Le Lundis de Fulgurances, founded by Sophie Cornibert and Hugo Hivernat, organizes fabulous monthly dinners to showcase the work of sous chefs and create a new avenue of creative expression. Sam Miller of Noma, Nicolas Guiet, Sylvie Amar and Denny Imbrosi have all been by. Sophie recently attended the UntappedParis/Singapore Takeout dinner with Andre Chiang and we got to ask her a few questions.
Untapped: What inspired you to start Fulgurances?
Sophie: At the beginning, I worked for three years with Omnivore and I wanted to create my own blog to express and share my views and ideas about cooking… Then, a year ago, Hugo and I decided to create Fulgurances events to put sous chefs under the spotlight.
Untapped: Who are your favorite chefs right now?
Sophie: A lot of youngs chefs…Alexandre Gauthier of course, Kobe Desramaults, Sang Hoon Degeimbre, Les frères Folmer, Giovanni Passerini, Grégory Marchand, Magnus Nilsson, Petter Nilsson… But there is a big difference when you’ve been in a place just for once or occasionally (i.e., exceptional experience) and the restaurants you go to on a weekly / daily basis as you consider such restaurants as your “cantine” … I really like lively chefs!
Untapped: What is your ideal meal?
Sophie: It depends if you’re talking about a homemade meal or restaurant meal. At home, I really enjoy a good salad such as the “nicoise salad” or a “greek salad”, because it’s fresh and healthy! After all, it is just a question of good and seasonal products! As for restaurants, I keep a special memory of Alexandre Gauthier’s lobster. I dedicated a post to it on Fulgurances.This lobster is my idea of great food. To put it briefly, something which looks simple (but is not), something radical (which goes to the roots of nature).
Untapped: What are her responsibilities as someone reporting on food and restaurants today?
Sophie: You need to be honest as much as you can. To think about all the cooking constraints: products, managment, clients, brigade… A restaurant is first of all a factory and not a food laboratory dedicated to creativity! And when you are writing about food, you are writing as much as what is in your plate than the atmopshere of the restaurant.
Untapped: How has the internet changed restaurant dining?
Sophie: It’s a good question. I don’t know you should ask chefs! But I can tell that with the internet, everything is faster… so if you do wrong, that will be known, if you are great, that’s the same!
Untapped: How do you feel about this trend of chefs become more and more like celebrities?
Sophie: I think that it’s going with our time: chefs are celebrities as actors or singers… Bloggers just need to be careful and keep their distances. But also keeping in mind that the client takes part in the cooking as well… After all, good eaters make better chefs!
Check out the Fulgurances event page and blog here.
