Who’s Agathe Audouze?

Today we get to know Agathe Audouze a bit better. Agathe Audouze is co-founder of successful Café Pinson in Paris and La Minute Papillon web site around nutrition and health. She has recently published a book called “Superjus” with 30 fantastic recipes on juices and superfoods. I am amazed about how many great things she has achieved in such a short time. Besides Agathe is a lively, nice, passionate woman in person. I was very happy to meet and interview her.

Chiara: Why gluten free?

Agathe: The Café Pinson sums up a philosophy around food: we can eat in a healthy way and still take pleasure and fully enjoy what we eat. The food we propose is gluten free, but also lactose free, vegan, organic, we deal only with the best ingredients. The Café Pinson represents also a personal path as I discovered I was intolerant to both gluten and lactose ten years ago. At the time I understood that you can change the way you eat without any problem and I wanted to show other people who were undergoing the same things as I that it was possible. I wanted to show them that you could still enjoy a full meal with an entrée, a main course and a dessert easily and realize that it can be actually very good. This change in my diet made me discover a whole new world of flavours like quinoa, red rice, violet rice. I love rice. I could eat rice everyday.

Chiara: What are the Café Pinson and La Minute Papillon?

Agathe: With Café Pinson I didn’t want to create a place that felt like a kind of “ghetto” – only for vegetarian or gluten- free eaters or vegan – I wanted to create a place that could welcome everybody – where everybody could find something to eat and to enjoy. I wanted the design to be beautiful, the name Pinson is not reminding of any particular food but it sounds nice and looks different. The food we propose is simple: the idea is about great organic ingredients cooked in a simple, healthy and tasty way. I wanted to avoid things that were too complicated. We use no wheat except we have some bread on the menu for those who like to have it during their meal, as bread is part of our cultural heritage here in France.

About La Minute Papillon, I had the idea soon after the opening of Café Pinson. Then I met the right partner to start this project with. La Minute Papillon is a web site where you can find all the information about eating healthy and how to avoid certain ingredients and still have pleasure in your diet. It also translates in ateliers that we organize around cooking where we gather with people having different food issues. We take them by the hand and we accompany them in what is to me a wonderful journey around new, different foods. I always tell them to decompress, feel cool, take their time and start this adventure by learning to listen to themselves, listen to what their body is trying to tell them one step at a time.

Chiara: What is the gluten free food that you love the most?

Agathe: The madeleines at Café Pinson that are both gluten free and lactose free: it took me 40 recipes before getting to the right one. I also love rice: as grain, pasta, noodles, I love everything about it.

Chiara: Gluten free is…

Agathe: Diversity. Discover the diversity in food like millet, buckwheat, almond and chestnut flours…discover new flavours, textures, colours. We shut the door to one cereal – in this case is wheat – but we open up a new one to some many grains. It is about revealing new possibilities in cooking.

Chiara: What is your next challenge?

Agathe: Continue to develop the Café Pinson concept through new venues without scarifying its philosophy and values. About my personal challenge, I would like to have a positive impact on society by what I do, through my work and the things I believe in.

To read my older posts on Café Pinson:

Café Pinson 3e

http://bacididamaglutenfree.com/en/portfolio/cafe-pinson/

Photo credits: LELA BODEFIF