To celebrate La Réserve Genève’s 20th anniversary, the establishment’s executive chef Benjamin Brial and pastry chef Pierre-Alain Rouchon combined their talents with those of three other La Réserve chefs – Jérôme Banctel from Paris, Eric Canino from Ramatuelle and Marco Ortolani from Zurich – in concocting an exceptional dinner. We bring you a behind-the-scenes look as well as recipes from this unique moment in gourmet history studded with stars on guests’ plates as well as in all eyes…
Discover Pierre-Alain Rouchon’s recipe from La Réserve Genève here:
Vanilla apple Tatin
Ingredients – for 8 people:
For the apples:
Butter: to butter the tin
Castor sugar: 110 g
Golden Delicious apples: 9 apples
For the pastry:
Butter: 132 g
Brown sugar: 66 g
Vanilla pod: 1/2
Flour: 184 g
Egg yolk: 12 g
Total: 400 g
For the caramel topping:
Neutral mirror glaze: 300 g
Water: 30 g
Castor sugar: 100 g
Vanilla pod: 1
Total: 430 g
For the whipped cream:
Double cream: 250 g
Vanilla pod: 1/2
Start with the shortbread pastry. Sand together the butter, sugar, vanilla powder and flour. Add the egg yolks until the mixture is smooth. Leave the pastry to rest overnight. Preheat the oven to 160°C. Roll out the pastry to a thickness of around 3 mm, then cut into a rectangle measuring 3 cm x 12 cm. Place in the oven for ten minutes.
To make the apples, butter a 28/29 cm diameter cake tin and line it with the same size greaseproof paper, then butter the tin again.
Pour the sugar into a frying pan and dry-cook the caramel until it turns brown. Pour the caramel into the tin.
Preheat the oven to 160°C.
Peel the apples, core them and cut them into six pieces. Lay the apples flat, pressing them tightly onto the caramel in the tin. Brush the apples with melted butter, then place the tin in the oven. When the apple juice has settled to the bottom of the tin, carefully remove the liquid and set aside. Return the tin to the oven for around 45 minutes. Remove the liquid again if necessary. Cover with aluminum foil and return to the oven for another 45 minutes. Remove more liquid if necessary, until cooking is complete. Leave the tin to cool, then press the apples down with a spoon or palette knife.
To make the caramel glaze, cook the sugar in a saucepan at 190°C, then decant with the neutral glaze. Add the water and vanilla, mix and strain through a fine sieve.
Unmold the tin with the apple Tatin, heating if necessary to make it easier to remove. Cut 3 x 11 cm strips and place them on the shortbread. Heat the glaze to 70°C and coat the apple strips. Finally, lightly whip the double cream and vanilla together and place a smear of whipped cream on the plate. Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
The other La Réserve chefs
Click here to discover Benjamin Brial’s recipe from La Réserve Genève
Click here to discover Eric Canino’s recipe from La Réserve Ramatuelle
Click here to discover Marco Ortolani’s recipe from La Réserve Eden au Lac Zurich
Click here to discover Jérôme Banctel’s recipe from La Réserve Paris
This article is an excerpt from La Réserve Magazine N° 30 by Michel Reybier Hospitality, which you can consult online here.
