11 March 2025
A chef, a passion: Gilles Leininger and his recipes notebooks
Awarded a Michelin star in 2021, this Alsatian chef brought new life to an address in his native village 14 years ago, transforming it into a dining space with just eight tables-designed for a home-like welcome. On your plate : a unique tasting journey shaped over time, the result of an ongoing evolution documented in notebooks of all kinds since his early training...
By Laurence Gounel
Gilles Leininger is 41 and has been cooking since he was 14. His recipe notebooks, which are an integral part of his culinary journey, form a kind of professional diary. For a chef who considers transmission as one of his core values, sharing these collections of recipes ensures consistency and allows him to share much more than just quantities, cooking times, or procedures.
“Unlike notes typed on a computer, these notebooks are filled with sketches, tips, and personal reflections, and some recipes developed for competitions have been left unfinished or deserve to be explored further, which means that all these collections are also tools in the making. I sometimes pick the best bits from certain recipes and reinterpret them using my own methods and vision. It’s an endless source of inspiration that doesn’t compromise my desire to offer cuisine rooted in identity” says the chef, who strives for technical precision in his cooking and baking.
This is especially true of his signature dish, L’artichaut classique et moderne (in english: the classic and modern artichoke), which combines different textures on a single plate and earned him 4th place in the 2019 Bocuse d’Or competition.
“I’ve always taken notes, but this competition has only reinforced my writing ritual. I even have a whole folder dedicated to the Bocuse d’Or.”
In addition to this folder, the chef has numerous notebooks containing recipes that he has carefully thought out, sketched and refined down to the smallest detail for the 2018 Taittinger Prize (3rd place) and the 2022 Meilleur Ouvrier de France competition (where he was a semi-finalist).
A4 school notebooks, loose sheets, notepads, a personal jumble that he admits being the only one that can navigate them, forcing him to take a step back and reflect on the journey he has taken. “ And I love these pages that smell like cooking! Some are scribbled over, others are stained, and bear the mark of a coffee cup… It’s an indispensable and living memory. ”
32 rue de la Gare, 67610 La Wantzenau
Tel : 03 88 96 63 44
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