Each month, Paris Match and Waww La Table invite artists and personalities to meet around a great chef to celebrate the gastronomic meal of the French, listed as a cultural heritage of humanity by Unesco.
A starred chef, a unique place, a Waww table set and guests from different backgrounds: the recipe for Waww Le Dîner .
It is an ode to the pleasure of life around a table flooded with spring. Its heart is a path of wild flowers, ranunculus and orchids. Composed by Éric Chauvin, this palette of a thousand shades of pink fills the air with burning gaiety. Silver cutlery signed Christofle, crystal glasses gilded with fine gold, candles, sparkles in the style of a masterpiece by Chardin. A detail in the painting: chubby pottery trumpets the passion for Phoenician art of the mistress of the house, Maha Chalabi.
UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador and founder of the International Association for the Safeguarding of Tyre, she embodies quiet strength and oriental hospitality. "These ancient pottery belonged to my father, he was deputy of Tire where eight civilizations followed one another, says Maha. In the 1930s and 1940s, Lebanon did not yet have a department dedicated to archaeology. So when the Tyrians found things, they gave them to him. My brothers and I inherited his collection. I will offer the pieces that I have to the museum of Tire as soon as Lebanon has regained its calm. »
"Cooking is much more than recipes, it's people's smiles"
In the apartment-museum on avenue Foch, Péri Cochin, daughter of Maha, and Arabelle Reille are once again playing the score of the hymn to beauty. For this fifth dinner tribute to French gastronomy, they called on the starred chef of 39V Paris, Frédéric Vardon . A cream from Normand who has polished his pots with Alain Ducasse for fourteen years. “Cooking, he says, is much more than recipes, it's people's smiles. You have to create emotion”.
Its menu is a nod to some of its producers, market gardeners Roland Rigault and Thierry Riant. After the langoustines from our coasts, the chef treats us to potato ravioli dressed in slices of truffles from Jérôme Galis. Veal from France surrounded by baby vegetables, Normandy curd ice cream seasoned with honey and pollen with juicy mango, passion fruit, jasmine emulsion. Sparkle in the eyes of the guests, pure radiance of happiness. The sommelier, Julien Gonzalez, made the food and wine pairings with Moët Hennessy: Cloudy Bay Sauvignon 2019, Moët & Chandon white and rosé champagne...
The sweet torpor of the end of the meal continues in the living room. Comedian Sandrine Sarroche talks about her hilarious show, which continues to tour across France, while Vanessa Sabet Palacios, the winner of the most beautiful table competition, recounts her last New Year's Eve: "I turned the house into a forest snowy! Germain Louvet has just released a book devoted to his career as a star dancer, he converses with Manuel Valls. The former Prime Minister explains that he is preparing a book dedicated to historical figures embodying courage, then professes, a bit nostalgically: “Politics is first and foremost the exercise of power. »
Meanwhile, jeweler-goldsmith Jean Boggio and architect Charles Zana talk about their creations for Waww La Table, soon to be on sale on the site*. The first designed mouth-blown baroque glasses; the second designed a ceramic centerpiece and carafes. Everything was made according to Phoenician techniques in associative workshops founded by Maha Chalabi, allowing some sixty families in the Tire region to work. Jean-Michel Othoniel, prince of contemporary art, takes us into the world of the postman Cheval. “In the Drôme, I am about to realize his dream: to enliven his Ideal Palace with water games, with fountains and waterfalls. A fine snapshot of the French way of life, this evening had the flavor of a golden age, that of the blessed time of carelessness and wonder.
Anne-Cecile Beaudoin