Between 29 and 31 October 2024, I went to give a plant-based cooking course at Le Petit Comptoir in Lunéville. A lovely restaurant right next to the sumptuous Château de Lunéville.
The trainees were Christophe, who was a little reluctant at first but was curious to see what he could do, and Paul, who was very enthusiastic about the idea of learning to cook with plants. And Chef Denis, who was very interested and was able to free up some time to take part in some of our creative moments.
During these 3 days, we saw how to cook:
🌱 Tofu
🌱 Seitan
🌱 Textured proteins
🌱 Tempeh
🌱 Legumes
🌱 Cereals
🌱 How to put a vegetable in the centre of the plate and
🌱 Making gourmet plant-based pastries.
A busy programme that didn't scare Paul and Christophe, who were able to prepare and create great dishes with the new ingredients at their disposal.
I loved seeing Christophe understand all the culinary possibilities that these new ingredients could allow him to satisfy the demands of vegetarian customers.
Paul was very willing and tried out lots of things, some successful and some not so successful. That's what cooking is all about: sometimes you have an idea and it doesn't work at first.
It's important for me to give my trainees that space, a space where mistakes are neither serious nor limiting, and where we work together to find ways of achieving the desired result.
The two cooks came out smiling (and tired too) from the 3 days spent cooking vegan together. Christophe concluded that vegan food isn't that complicated, once you understand how it works. He's happy to be able to make more elaborate vegan dishes for vegan customers (or not). Paul has really marvelled at the possibilities of vegan cooking and baking. He has even created a marinated and grilled tofu salad, which he offers on the menu.
What's more, manager Stéphanie Tabouillot told me that following the course, they're going to put 1 vegan starter, 1 vegan main course and 1 vegan dessert on the menu. I'm delighted to see that the time we spent together led to immediate application! I'm confident that the whole Petit Comptoir team will be able to offer tasty vegan dishes from now on.
