Laura Fabian, cook at heart | Tap

Josie Lapoint
Tap

Granny Mary

“I am not a chef. I’m really a chef. ”

Laura Fabian welcomes us to her home in Bromont and is going to bake some apples with brown sugar, a very simple dish that, every time she makes it, brings her straight to her “Grandma Mary”.

Since all periods of her life are associated with specific recipes, Laura Fabian chose this way to express herself. I go to the table. “I found the autobiography to be a bit flamboyant and unnecessary. Whatever our culture was, I wanted something more fun and cohesive. ”

And even though she’s been cooking for over 30 years, she certainly didn’t want to pretend she wasn’t, i.e. a chef. That’s why she liked to propose a book that puts them in context. “My mastery, in kindness, is in making a nice table and saying that we are good together. ”

Happiness

“Yeah, yeah, I have butter in my apples,” Laura Fabian said with a laugh. And brown sugar. And sugar. “It’s nothing, that dessert!” But as I said in the book, I’m not very good at desserts. His daughter, Lou, on the other hand, has been passionate about baking since she was 13 years old and very talented. She also developed delicious gluten-free recipes for her mother who could not tolerate it.

“She’s actually had a treat. A treat,” said Laura Fabian.

Johanna was next to Laura that day, to give her a hand. But usually, the singer cooks for her family, every day, even when she is working alone. This is not a feat by any means, she wants to make clear. “Our mothers and grandmothers did this every day of their lives! ”

She takes the apples out of the oven. “Yes ! She exclaims. They are appetizing and perfectly cooked, and in her kitchen, it smells heavenly.

And there is nothing more enjoyable than cooking for the people you love.

“The idea is to remember that this is a very simple gesture that gives a lot of pleasure, and it is not too complicated, too expensive or requires too much knowledge,” adds Laura Fabian.

Prepare

The recipes Laura Fabian has chosen to publish are from her career and as a singer. They transport us from his mother Sicily to his native Belgium and from Eastern European countries to Tunisia. “I’m a simple thread, because it’s a part of my life, I offer it to you.”

The book is divided into 17 stories, with recipes associated with them, which describe the underside, strong moments and dark moments of her extraordinary career as an artist. “Suppose it woke me up a few nights. Painful, no, but moving, yes. ”

In this way, she reveals that she has spent a long episode of eating disorders, thanking a Japanese friend who “learned again” to eat her, and then gives us an overview of Bento art. Her success in Russia led to the airing of a recipe for beetroot soup, which she tasted for the first time at Pushkin Cafe in Moscow.

Her former Tunisian mother-in-law – her daughter’s grandmother – is a wonderful dish whose fish couscous is famous for. It’s a long-term project she’s learned by observing – “to do it well, it takes a full day” – and she reproduces it very ambitiously.

A book on food as a source of pleasure and comfort, therefore, was circulated by women who helped her build herself. “I did a lot of repairs with the table. But I didn’t want to dwell on it. When you have a good career, being a little “poor little star” can be very absurd. There are things I deliberately left out to say. I used a lot of humor and food, put a grain of salt in it and said, “Look how I read this story.” ”

Belgian neighbor

During our visit, Laura Fabian also decided to prepare a Belgian endeavor Gretin, which reminds her of her Sicilian mother. “Because she’s learned how to do it. Suppose it is a bechamel in butter, endeavs in the ham. It’s not Etna, clay soil, fish and eggplant! But it made Dad happy.”

She recalled that her neighbors upstairs, Mary-France, showed her mother how to prepare them. “When our mother read the recipe on her own, she added cream to the bechamel sauce and brazed the endeavors,” Mary-France told her. [elle prend l’accent belge] : “They are better than my mother.” Dad said the same. ”

Laura Fabian adopts her mother’s approach and prepares more from time to time. “But not very often, it takes a week to recover! A real meal a day, says a very light eater for evening and lunch.

“On show nights, at 4pm I eat 100g of carbohydrates and 100g of protein. That’s all. Finally, the program of Olympic athletes. “And it works well. You sleep well, you have strength. You don’t need much. It just has to be fuel. ⁇

Skill

There is a small problem with bechamel for endives, which is not thick enough. Laura Fabian adds the diluted flour and stirs vigorously, starting to activate a little more. “I have no fingers in my nose in the kitchen, that’s for sure! She says.

It seems to notice. For the book, she boiled down all the recipes that were photographed “without exception”. A total of thirty people, loyal Johanna assistant, at the rate of five or six a day for a week. Factory, what!

“No leader, I wanted to. Skill, it should be mine! To be clear, it’s hard to sell something you do not have a sample of. I wanted to have a stylist to tell me how to put it on the plate, but I made the food. This is my only condition.”

Outbreaks appear to be exacerbated during pregnancy and in children

We’ve rediscovered Laura Fabian‌ a little bit in recent years, first as a judge Vani, Later as director Star Academy Last winter, her warm and welcoming nature was further revealed. “It’s normal, it opens more doors to the individual than the artist,” the singer said, wanting to dedicate the second part of her career to broadcasting.

So it comes back Star Academy In January, that did not stop him from continuing to write songs and in September 2022 his tour was interrupted by an epidemic.

With a keen interest in permaculture, the blue economy and food self-sufficiency, Laura Fabian reads a lot on the subject and wants to gain her notoriety on the planet’s health service – she dreams of creating a second book, including Plateau. All “zero kilometers”.

“It simply came to our notice then. I’m lucky to have a showcase, so I’m saying to myself: How can I serve? How can I be inspiring? I dreamed of realizing the change I wanted for tomorrow and leaving anything meaningful for my daughter. ”

Success

As we prepare to taste the endeavors, a neighbor arrives. Laura Fabian, welcoming, prepares a plate for him, but according to her habits, she does not eat. She still takes a bite of cooked apples. Have they been delicious since his childhood? “Not always,” she said with a soft smile.

When asked if she is proud of her book, she prefers to use the term “satisfaction”. “Familiar, you can get more at the end of the course. It’s a great achievement, a great feeling of great teamwork. ”

In the book, two of his favorite dishes are mushroom risotto – “Because I do well and it gives me a lot of pleasure when I do” – and Osso Bukko. “Because it was my mother. ”

“My mother, she is proud of me. “

I go to the table

Laura Fabian

Free expression

208 pages

Receipts

Laura Fabian cooks us two recipes that appear in the book I go to the table.

Belgian Endeavor Gratin

For 4 people

Ingredients for bechamel

• 55 g (11 tbsp) butter
• 60 g (1/2 cup) flour
• 700 ml (3 cups) of milk
• 15 ml (1 tbsp.) Sour cream
• 30 g (1 oz) Gruer cheese, grated
• Nutmeg
• Salt cars

Ingredients for Endeavors with Ham

• 3 cloves of garlic
• 55 g (11 tbsp) butter
• 8 Conclusions
• 1 clove of garlic, crushed
• 8 slices of ham
• 200 g (7 oz) Gruer cheese, grated
• 30 ml (2 tbsp.) Bread crumbs
• 6 bumps of butter

Preparation for bechamel

• 1. Melt the butter and add the flour and mix. Cook for 1 or 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
• 2. Pour in the milk at once and mix until lumps form and heat until boiling.
• 3. Add cream fries, grated Gruer cheese and nutmeg. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Preparation for Endeavors with Ham

• 1. Preheat the oven to 200 C (400 ° F).
• 2. Brown the garlic in butter. Add the endives and cook for about 20 minutes.
• 3. Meanwhile, rub the bottom of the casserole dish with the crushed garlic cloves.
• 4. Wrap a piece of ham around each endive and place in a gratin dish.
• 5. Pour the bechamel sauce over the endives. Add the grated Groer cheese, breadcrumbs and butter bumps.
• 6. Bake for 20 minutes.

Apples with brown sugar

For 4 people

Ingredients

• 4 very sweet apples
• 120 g (1/2 cup) butter, divided
• 60 g (1/4 cup) brown sugar
• 60 g (1/4 cup) sugar

Preparation

• 1. Preheat the oven to 200 C (400 ° F).
• 2. Wash the apples, place them completely, but remove the seeds and core.
• 3. In the hole of each apple, place a knob of butter and a quarter of the brown sugar.
• 4. Place the apples in a baking dish. Add a few lumps of butter (about 15 g / 1 tablespoon per apple) and sprinkle with some whole grain sugar.
• 5. Bake for 30 minutes. Enjoy hot with sour cream or ice cream.