The World goes to the table Street food
After a blog and then a culinary podcast, Alice Tuyet opened Plan D, her first Parisian street food address. In Zurich, Switzerland, where she lived for three years, she had begun to think about increasingly plant-based cuisine.
Alice Tuyet, in Paris, February 18, 2022. JULIE BALAGUÉ FOR M LE MAGAZINE DU MONDE
“My grandparents fled Vietnam when my father was 11. Coming from a rather well-to-do background, they had to settle in an HLM in the Paris suburbs. When I arrived in France, my grandmother went into the restaurant business and her Vietnamese restaurant grew over time, while my grandfather set up all kinds of crazy businesses, such as canned spring rolls or of pearls.
My grandparents constantly oscillated between a very modest and very comfortable standard of living, which probably explains why my father was so keen on giving us stability. He pushed us a lot, my two older brothers and me, to study to get out of the manual trades. I was in ballet sport-studies until I was 15, but I gave up dancing, somewhat reluctantly, because I remain faithful to the idea of living for a passion that transcends everything, to follow a path of elitist studies: preparatory class, HEC, Sciences Po.
“It was at my grandparents' that I ate Vietnamese. We barely spoke, everything went through the food. »
Traumatized by his childhood, my father does not speak a word of Vietnamese and never wanted to return to his native country. At home, we didn't eat Asian, especially since my mother, from Normandy, was more into butter and cream cooking. It was at my grandparents that I ate Vietnamese. We barely spoke, everything went through the food. My grandmother spoiled us with incredible meals, that's how she expressed her love for us. By watching her, I learned how to prepare certain dishes, but also the meaning that it could have.
I realized that if I thought about the kitchen from morning to night, it was because I had been marked by the fact that the meal was an enchanted parenthesis, without conflict, a moment of shared peace. These Taiwanese pancakes, round and flaky, tasted in my childhood at a friend of the family, are the symbol. I had an incredible memory of them, and it was in a restaurant in Los Angeles that I found them. We had argued with my companion, but when the cakes arrived on the table, everything calmed down. A little flour and water put together carefully can have this power.
During my studies, I started a culinary blog, “Le grumeau”, which allowed me to discover lots of restaurants and chefs. In Zurich, Switzerland, where I lived for three years, I started to think about food and increasingly plant-based cuisine. I learned the language of vegetables at the same time as German. I came back to France to take care of my father, who was ill, I launched the “Patate” blog, and the idea gradually took shape to open restaurants: a friendly bistro, a counter to take away…
Read also Taiwanese pancakes: Alice Tuyet's recipe
I wanted to create places where you can eat well, in a festive and joyful way around vegetables, without the vegan label. The idea is to reconcile sustainability and taste, emphasizing the cooked side, the seasoning, the cooking. Another matter of reconciliation. »
Read also Article reserved for our subscribers Five vegetarian (and Parisian) sandwiches for a return to school that feels good
Plan D, 22, rue des Vinaigriers, Paris 10th. Daimant Collective, at Drinks & Co, 106 bis, rue Saint-Lazare, Paris 8th. The opening of a restaurant rue du Faubourg-Poissonnière is scheduled for September.
Camille Labro
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