At Stock, in Paris, “heads, the nutty taste of scallops, tails, the salty notes of pickled plum”

A away from the Grands Boulevards, in a corner less devoted to good restaurants than to offices, a restaurant was born at the beginning of September capable of reversing the trend. Three rooms in a row decorated with niches, bathed in fiery light and rocked by an electro playlist. So much for the portrait of the Stock, whose name (“action” in English) alludes to the financial securities which were traded for almost two centuries within the walls of the old Paris Stock Exchange, located right next door.

Concise, creative and seasonal, the menu suggests a dinner without crash. Intuition which is confirmed in the glass: an enigmatic cocktail “Tzatziki”mixing cucumber-infused vodka, honey, dill syrup and house-made green olive oil with clarified Greek yogurt. Served in a champagne flute, this tasty beverage is a perfect preamble to the parade of plates that chef Théo Badalucco is preparing to present.

At only 24 years old, the boy has a very comprehensive CV: hotel school in Nice, where he comes from; apprenticeship in the kitchens of La Passagère (one star in the Michelin guide), in Juan-les-Pins (Alpes-Maritimes); but also in those of L’Orangerie, a double-starred restaurant at the George V hotel in Paris. A liner – “six hundred employees pass each other there every day without speaking to each other, a bit like in the metro” – which he leaves quite quickly for a ship on a human scale: “I took the position of sous chef at Les Résidents, a restaurant that welcomes a new chef every quarter. » It was there, with an Italian in residence, that he tried his very first fermentation. “Before joining us, Matteo Bartolini had worked at Noma [table danoise cinq fois sacrée meilleur restaurant du monde par le classement World’s 50 Best], where this technique is widely used. He taught me everything about it,” confides the cook.

Happy texture set

Even if it means surpassing the master, the student serves the Stock with a starter that gives pride of place to this method of preservation: on a carpaccio of scallops which is warmed with a broth of lacto-fermented butternut skin, Théo Badalucco places a condiment based on pickled plums. Understand, again, lactofermented: “For three weeks, under vacuum, the sugar from the fruit or vegetable eats away at the lactic acids naturally present inside, thanks to the addition of salt and the absence of oxygen. »

While thin strips of black radish bring a happy play of textures, different flavors take turns to shake up the taste buds. Stack: the nutty taste of scallops and squash. Front: the saline notes brought by the long-macerated plum. Tucked under a bed of watercress leaves studded with beetroot powder, the whole thing leaves fond memories of a harmonious sweet-salty marriage. And implicitly reveals the great technique of the young chef. Proof that value does not wait for the number of years, but also that beautiful things are finally happening at the Palais Brongniart.