we have a very similar dish in my restaurant where i work as a chef. red endive, roasted pears, goats cheese, candied walnuts, honey and black pepper dressing. simple, easy to make ina busy service and very popular. my head chef was trained by marco.
Love chef Marco Pierre. From an half-talian perspective. The cheese loses it's flavor when melted in the oven. Go to Italy and see how many varieties of endiv/chicory there are called radicchio. any supermarket in Italy is a master class in variety of vegetables. anyone having not cooked with cime di rapa, has not fully lived. thank you for the video, master Marco! incidently, I want to see a special, with chef Marco Pierre and german and Japanese knifes. Maybe even visit Japan. And cook with the knifes.
Just some ideas. Stress the importance of using soil raised winter-chicory (andives are a different vegetable I think), not chicory raised in aquaculture. Aquaculture chicory has no character, no depth. Not necessary to add sugar to chicory, as heating the vegetable will enhance its sweetness. Best chicory is forced (and purchased) in late fall or winter. Use ripe pears (coming in season also in autumn), silky as butter, sweet as sugar, just warm them, cooking is not necessary. Reconstructing chicory with salty soft cheese is a grandiose idea! Walnuts, I would parboil them, so removing the tannins that can be too harsh. Great dish. Typical for Belgian and French Flanders.
Cardinal sin is putting sugar on Belgian endives. With respect, the Bitterness is part of this great vegetable that I grew up with as a Belgian. Raw Endives should not be very bitter when cut correctly, you always have to cut the stem, and at the start of the saison, when they are more bitter, the hard centre. Marco omits that unfortunately, revealing a lack of knowledge about the vegetable.
