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Marmiton.org
For 11 years, the Gourmand World Media Awards have been the international Oscars for food and wine books.
You will meet there well known chefs coming from all countries, authors, journalists, publishers…..gathered all together for their passion: cooking.
Our meeting with Yvan Cadiou, chef and creator.
After training with chefs who taught him classical cookery, he became independent as soon as he was 21 years old, and travelled around the world. He has been the host of various television shows, in France and Great Britain.
Christophe Duhamel – CD- Yvan,
what do you mean by chef and creator.
Yvan Cadiou-YC-
It is the same for a painter or a sculptor. I have a true artist studio, in Marseille. I do not teach there. My studio is my house, it is at the same time a kitchen, a living room, I entertain there, I cook there. It was my dream for years, it has now come true.
CD .-
You have just published LAteleier dYvan, Yvans studio, with publisher Romain Pages . Why a cookbook?
YC.-
My first passion are books…. People may have many books, but they use only 3 or 4 at most, the ones they love.
A book has to be well thought through, so that the reader can build his meal. It is somewhat like a restaurant menu for the home, with recipes that can be made at home. Dozens of people have called me, who do not cook usualy to tell me that they managed to make the recipes of the book. It was my goal.
But a book is also team work. The staff of my publisher romain pages has done a fantastic job. Everyone put in something of himself, keeping in mind the objective to make a real practical cookbook, and keeping faithfully my feeling. When you open the book, you dive again in your mothers cooking. So I dedicated my book to my mother.
CD.-
What are your projects today?
YC.-
There is television, of course…. In France, but also in Asia. I would like to have my studio in Asia also. Maybe in Kuala Lumpur, but why not in Kuching? . There is in Kuching an atmosphere slightly different, peaceful, very quickly you are in the tropical forest.f It is still adventure land. I have worked nearly everywhere around the world for fifteen years, and I value this environment. I feel at home in Kuching.
CD.-
Television, a book, and also a web site =www.yvancadiou.com
YC.-
Yes, it has been built by a very gifted friend. A website is like a childs toy, it should not ask for efforts, it has to be easy to enter. There has to be an environment, a freshness, corresponding to what you want to share with people.
CD.-
Creation, when does it come, and when?
YC.-
I create when I receive my friends. I do not tell myself: what I am going to create Depending on which friends I entertain, I will improvise something. Friends come and visit, they introduce me to other friends, we talk, we have a good time.
CD.-
Do you have specific themes?
YC.-
Ido not like themes very much, I prefer the environment.
My cooking has three strong ideas:
- Popular cooking brought up to date.
- My creations, inspired by french popular cookery.
- My discoveries while travelling, which I adapt.
For instance my chick peas recipe is an Algerian Carentita which I changed: I add chunks of chick peas. For my Tarama, I link it to bread, grape pits oil, and I add yoghurt at the end.
CD.-
Do you have one symbolic recipe of this mixing of cultures?
YC.-
My Taboule is watered with orange juice. I make a salad with onions, tomatoes, loriander, I pour much orange juice, much olive oil, then I pour the boulgoul which will get rehydrated and absorb all these flavours.
A recipe is like a colour chart, a painters choice of spices, oils. For instance, for a spice marinated chicken, spices will be there like a coat around the meat, without hiding it.
CD.-
What advice would you give all those who cook at home and want diversity in their daily life?
YC.-
The key is to spend time at the market, and listen to the sellers. If a merchant believes in his strawberry, he will talk about it to you, it will give you ideas.
Diversifying daily life can be quite simple. Take mayonnaise. It is simple!
However you can make it fantastic with little more, such as a pinch of curry. If served with celeri in small cracking chunks, the celeri becomes great, carried by the spice and the smooth texture of the mix. The problem of high cuisine is to believe there are rules that cannot be left aside. Cookery has reached such a sophisticated level that it can only go back to its roots. One day I went to a friends who is a chef at a great restaurant. He made beef bourguignon, and for desserts we had flambés. This was pleasure, for us, and for him, very simple.
CD.-
You often speak about popular cooking, what does it mean to you?
YC.-
Popular cooking is the best growth possibility, the encounter point of various cultures. It is everyday cooking. We have to get out of this culture of suffering in the kitchen. Cooking, it is pleasure eating, but also cooking. If there are so many empty jobs in the kitchens of restaurants, this may be the question.
It is everyday cooking that is the future of cooking! It has to be easy, clear, open to all. Michel Oliver wrote the foreword to my cookbook once he was convinced the recipes could be done by everyone, and worked.
This is found also in cooking with children. In fact, Michel Oliver has just published a book called Cooking is a game for big kids, with his simple approach. I hope he will sell one million books!
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