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Editorial: Jean Lenoir, born of wine (1937-2023)
How to train your nose, refine your olfactory memory, classify your memories? How to rediscover analytically a sensation that one already has in oneself? It is to this delicate exercise that, for forty years, Jean Lenoir, brilliant inventor of the “Lenoir’s nose” – a book-object composed of flasks and a manual to learn how to train your sense of smell. Died on February 22 in a certain media discretion, Jean Lenoir trained thousands of apprentice sommeliers, wine lovers and other students of the Wine Set (amateur diploma in oenology) with his box. What a pleasure to open this luxurious red book where are embedded, in their velvet coffin, fifty small vials with scents of pear, apple, strawberry, or more subtle, hawthorn, acacia, lime blossom , mushrooms, blackcurrant buds, toast, smoke… By practicing regularly, the nose is refined as the eye is educated, sensations become clearer, a new vocabulary emerges. Here is the miracle: with this new alphabet, wine, this opaque world, becomes a language that we can speak.
Born in Côte-d’Or in 1937, moved by a Chassagne-Montrachet drunk at the age of 18, Jean Lenoir had, despite appearances, a very social past. Educator, cultural animator, director of MJC, at the age of 40 he took classes with Max Léglise at the Burgundy Oenological Station in Beaune. With Olivier Baussan, who created L’Occitane en Provence, they developed a collection of one hundred and twenty aromas that Jean Lenoir uses to animate olfactory discovery courses all over France. It is the artist Daniel Spoerri who creates for him the book-object the nose of wine, composed of writings and smells. Later, he will develop the coffee nose, the nose of whiskey but also the oak barrel, which makes it possible to recognize which types of wood have marked the juices. More amusing, he also creates the box of Defaults which makes it possible to recognize chard apple, glue, soap, sulfur (be careful, it burns the hairs of the nose!) or worse, rotten eggs, cauliflower and musty-earth… What a lot of laughter in those blind sessions! What a pleasure to constitute this library of familiar, poetic, intimate smells – and above all what a world opens up when, finally a little trained, one can recognize, in a wine shaped with love, the generosity of a terroir.
Thank you, Monsieur Lenoir, for these rediscovered sensations.
Napkin rings: Chulita, that Mexico taste buds
In the rue Jean-Pierre-Timbaud, in the heart of the trendy Parisian district Oberkampf, there has been a small shop for a few months, Chulita, which proposes to make discover Mexican specialties, and in the first place the torta, kind of local burger consisting of simmered, pulled meat (pork is the most popular) and a thick, chewy, grilled bun. At the head of Chulita, we find Minerva Casas and Margot Farenc, a Mexican and a Frenchwoman, who also offer a more elaborate menu in the evening. We particularly appreciated the ceviche-style prawns (aguachile), presented in a spicy lemon-chili sauce.
In the glasses, we opt for a Mexican beer served with lime juice or for the national soda, the Jarritos, with fruity flavors. For dessert, the corn cake, not too sweet and served with a dulce de leche whipped cream, is a nice discovery, without breaking a duck’s three legs either. A nice address to have a bite to eat before going out… or to wipe off your hangover the next day without going to McDonalds. Count 12.50 euros for a torta and a drink.︎
Chulita, 41 rue Jean-Pierre-Timbaud, 75011 Paris. Information: 09 87 39 79 55 or https://holachulita.com/
Sauce that can: Dja, the Beninese ketchup
Head to Benin! Chef Georgiana Viou posted the taste of Cotonou in 2021, both travel diary and Beninese recipe book: “The dja sauce is a bit like the country’s homemade ketchup, translates the chef. We use it to dip yam or sweet potato fries.” At the aperitif? “No, at snack time! It is also called the “sauce that never rots” because it is covered with a veil of oil to preserve it. A carmine tomato concentrate, seasoned with a powder of dried shrimp which gives the salt and the smoky tone. Georgiana Viou introduces it to the menu of her Rouge restaurant in Nîmes where she won her first Michelin star on Monday.
For 4 people, you will need: 20 g of fresh ginger; 2 cloves garlic ; 3 tablespoons of whole or powdered dried shrimp; 20 black peppercorns; 1⁄2 liter of sunflower oil; 750 g crushed or pureed tomatoes (fresh or canned); 1 onion ; powdered pepper, cayenne or Espelette according to preference (optional); 1⁄2 teaspoon of food potassium bicarbonate or caster sugar to moderate the acidity of the tomato; 2 bay leaves; salt.
Mix together the peeled ginger and garlic, the dried prawns, the pepper and a pinch of water to form an aromatic paste. Peel and mix the onion. Book.
Heat the oil in a pan with a lid. When it is hot, add the tomato and the mixed onion. Leave to cook for about a quarter of an hour: the aim is to evaporate the vegetable water from the vegetables by adjusting the intensity of the heat and stirring constantly. Add the aromatic paste and the potassium bicarbonate or sugar. Lower the heat, adjust the seasoning and continue cooking. Cover if there is too much splatter. Add the bay leaves after ten minutes. Remember to mix very regularly, always controlling the intensity of the fire: the dja needs supervision because it burns easily. It is ready when the texture of the tomato is thick and its color is a nice dark red. Add the chilli and cook for another two minutes. It takes, in all, a good hour of cooking.
The Taste of Cotonou – My cuisine from Benin, by Georgiana Viou, ed. Ducasse, photographs by Maki Manoukian, 28.90 euros, 2021.
Napkin rings: Sushi Shop x Mory Sacko, a collab that slaps
To say that we were skeptical, receiving the email from Sushi Shop announcing that Mory Sacko had created his 2023 menu. This is not the name of the young starred chef, who went through Top chef and follower of collaborations of all kinds (we have seen him work with Louis Vuitton as with Monoprix), which made us raise our eyebrows, but rather that of the chain of Japanese restaurants of sushi quickly delivered quickly swallowed, of which we could not find not the products of crazy interest so far. Well, we were wrong (so we say it): the 2023 collection is a success. Mory Sacko has developed ten products, where you can find sweet potato as well as eggplant caviar or okra, pomegranate, lemon gel, various peppers or even burnt coconut powder. An ultra-balanced blend of flavors, with spiciness, sweetness, and stunning West African-inspired tones.
Box of 21 pieces, 26.90 euros (suitable for two people). In Sushi Shop stores.