{"id":30,"date":"2017-01-21T16:46:00","date_gmt":"2017-01-21T16:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gastromondiale.com\/2017-1-21-pierre-gagnaire-paris\/"},"modified":"2024-03-02T20:31:43","modified_gmt":"2024-03-02T20:31:43","slug":"2017-1-21-pierre-gagnaire-paris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gastromondiale.com\/2017-1-21-pierre-gagnaire-paris\/","title":{"rendered":"Pierre Gagnaire, Paris"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
A Pierre Gagnaire<\/strong> dish might be extremely cerebral at its initial conception and dangerously experimental during its development. Such a process may strike one as cunningly relying on accidental discoveries. One may also be tempted to qualify this practice as tainted by a self-absorbed, self approbating ego who presumes the fatality of circumstances will often bring about flavors he is entitled to, feeling certain that when that doesn\u2019t happen his clientele should still be more than content to be able to take part in \u201chis\u201d adventure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One would not have been far off but only if all ended there. It does not. The essential creative act in Gagnaire\u2019s case undoubtedly operates at a higher level. It is almost palpable how he is guided by intuitions. Gagnaire\u2019s decisions are not necessarily rational but deeply personal. They are forceful but contained. Impulsive but focused. Passionate yet contemplative, even introverted at times. Vulnerable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When such artistic qualities are matched with a kitchen of extraordinary precision and techniques of great refinement the results are brilliant even if they are not always absolutely perfect. Sometimes the balance between the generosity and peripatetic proliferation of small plates may be quite off. Other times a compulsive rethinking of a dish that might have reached a very high level in a past season may make you wistful if not rather upset. Or, more sadly, some significant chemistry might be amiss when the Chef himself is not in the house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Leaving aside the case where he might be physically absent, Gagnaire does not seem to mind a few imperfections in an attitude similar to that of the beloved Turkish poet Ece Ayhan<\/strong> who found unacceptable to make a small correction to a blatant error in a poem because it would be \u201ca shame to disturb the beauty, once alive\u201d or that of the great Vladimir Horowitz<\/strong> who did not mind engraving a few wrong notes for eternity even in his studio recordings:<\/p>\n\n\n\n