Southern Alsace. Savory or sweet, the Mulhouse waffle has been revisited by gourmets during a competition

If there is one subject that everyone agrees on, in Mulhouse as elsewhere in Alsace and throughout France, it is the taste for good things... And few are the gourmets who do not appreciate a small waffle that is both soft and crispy... In Mulhouse, in any case, the local waffle, revived last winter, has attracted many followers... So much so that the idea of ​​a waffle competition, supported by the Épices association in partnership with the City of Mulhouse, has, since its first edition this Wednesday, September 10, met with a gourmet craze!

The nine selected participants were invited to present their interpretation of the Mulhouse waffle this week, at Épices on Avenue Kennedy. For the occasion, the association has acquired brand new waffle irons... but with rectangular waffles, a slight departure from the tradition of the Mulhouse waffle, round like the wheel, the emblem of the city...

The competition was held in two stages, first the savory waffles; then the sweet ones in a second stage. The jury, chaired by Jean-Michel Feger, chef of the restaurant Il Cortile , the Michelin-starred restaurant at the foot of the ramparts of Mulhouse, spent the afternoon surrounded by the tantalizing aromas... The other members were Emmanuelle Suarez, deputy mayor of Mulhouse, Noémie Bourzama, aka HungryNo, founder of @tchai_agency, Ousmane Thierno Bah, chef, Sophie Julien, president of the Vitrines de Mulhouse merchants' association (which offered vouchers to all the candidates), and Isabelle Haeberlin, president of Épices.

We knew that the Mulhouse waffle had wowed the public last winter ... But it also inspired amateur cooks in the surrounding area who competed in imagination to adapt the recipe... A quick look at the participants in the savory waffle competition. In the starting blocks, four competitors from very different backgrounds.

Yohann, the only man in this competition, 24 years old, is a student at École 42 in Mulhouse. For him, it was the pleasure of performing in front of a jury, something he likes to do with his friends: "I often make waffles with my friends at school," he says while preparing his waffle with dill whipped cream, cucumber and smoked salmon, simply because he "loves salmon."

Opposite him is Muriel, from Saint-Amarin, 44, a nurse and mother of a 7-year-old girl. "At home, waffles are very common, but I work them in a balanced way," she says, to casually slip vegetables into the batter... This time, it will be with a batter containing zucchini, for a waffle with mint pesto, fresh goat cheese, tomatoes, pine nuts and zucchini tagliatelle.

There's also Aurélie, 37, from Kembs, who isn't sure how she ended up in the competition. While she admits she's not very experienced, she saw it as an opportunity to try something new: "It's an experience worth taking," says this lab technician, who set out to make four waffles with flavors from four regions: button mushrooms, duck breast, Atlantic salmon, and Italian mozzarella.

Fourth candidate, Marie, from Reiningue, 38 years old, two children, local government official. "I love cooking, especially with local products, and in this waffle, there are a lot of garden products too," she emphasizes, at the stove for a gourmet waffle, Alsatian from the region, with smoked filet mignon, Munster cheese and zucchini.

The timer is on, the candidates have one hour to make their waffles and toppings . They start, but immediately a small incident occurs: the brand new, sharp knives surprise one candidate. Isabelle Haeberlin improvises as a nurse and everything quickly returns to normal. But the time passes very quickly, they have to soften the butter, mix the eggs with the flour, whisk with the milk...

Some candidates deviate somewhat from the traditional recipe ! It's their secret... Here lemon, there zucchini, or even rice or chickpea flour... We won't say any more! Yohann finishes first, right on time, followed by Aurélie, Muriel and Marie... "It smells like a farmhouse inn!" says Jean-Michel Feger, the chef of Il Cortile where the winners of the two waffle competitions, savory and sweet, will be offered lunch for two.

The jury looks at the works, listens to the artists, tastes the waffles, discusses, hesitates, and looks further… What if we wanted to sell this savory waffle? What would appeal most? Yohann's salmon would have deserved to be highlighted, above the cucumber and enhanced with a few herbs. Aurélie should have focused on a single recipe and distributed her toppings over the entire waffle rather than just on a diagonal.

It all came down to Muriel and Marie. On one side, a to-die-for, laser-cut dough, a soft and crunchy waffle, light and with flavors that burst in the mouth... And on the other, a perfectly cooked, generous, local and farmhouse waffle... The debates were fierce and it came down to a hair's breadth... The chef at Il Cortile couldn't have been more right, it was Marie's Alsatian waffle that won in the end.

In the sweet waffle competition, Valentin, a 29-year-old from Mulhouse looking for culinary training, won with his waffle with raspberries, fennel and chamomile-infused whipped cream.