FFaced with environmental issues and the observation that food and energy resources are inexorably running out, Lucie Le Guen has chosen resilience. The turning point came when this chef moved to the Pyrenean foothills. It was at the head of an organic restaurant that she began to campaign for a more eco-responsible vision of her cuisine. A cuisine that would go against the race for innovation, a cuisine that would question our way of preparing and consuming food, a cuisine with a low energy impact that should be shaped slowly – using local products, traditional techniques and simple and sustainable utensils.
Lucie Le Guen develops this philosophy in Cuisiner low-tech, a cookbook in the form of a manifesto that she has just published with Editions Ulmer. More than forty recipes, illustrated by tutorials, which all give pride of place to “soft technologies”, which allow modern cooks to free themselves from household appliances.
Thus, the author teaches us to cook with nature and the means at hand. With the passage of time, to begin with, by drying, infusing, fermenting or slowly cooking, using a Norwegian pot, the food. With the energy of the body, then, by using a vegetable mill rather than a blender or by making your own sauces (pestos, mustard) and spice mixes (curry paste) using a pestle and mortar.
With fire, directly from the embers (burnt asparagus, beetroot in a salt crust) or a rocket stove (a stove that uses little fuel), or even a Palestinian oven (which transforms a gas stove into an auxiliary oven). With the sun, quite simply, by learning to use box, tubular or parabolic ovens: rustic utensils that allow food to be cooked by reflecting the sun’s rays. With the winter cold, finally, by learning to maximize the preservation time of fruits and vegetables.
“If you are concerned about the direction our civilization is taking, concludes Lucie Le Guen, You too, learn to cook outdoors, over a fire or in the sun. But don’t do it to save the world, do it for the pleasure of learning, doing and starting again.
The star recipe Low temperature roast chicken, cooked at 120°C in a box oven.
The shock utensil The parabola, a solar oven capable of reaching 230°C in a few minutes.
Low-tech cooking. Local and creative recipes to save energy, by Lucie Le Guen, Editions Ulmer, 192 p., €25.
