Yam'Tcha, A Very Different Cooking Triumphs In Paris

ADELINE GRATTARD HAS BECOME A FAMOUS FIGURE OF THE CUISINE WORLD. After working with Pascal Barbot (Astrance) and in Hong Kong, she opened this tiny and traditional restaurant in 2009, which welcomes 20 guests and whose kitchen is just 6-7 m2 for … four cooks! However, this limitation and her short experience on her own didn’t prevent her from proposing one of the most interesting tables in Paris in a dazzling period of time. 

Her haute cuisine, clearly Asian as well as innovative, without sophistications, is for now eclectic, even difficult to define. What we can definitely say is that it has got an enormous personality and that it is different from any other. We are sure that in the course of time –the chef is still young and her project has started in 2009–, she will define her own style, that is already palpable, actually. She has got the necessary talents to do so. Talents and modesty. Modesty and persistence. Persistence and enthusiasm. Enthusiasm and vitality. Vitality and passion for what she does. Cooking makes her really happy, fascinates her and makes her dream… She is a kind of Cinderella, who dreams with moderation, without vanity. Utter talented realism: this is what we find here. 
As well as essentiality and optimal use of the existing means in order to get incredible results. No concession is made to forms, decorations, chromatism … Efficiency is the key word.
A poor but extremely gratifying dish brings us closer to the China she loves through her husband: blanched green beans with shredded pork, chopped chickpeas, sesame and garlic. This philosophy of simplicity and concretion is again expressed through the steamed mussels, full of taste and naturality, served with smoked tofu, cucumber and sesame. The first artistic proposal is a plate with baby squids with diamond-shaped inlays that have been slightly sautéed and then arranged on a potato julienne previously cooked in a wok, al dente, immaculate, with black soy, Szechuan pepper, lovage emulsion and spring onion flowers. The grilled foie gras, excellent regarding quality and doneness, is lain in the middle of a garden made of wokked chanterelles and cabbage, dried scallops and their juice: a sapient and exquisite fusion between East and West, bording on genius and perfection. Another delightful idea is the slightly roasted lobster, majestic, utterly exquisite, immaculate, served with dehydrated and burnt prawns, denaturalized, in contrast with egg yolk, yellow tomato and light mashed potato sprinkled with seaweeds and oceanity. The bitter-sweet chicken with wild berries and vegetables proves you can’t get anything better with so little. For another mental essence and palatal explosion, taste the belly pork cooked at low temperature served onto big pieces of aubergine, boiled and sautéed in a wok, generously spiced, with an electric pepper sensation that is softened by the flesh of the vegetable. And to finish, the chef proposes some selected cheese –desserts have never captivated her, and this distinguishes the real cooks and the ones that succeed or are expected to do so. Growth, growth and growth: this is what you breathe here. Getting an 8,5/10 in two years says a lot about her …
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