Dijon. A book for traveling with recipes from chefs Nicolas Isnard and David Le Comte

From Cuba to Rajasthan, from Morocco to Thailand, from Burgundy to Japan… Voyage it is a work of more than two hundred pages which recounts the cuisine of chefs Nicolas Isnard and David Le Comte.

They have been working on this book for two years which, more than a collection of recipes, sets in stone the path that led them, with Cécile Sagory, to Burgundy where they make people vibrate The Auberge de la Charme (in Prenois, one star in the Michelin Guide) since 2008. Over the years, the trio has developed its activity in the city of dukes and its surroundings with The Bistrot des Halles in Dijon, its Kook'in catering service or the takeover of the Dijon-Bourgogne golf restaurant, which has become The Norges Bistrot.

Fusion cuisine

The two chefs draw their influences from their wanderings. “We looked for each other. It took us a long time to find our identity,” confides Nicolas Isnard, whom we meet in his establishment in Dijon on the eve of his departure for Oman (Middle East). He continues: “We are from the South of France. When I arrived here, it was difficult to know what to offer.” Trained in traditional French gastronomy, he has long dismissed the idea of ​​fusion cuisine. “In 2015, we told ourselves that we wouldn’t put spices in our dishes,” smiles the globetrotter.

Ultimately, it is the Covid crisis that will decide them to take the turn, to no longer cook the cuisine they have learned but the one that suits them. “During confinement, there was no longer a plane in the sky. I missed this food that I used to eat in the countries I visited. We decided to say “let's travel on the plate”. I believe that we have never created as much as since 2022.”

Foie gras pho, modern onion soup (ice cream and Comté tuile), kebbeh with Sétoise or tiramisu: all these recipes can be found in Voyage.

Travel, Nicolas Isnard and David Le Comte at the Auberge de la Charme published by Glénat. 224 pages. €39.95. On sale at Bistrot des halles in Dijon, Bistrot de Norges in Norges-la-Ville, The Auberge de La Charme in Prenois and at the Gibert Dijon bookstore.