18-Month-Old Avocados Are The Center Of Yannick Alleno's Masterpiece

In Paris, France, the home country of the world-renowned Michelin Star, most food endeavors lead you to charming restaurants of the likes of La Poule au Pot or A l'Epi d'Or, where the menus highlight French classics from foie gras to beef tartar. But, at Alléno Paris, Yannick Alléno's three Michelin-starred restaurant located in the Pavillion Ledoyen, a prestigious building within the Jardins des Champs-Élysées, the star item on the menu, the avocado mille-feuille, takes a different approach — all but defying French culinary tradition.

With the avocado mille-feuille, Alléno has reinvented an old-school French pastry — transforming what was once thought to be a thousand layers of puff pastry and custard into layers of celery leaves and 18-month-old avocados. The result looks like an unusual-looking pie but is essentially a delicately and intricately folded salad, with unexpected details hidden behind each layer. The leaves have been marinated in carrot juice, while the mushroom soy sauce dressing adds an Asian twist. But it's the avocados that make it a real masterpiece.

Unlike the avocados you typically find at the grocery store, which are typically grown in Mexico, Chile, and Peru, the avocados found in Alléno's mille-feuille come from a place much further away — the West African country of Cameroon. But what makes it truly remarkable is the fact that the avocado used in Alléno's recipe, at least, was left to grow on the tree for a year and a half. For comparison, Hass avocados are typically harvested after eight months. It's just one of the many examples of Alléno's passion for produce.

It's not totally clear what this means for the avocado itself. But, seeing as most avocados are picked much earlier and given time to ripen off the tree, one can only assume that the extra 10 months the fruit was given to mature would result in a riper fruit — one with more flavor and an even creamier texture. One review from Fine Dining Explorer can confirm the creamy part. However, it seems like the only way to find out how it tastes is to try the avocado mille-feuille at Alléno Paris yourself.