Salade Saint-Jean

Hard-boil the eggs, 9 minutes; make the mayonnaise.

Trim the artichoke down to the heart with a paring knife, removing the leaves and the choke; clean the inside with a melon baller. Lemon prevents darkening.

Boil the artichoke heart in salted boiling water, about 10 minutes, then cut it into small cubes.

Trim the green beans and cut them as small as the peas; cut the potatoes into slices, then batonnets, then small cubes the same size, and hold them in cold water.

Keep the asparagus tips for decoration; peel the stalks thinly and cut them into the same small cubes.

Start the potatoes in cold salted water, bring to the boil and cook about 6 minutes; drain without refreshing.

In one big pot of salted boiling water cook the vegetables one after another: peas until the boil returns, green beans about 6 minutes; scoop out and drain each without refreshing, letting them cool naturally.

Cook the asparagus last, 2 and a half to 3 minutes until tender, and refresh in iced water to keep the colour.

Weigh the vegetables to equal quantities, 30 g of each per person.

Thin the mayonnaise with a teaspoon or two of vinegar so it coats the vegetables without becoming liquid.

Mix the vegetables in a bowl with about 2 tablespoons of the thinned mayonnaise.

Slice the eggs with an egg slicer, then roughly chop them; slice the gherkin and chop the herbs.

Pack the salad into a food stacker on a plate, pressing gently, and unmould; scatter the chopped egg, gherkin and herbs around.

Finish with a grind of pepper, salt flakes, a drizzle of oil and droplets of balsamic.