Yannick Alléno at Prunier: “The caviar that punctuates the dishes on the menu is not there to look pretty or chic”

Crossing the threshold of the Prunier restaurant, a stone’s throw from the Champs-Élysées, and setting foot in this listed setting, full of mosaics, gilding, Carrara marble and engraved glass panels, always provokes an emotion.
Here, in this restaurant created by Émile Prunier just a century ago, there still floats a festive spirit inherited from illustrious clients, from Hemingway to Christian Dior. And it is to awaken this sleeping beauty that the new owners of Prunier, until then in the hands of Pierre Bergé, contacted the multi-starred chef Yannick Alléno.

Getting people back on the path to Prunier

“My story with Prunier is not new,” says the chef, seated on the round table a little further back and adjoining the counter of the restaurant favored by Pierre Bergé and Yves Saint Laurent. My apprentice master, the Meilleur Ouvrier de France Gabriel Biscay, who passed on to me his passion for this profession, was the leader. I passed there regularly. » “The recipe for plum sole is his,” continues the chef, for whom this relationship with the elders is essential. At 15-16 years old, I was a little turbulent. As Biscay came to have his coffee in my parents’ establishment, they asked him to send me to a somewhat rough restaurant, just to hold me down. Being trained in cooking, for them, meant ensuring that I would never go hungry. And Biscay was my mentor. For me, it’s no small thing to help bring this beautiful house back to life. » His avowed goal: to get people back on the path to Prunier. And not only because the best of the Art Deco style is brought together here to delight the eye. Recently refreshed by Studios Gohard and L’Atelier du Mur, the premises have gained in comfort with rounded and wooden furniture, and, upstairs, a brand new champagne bar which could well revive the excitement of the Years crazy. Classic, Plum? Come on then! The house has always been at the forefront, with the first oyster bar in the capital, then the launch of wine by the glass, champagne by the glass, home delivery… “Long before the appearance of Deliveroo and others, hundreds of bikes were waiting in front of Prunier, ready to deliver oysters and fresh fish to your home,” recalls the chef.

Here, the caviar that punctuates the dishes on the menu is not there to look pretty or chic. Originally, it was to avoid wasting eggs that were sometimes too unattractive to be sold in boxes.

The first importer of Russian caviar in the 19th century, Prunier was also the first to produce its caviar in France, on the banks of the Garonne in 1921. A concern for freshness, traceability and, since then, “The sauces and extractions perfectly mastered by the chef came to reinforce the depth of tastes” 1993 with the manufacture, of eco-responsible breeding methods which immediately resonated with Yannick Alléno: “Here, the caviar which punctuates the dishes on the menu is not there to look pretty or chic. Originally, it was to avoid wasting eggs that were sometimes too unattractive to be sold in boxes. » Even today, they only join the plate if they bring something: the salty or iodized side.
Besides, nothing is lost in Prunier’s kitchens. The slightest grain, the slightest fish bone is reused in jelly, in broth. And the sauces and extractions perfectly mastered by the chef lightened the recipes and reinforced the depth of taste. In the kitchen, it is the talented Hendry Angwe Mezah who, at the age of 30, is helping to reinvent this new wave Prunier restaurant, where “everything that comes from the sea” is magnified with that little touch of madness. Including so-called less noble fish like hake. With a nice lunch menu at €51 and the charm of the service, there is no doubt that people will return to Prunier. All that remains is to revive the old tradition of the immense cup filled with langoustines which once sat on the counter at the entrance for customers to nibble on while waiting for their cocktail or their guests…

Plum tree by Yannick Alléno

16 avenue Victor Hugo
75116 Paris
(01 44 17 35 85)

https://prunier.com/fr/