Who am I?

by | Mar 22, 2022

My name is Vincent.

I am also called:

  • Vince
  • Vinz
  • Master Pâté
  • Chef Vinz

And a whole bunch of other nicknames, depending on the inspiration.

Brief.

 

A Norman with "particular" tastes

I am originally from the Caen region of Normandy. The "Land of Fresh Cream"! Exactly… Since I was very young my puck has never been ecstatic about this kind of flavors … In fact, it would be quite the opposite! Indeed, everything that is dairy is really not in my preferences.

"What?! You're Norman and you don't like cheese?! "

Exactly. Each time it is the same astonishment on the faces. I totally understand that people like it, but for me it is quite the opposite.

"It's okay, but I don't like it!" said my grandfather.

In itself nothing serious. This aversion to cheeses and other creamy products led me to cook differently. With different oils, or with animal fat. As Ken Hom, an American chef of Cantonese descent, says:

"No fat, no taste!"

Ken Hom

Ken Hom

Chef

Naturally curious, I have always taken an interest in world cuisines. Especially Asian cuisine, where we cook mostly in oil and not in butter (French style!). Beyond this question of fat, Asian cuisine has always attracted me for its flavors and variety. I will come back to that later.

Summer jobs.

Summer is coming, and holidays are a good opportunity to discover work and various and varied professions. I had the chance to work in two catering professions. We will talk about them in slang. I do what I want, it's my site.

The barbaque… (Meat)

Two years in a row, I worked for a breeder and producer of farm products in Normandy. In the morning I went to feed the pigs, and spent the rest of the day in the laboratory preparing good food. Pâté, sausages, tripe, blood sausage…

Sometimes I accompanied my boss to the markets to sell our products. A complete summer job, from the barn feeding the animals to the market selling ready-to-eat products to customers.

From that time I had acquired skills that would be useful to me later, but I did not know it yet…

… And brignolet (bread)

A few years later, I worked 2 months in the summer season in a bakery / pastry shop on the coast. There the pace was much more sustained: six days a week, from five or six o'clock to noon. The rest day was Monday, and I was in the best off team because my colleagues worked every day and with more demanding hours. A really tiring rhythm that made me understand that being a craftsman in the food trade was really a choice, because someone lazy does not choose this kind of profession.

I had the chance to see bakers and pastry chefs working with bread dough, sugar, chocolate, fruit… It's always a pleasure to watch the professionals work. All these gestures that seem so simple and harmless to us, which we realize by practicing the time necessary to acquire mastery.

A temporary job, a knowledge forever.

Beyond the physical tasks entrusted to me, these two jobs were also smells, colors, textures, techniques… And the combination gave me an intuition that continues to grow to this day.

Smell the aromas, season accordingly, smell when something should be cooked… Impossible and useless to list everything because everyone lives it in their own way.

Life in China

At the end of 2015 I put away my things to go live a little further east, 10,000 kilometers from the France. Here I am finally at the "Mother House" of a kitchen that I have always liked! China is a country with a thousand-year-old history, an immense area spread over several regions of different climates and cultures. From one region to another traditional dishes and style of cooking can totally vary. Since 2015 I have continued to discover an infinity of dishes and ingredients to affirm that the Chinese cuisine we know in Europe has lost most of its essence.

As an aside, I think that this phenomenon occurs when you export a cuisine to another culture. Between the tastes, the imagination of the customers and what they want to find, the level and the objective of the restaurateurs, traditional cuisine will always be distorted in most cases. Sometimes we will speak of miscegenation, sometimes of "adaptation".

The advantage of being away from home with things that we lack is that it leads us to find solutions to get them. Often, the easiest and cheapest way is to do things yourself.

That's how I started making my bread, my preserves, sausages, dried meats… Everything you need for an aperitif and feel at home! I will come back to that later.

 

On the paths of taste, meetings.

Between family, friends, life companions and travel, all are opportunities to expand one's culinary knowledge. Through the meetings we learn recipes, tips, traditions … Who make us unique people in our approach to cooking.

And the legacy that one leaves of oneself

Proust's famous madeleine… A bite that takes us back to bygone times, but that taste allows us to relive for a moment.

 

Greeting people who have left, or others here that we no longer see, or others that we still see but things are not as before. A bygone era, a change of place of life no longer giving access to the same flavors, or a shopkeeper who has closed shop.

 

Cooking is all about smells, fumes and flavours. Moments when we associate cooking, a time of year, clothes, atmospheres and people. A good family meal, a meal with friends, an afternoon of cooking up his preparations… Anything is possible. What matters are the memories.

 

The more we eat unique and authentic things, the more these tastes refer us precisely to these moments of life lived.

 

The kitchen is a time machine of sorts!

 

Bienvenue !

That’s it, now you know who is behind this blog. On this site you will find recipes, manufacturing processes … And everything I want to share with you about cooking!

Charcuterie class in Chinese countryside

Chill out and charcuterie...Cuisine is also encounters.Thanks to a common friend, I was lucky to meet Louis. This french entrepreneur after several running different businesses in the hectic city of Shanghai had started a new project with his is a very...