Gwenaëlle, Roast Cook

Gwenaëlle is one of the roast cooks in our Auchan Kirchberg store.

Starting at 6 in the morning, she begins roasting her first, mostly organic and free-range, chickens to her customer’s delight!

• Gwenaëlle, are you in front of your oven already at 6 am?

  Yes, and it is very nice in the winter, trust me! I start preparing the chickens that were delivered in the morning, I spit them and start the first roasting of the day… and certainly not the last! The roasting lasts about an hour and a half and the chickens have to be cooked through at 85 °C!

  This first batch is ready when the store opens. I start a new one around 10 am so customers who come for their lunch break find a golden roast chicken that is still warm! Same thing in the evening: I start roasting a batch at 5:30 pm for everyone who comes in after work and want to get a chicken!

• How many chickens do you roast?

  On Saturdays, we roast more than 200 chickens – and a little less during the week. Last year, we roasted more than 30,000 chickens altogether! And we also make a lot of other specialities: half-chickens, thighs, and a bit of pork.

• Among these 30,000 chickens, how many are organic or free-range?

  Auchan really strives hard to offer more and more free-range chickens to their customers. And those are our best seller! We are really happy about it: those chickens have the best texture and an incredible taste when roasted!

  We offer 17 different chickens which some are organic chickens. We are very proud to have on our stall some Challans poultry and flax seed fed chickens – only high-quality and traced products.

  To make all our customers happy – and especially the very large Luxembourg Portuguese community – we roast Churrasco chicken daily, roasted open and flat, with a delicious marinade! Roast chicken exists in most of the world’s cuisines, so all the nationalities that live in Luxembourg and come and see us find something for themselves!

• When your products are roasts, you have to sell them: how do you address your customers?

  I am trained in hotel management and gastronomy, so I know how to talk about my poultry. I know how to explain the difference between all the different kinds to my customers. And when I run out of words – it does not happen often because I am chatty – I let them have a bite!

  Tasting is important: it is a job in which all our senses have to be aroused. Kids love our stall and they are quite often the ones asking for a bite!

• Do you give your customers advice so they can have their chicken in the best possible conditions at home?

  Advice, yes, or rather tips! Some customers like it cold, but most customers also ask us if they can reheat it. The answer is of course yes, in its packaging or in a dish. But I always recommend not reheating it for too long to avoid drying out the meat. We also sell chicken juice to make the meal even better! At Auchan, quality is as important as taste to make our chickens so unique…