Tuesday 10am I have an appointment with chef Pierre Sang. The charismatic 2011 Top Chef finalist has invited me to his eponymously named restaurant Pierre Sang in Oberkampf. His team greeted me with a smile and showed me around. A corner restaurant, completely open to the street, just like its cuisine. Giving a new culinary perspective and sharing it.
Pierre Sang in Oberkampf is a concept: there’s no à la carte menu, dishes change daily, a changing wine selection, no reservations and an open kitchen with a large counter. But above all, it’s a philosophy, a flexible cuisine in keeping with the values of sharing, products bought on the spot and cooked right here by instinct. This restaurant is truly a place apart. A truly participatory place, where you can let yourself be guided by the products and the mood of the day. Our aim is to educate palates, to work with everyday products and to use them differently, but also with neglected or little-known products from our Korean origins. If you ask what’s on your plate, the first thing you’ll be invited to do is taste it. Cooking then becomes a game, and we’ll come back to you to find out which flavors you recognized, and explain their origins. Remove any preconceived ideas you might have about a particular product by letting your sensory development take over.
Pierre Sang has worked in some of the world’s finest restaurants, from London to South Korea, Lyon… Then the TV show Top Chef propelled him into the limelight. He could have opened a gourmet restaurant, but at what price? On the advice of Chef Constant, he wanted a restaurant that would reflect his personality, while leaving him time to look after his family, which is important to him. “When you do something with desire, you can feel it“, a desire he passes on to his team. A team to whom he takes the time to teach and explain, while letting them express themselves. The desire to cook exclusively with products from local merchants, while at the same time offering different angles and constantly reinventing them.
“In the kitchen, you mustn’t betray or disguise yourself. You have to be who you are, not pretend. “Pierre Sang is a very spontaneous person. His lunch dishes are created that very morning, and in the afternoon for the evening, some of which are prepared à la minute, in order to respond as closely as possible to his customers’ tastes, and to take care of them as if they were unique. A cosmopolitan clientele, many of them regulars, on whom Pierre Sang sometimes tests his freshly conceived dishes, which may well be on the menu that very evening: “There always has to be a hidden menu. At my parents’ house, there was always something cooking“.
When asked to define his cuisine, Pierre Sang says, “Truth is found on the plate and not elsewhere“, a phrase that perhaps best sums up the philosophy of this restaurant.
Three formulas are available for lunch, “simple” 2 courses 20€, “initial” 3 courses 25€ and “freestyle” 4 courses 35€. In the evening, a 6-course menu costs 35€, and after 9:30 pm, the menu is reduced to 4 courses for 35€, including a friendly smile. The restaurant is open from Tuesday to Saturday.
Pierre Sang in Oberkampf
55 rue Oberkampf
75011 Paris
www.pierresangboyer.com
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