2023-11-06 20:00:10
Born in Seoul in 1980, Pierre Sang Boyer grew up in Auvergne and made a career in Paris. Having appeared on the show “Top Chef”, he developed three Parisian gastronomic bistros, near République, and launched a Korean street food offering with Pierre Sang Express, which only offers bibimbaps.
Pierre Sang Boyer’s bibimbap. YANNICK LABROUSSE FOR “THE WORLD”
“It’s a dish that I never really learned to make, but that I saw my wife’s family, who is Korean, make. I was born in Korea, where I was placed with foster families before ending up in the orphanage. I arrived in France at the age of 7 and a half, adopted by a French family in Auvergne – where, at the time, there was not a single Asian restaurant. All my life I have only worked in French kitchens. Korea is a part of me that I didn’t necessarily want to remember. My wife managed to reconnect me to this culture. She gave meaning to my life, as a father, a business manager, and a cook who travels between the two countries.
In Korean, bap means “rice” and to be, ” blend “. Bibimbap is rice mixed with all the vegetables you can find in season, in a given region. I buy all my vegetables in Ile-de-France, from producers I know. At the moment, it’s white cabbage, red cabbage, sugar, yellow, purple, orange carrots. I would love to use butternut, but it doesn’t go down well with customers. And it’s important for me to please as many people as possible.
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I apply the same reasoning to protein: beef for meat, because pork is too splitting, and salmon for fish. In the future, I would like to succeed in replacing it with Auvergne trout, which would come from France and recall my origins. I have already included Puy lentils in the recipe, which I mix with Camargue japonica rice. This dish is really me, always shared between Seoul, Le Puy-en-Velay and Paris.
An egg cooked at low temperature
In Korea, every family that prepares bibimbap has a secret ingredient or technique, like the French with blanquette. My trick is to use an egg cooked at low temperature rather than a fried egg, because it binds the ingredients together. My wife tastes the recipe every month to check the quality. Sometimes she gives instructions in Korean to the cooks. I have forgotten the language to the point of not understanding what she says, but I trust her. She is the secret of my success.
I started making bibimbaps at the restaurant [qui porte son nom, rue Oberkampf, Paris 11e] seven or eight years ago. I saw the students having lunch at the McDonald’s next door, I have children myself, I wanted them to eat something else. I cooked rice rice cooker, I added meat and vegetables that I hadn’t used for gastronomy, Korean seasoning made from rice vinegar, soy, a touch of sesame: 7 euros. It was a hit. Making prices accessible changes everything.
Pierre Sang Boyer, in his restaurant Le Loft (Paris 11th), on October 20. YANNICK LABROUSSE FOR “THE WORLD”
In the long run, it was a little difficult to reconcile the gourmet restaurant and the bibimbap offering at lunchtime, so I launched Pierre Sang Express, which only makes bibimbaps to take away. With packaging and inflation, the price has necessarily increased, and has gone to 12 euros. Today, with the crisis, I have the impression that people are much more looking for street food than gastronomy. Making bibimbaps suits me well. This dish is a way of reclaiming my history. »
The tasting
At first glance, it looks like a very fresh salad, covered with sucrine, slices of carrot and cabbage. But the smell of rice and hot meat quickly disabused us. And, when you mix, the whole thing is perfect: in addition to the beef and rice, always comforting, the vegetables have flavor, the seasoning is spicy enough to provide a change of scenery, the egg flows… A different bibimbap, but very convincing.
Beef bibimbap, at Pierre Sang Express, €12. Three takeaway addresses: 8, rue Gambey (Paris 11th); 12, rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs (Paris 6th); 108, rue Réaumur (Paris 2nd) or delivery via Uber Eats. Pierresang.com/pierre-sang-express
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