We might as well say it straight away, when we started this “A Voix Nue” around Jacques Genin, “chocolate melter” – this is how the pastry chef defines himself – we did not expect that these two hours are so busy. So hard too, despite the softness and fat of the butter – its favorite ingredient by far.
Conducted with just the right amount of delicacy by Caroline Broué, also producer of “Bonnes Choses” on France Culture, the interview begins with a shattered childhood. And, from the first minutes, the emotion (tears and anger often mixed) is heard. His parents (he would later use the term “fathers”) were alcoholics and violent. When, as a child, Jacques Genin confided to his father that he would like to do dance or theater, the latter replied: “No queers in the house. » And when he tells her that he would like to “do research to invent other parents”, the “beating” is masterful. Response from a psychologist: “A beating helps get the blood circulating. »
“The confusion of feelings”
So, grow up until “hate settles in your heart: I hated all adults.” At 13, he fled: left the Vosges for Paris, where he began working in slaughterhouses. Wild and solitary, Jacques Genin arms himself with a Mona Lisa smile, as a defense. Shows his violence, sometimes, and his immense need for tenderness and love. And to quote Stefan Zweig and his Confusion des sentiments (Stock, 1929), the reading of which was a source of multiple questions: “Is loving a suffering? This is a question I have often asked myself. Saying I love you is so hard” (episode 2). Armed with a two-volume Larousse, Jacques Genin is making up for lost time. He reads. Goes to a restaurant for the first time: “Swimming crayfish: I’ve never seen a crayfish. »
In the following episode his relationship with dance, painting, and the sculptures of Camille Claudel is discussed, he who often finds refuge at the Rodin Museum. Then, it’s the start of baking (episode 4). To the question “What is a good cake?” “, Jacques Genin, who easily admits to being more salty than sweet, answers: “It’s a harmony of flavors, structures, and it’s also about not overdoing it. » At length, he will talk about the need to know perfectly the products with which and from which he works, and which allow him to imagine this chocolate and caper tart in particular.
In the last episode, it is precisely about chocolate. “It all started when my daughter, Jade, was born: I wanted to give her all the happiest birthdays in the world. » Jade, who recently hung up her lawyer’s dress to open her own boutique in Paris. Ready to hand over, Jacques Genin aspires to a little rest. Which doesn’t stop him from dreaming: “I would like to leave my name on a wine, a grape variety. »