Sustainable Gastronomy Day - Interview with Elouan Trehin.
- Terraquota
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
Let’s be honest: Sustainable Gastronomy Day is partly an excuse to conduct this mouthwatering interview. We’re thrilled to discuss this with Elouan Trehin, one of the most talked-about young chefs in the South of France, who was spotted by Gault&Millau just two years after he started out. As it happens, he is also Hélène’s cousin.
Sustainable Gastronomy Day comes with the usual advice: eat local, eat seasonal, honor tradition, and waste less. We wanted to talk about it with someone who’s made it his career.
First, we'd like to get to know you through your cooking: What's your favorite dish on the menu right now, and why?
My favorite dish on the current menu is the one featuring Sète mussels. I cook them very quickly to preserve their exceptionally tender texture, then smoke them over dried wild fennel wood. I pair them with a slightly spicy parsley pistou, raw rhubarb for acidity, and a gel made from lacto-fermented rhubarb peels. I finish the dish with a velvety vinaigrette made with fresh wild fennel. It’s a very fresh, fragrant, and ocean-inspired dish, built around acidity. A truly seasonal dish, particularly enjoyable to savor right now.
We are fortunate to be able to work with many local producers, which gives us a wide variety of products.
And what is your customers' favorite dish right now, and why do you think that is?
The most popular dish right now is the duck pithivier with foie gras and black trumpet mushrooms. It’s a fairly traditional dish, but one that requires great precision, both in assembly and in cooking. It’s served with a sauce made from duck drippings thickened with duck hearts. It’s a hearty, indulgent, and comforting dish; I think that’s exactly what our customers love about it.
What are two ingredients that a particular season has given you at the same time, that you would never have thought to combine, yet which worked very well together?
Actually, there aren’t two ingredients, but three: parsley, bergamot, and chocolate. These are the ingredients that make up a dessert I came up with at the beginning of the year, which has become, if I may say so, one of our house specialties.
Is working locally sometimes a constraint, or rather the opposite? A clear framework that actually gives you more freedom to innovate?
We are fortunate to be able to work with many local producers, which gives us a wide variety of products. Of course, our geographic location imposes certain limitations, and we can’t have everything. But that’s also what allows us to reflect our region in our menus and to create dishes based on those constraints. It’s a particularly interesting and educational exercise in developing a personal and cohesive culinary style.
If you had to give us just one tip for our office lunches, what would it be?
Meals play a very important role in our workdays. I sincerely believe that eating well contributes to happiness, and therefore to well-being at work. We should try to eat ethically and support local producers as much as possible, without ever giving up on indulging our taste buds. We all crave a delicious chocolate mousse or some french fries from time to time, and we definitely shouldn’t deny ourselves those treats. The key is to prepare them with high-quality, fresh ingredients.
I sincerely believe that eating well contributes to happiness, and therefore to well-being at work.
What question would you like to be asked more often?
“Do you have doubts?” I think that’s the question I’d like people to ask us more often. Doubt is an integral part of our profession: it pushes us to question ourselves, to grow, and to keep searching for new ideas.
What do you eat at home?
I’m not very good at this, because I often skip meals. And when I do take the time to eat, it’s more like a snack than a real meal. That said, I always make sure to use high-quality ingredients. In fact, working on slightly more elaborate meals for my wife and me is one of our current challenges!
Interview managed by Irina Chèvre, with the kind collaboration of Elouan Trehin.
Book your moment at Melba Restaurant here : https://restaurantmelba.com/pages/reserver
