GTCO Food & Drink Festival: French Star Chef Jean-Baptiste Ascione Wows Lagos With Coffee-Aged Beef, Tartare

Mary Nnah

Lagos was set on fire recently not by heat, but by butter, flame, and two-day coffee-soaked beef as French culinary star Jean-Baptiste Ascione headlined a masterclass at the just-concluded GTCO Food and Drink Festival held May 1 to 3 in Lagos.

The Parisian chef, famed for his appearance on Top Chef France where his dessert was crowned best across all seasons, stunned attendees with his masterclass titled “Refined Dish Inspired by French Cuisine.”

Ascione, who began cooking at 13 and honed his craft at Michelin-starred La Grande Cascade and Prince de Galles, told a packed hall that his cuisine is shaped by “travel, instinct, and a deep respect for product and fire.”

He opened Petit Gris in Paris at just 26, followed by wine bar Faby, and is set to unveil Le Petit Brochant in June 2026.

In Lagos, Ascione wasted no time shocking the crowd. “I put the beef in this coffee two days ago. After two days, it’s tender, and you can have the taste of the smell of the coffee,” he said, pulling out beef that had bathed in coffee for 48 hours before searing it in butter, thyme, and toffee “because I’m French.”

He prepared two dishes live: a classic beef tartare with capers, shallots, parsley, mustard and egg, and a butter-cooked version of the same coffee-aged cut, finished with smoked cream, parsley oil, and fish eggs.

He broke down French staples with disarming simplicity. “Tartare is when you cut like this. Little pieces. That’s it. If I cut like this, it will be a carpaccio,” he explained, confirming that tartare “normally it’s raw” and safe if “you need fresh pieces.”

Pressed on how to keep raw meat safe in Lagos heat, he was candid: “In Paris, it’s raining every day. So, it’s not the same situation. For me, in Paris, I can have my meat for tomorrow… In two days, you can eat fresh meat at my restaurant. That’s why it’s complicated here.”

On cooking with wine, Ascione was clear: the flame burns off the alcohol. “Normally, when you cook with alcohol, you set it on fire — a big flame. By the end, there’s no alcohol left,” he said. “If you don’t drink for religious reasons, you’re not consuming alcohol. And you won’t get drunk.”

The session ended with the crowd begging for recipes. “Not everyone is taking notes. We need step by step so we can practice,” one attendee said, as organizers promised follow-ups.
From “champignon de Paris” mushrooms – “But I’m sure it’s not from Paris” – to duxelles and smoked cream, Ascione’s raw, fiery, and unfiltered approach turned the GTCO masterclass into one of the festival’s most talked-about moments, proving that in Lagos, refined French cuisine still comes with a kick of flame.