the fifth season of this world-famous show.  It doesn’t matter if you are residing outside the United States; you probably know what the show is.  It’s hard not to know.  It’s even harder not to take notice.  These winners end up with $100,000.  But does this mean that he or she is bound to join the ranks of Ferran Adria and Alain Ducasse anytime soon?  Where are the other winners?  What has happened to them?

Harold Dieterle (First Season Winner)

Harold was the winner of the first season of Top Chef.  Many would agree that he is the most successful of all the show’s winners.  Using the money he won from the show, he opened his own restaurant in New York, the Perilla.  Over the last two years, this dining establishment has received steadily good reviews.  He has been able to keep his business running since 2007.  Curiously, he has shunned the limelight since he won the title.  He refuses to attend reunions, and he deliberately avoids association to the show.

Ilan Hall (Second Season Winner)

Prior to being Top Chef second season winner, Ilan was working at Casa Mono.  After winning the prize, he left the restaurant and went on a culinary exile.  He worked and traveled abroad before he finally settled in Los Angeles.  He worked as a private chef before he finally opened his own restaurant, The Gorbles.

Hung Huynh (Third Season Winner)

Prior to joining Top Chef, Hung Huynh worked as Guy Savoy’s executive sous chef.  After leaving the show, he accepted an executive chef position at Solo, a Mediterranean restaurant located in New York.  He was supposed to be the temporary chef, but his temporary position has seemingly lasted for more than six months now.  However, he does intend to set up his own restaurant where he would offer Asian-Mediterranean cuisine.

Stephanie Izard (Fourth Season Winner)

Stephanie has followed in the footsteps of the previous winners.  She intends to open her own Chicago restaurant, The Drunken Goat.  It is scheduled to open in November of this year.  She intends to offer moderately-priced Mediterranean cuisine.

Top Chef has more seasons to go.  We can only wonder what will happen to the next winners.  Will they live up to the expectations?  What about Hosea Rosenberg?  Will he open his own restaurant?  Will any of these winners join the ranks of the culinary masters one day – or will they always just be the “once-upon-a-time” Top Chef winners?