A Japanese (again) world pâté crust champion! After all, Teddy Riner is indeed an Olympic judo champion. This year, chef Taiki Mano, from the gourmet restaurant Saisons at the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, won the prize for best pâté in Lyon. “He made a pâté crust with gold leaf, which is a crazy technical feat. It was not simply placed on top: when he unmolded his pâté, the gold leaf was encrusted,” commented Audrey Merle, co-founder of the Confrérie du Pâté-Croûte which organizes the world championship every year.
Taiki Mano won this 15th edition “hands down”, she said, with this pâté with duck leg, chicken liver, pork liver, pork shoulder, foie gras, cognac, hazelnut and pistachio. The chef, who won the Best Newcomer prize last year, had “trained for a year, he made 350 pies to be ready for the final,” added the organizer.
A now Japanese specialty
Fifteen finalists took part in the competition, organized since 2009. Second place was also won by a Japanese chef, Seigo Ishimoto, from the restaurant Le Cœur, in Chiba, with an autumn pâté, made from chicken liver, cooked foie gras, cognac, trumpets of death and yuzu pepper.
The 2019, 2021 and 2022 editions had already been delighted by Japanese chefs. “Japanese chefs are excellent technicians, they have a perfect mastery of the art of the knife, they have added their rigor, their precision, their attention to detail” to this dish which is now part of the “universal world heritage”, according to Audrey Blackbird.
