ORIGINAL CREATIONS: OLIVIER ROELLINGER'S SPICES POWDERS ®

Since childhood, my imagination was filled with the tales from Cape Horn, Terres Neuvas and the East india Company spices hunters, and later the marine and adventure litterature satisfied my desire for the unknown and meeting people. As a chef, I am passionate about these spices that were already inside Saint Malo's walls during the 17th and 18th century, spices from the East and the New World. I travelled with Jane all over the world through the itineraries of Saint Malo's greatest families of shipowners. We roamed the coasts of South America, Caraïbeans, Indian Ocean, Mascarene Islands, the coasts of Malabar, the Maluku islands, South-East Asia and African coast. I have used the spices that I brought back like the other sailors of this country did before me, but I was fueled by the fantasy they hold. A bit like the seeds of a lost paradise, the Garden of Eden.

What ever the place on the planet migh be, spices are rarely used on their own, there is always a mix of 3 to 20 of them. On my part, I never wanted to reproduce a garam massala or a Creole or Indian curry, but instead create a new flavour like you would do when creating a perfume. And this new flavour, this "spices powder" is dedicated to a specific product or dish, like tomato, a fish or a dessert.

This construction of flavours is done with mastery and precision. I search for a long time, I experiment, try again. And the years go by, this dream settles in my memory and I can one day imagine flavours by pairing spices and herbs without tasting them… Then I play, I compose, I build with what nature gave us: spices of fire, - hot peppers, ginger, peppers-, aniseed sweets tastes – dill, fennel, star anise -, the tender ones – vanillas, nutmeg, mace, achiote, benzoin-, the tough ones – clove, allspice-, the magnificent – corianders and green, black or white cardamoms-, and more… Then I guess, I draw, I watch the powder being born.

Then, I create, store and work with the spices in the Maison du Voyageur in Cancale. At the heart of the Maisons de Bricourt, we receive the raw spices, selected amongst the most beautiful origins. Before storing them, we control them in our laboratory. In this warehouse, they are steamed, roasted, grinded, weighted, mixed to get our “spices powder”.