Rule breaker

When a young Pascal Barbot chanced upon an astrance, a flower native to his hometown of Vichy in Auvergne, central France, little did he know of the success the rare bloom would bring to him in his later life. Back then, he was a country boy, whose initiation into the wonderful world of produce was kindled through the harvesting of crops on the Barbot family plots. The early contact with the art of cooking from his parents set a series of culinary ambitions into motion: cookery school in Cusset, an internship at Maxim’s, and training stop-offs at Clave in Clermont-Ferrand, Les Saveurs in London, and Troisgros in Roanne.
In 1994, Barbot landed at the playground of vaunted chef Alain Passard, where he assumed the role of commis, and rose through the ranks to become sous chef de cuisine. After two short years there, l’Arpège earned its third Michelin star. Barbot is thankful that he was given an unusually long leash when it came to learning. “Cooking is so much more than just committing recipes to memory and this is the absolute truth at l’Arpège,” he recalls. “Techniques are mastered, seasonings precise and every ingredient—from onion to turbot—is transformed with the same meticulous attention to detail.”
Excerpt from the March issue of epicure.