Browsing the shelves of a supermarket brimming with bagged salads, fruit imported from the ends of the earth and vacuum-packed steaks with prices driven up by inflation, you'd think that shopping had become an obstacle course. Would a top chef today be able to create a decent menu while navigating this minefield − with a modest budget? We extended the challenge to several top chefs, who refused due to concerns about their brand image. Eventually, one adventurer stepped up to the challenge.

And that was how I found myself at the entrance to a supermarket in Bagnolet, just outside Paris. The chef was already there. Bruno Verjus, a convivial man with the physique and culture of a Rabelaisian ogre, whose tall silhouette, padded out with his soft tartan pants and bulky parka, stood out against the halo of neon lights. "I haven't set foot in a supermarket for 30 years!" laughed the 64-year-old chef. I repeated the mission to him: to create a complete, top-of-the-range meal for four people for €30. "It should be fine," said the two-star chef. "I saw customers coming out with fresh vegetables that looked perfect to me."

Verjus, however, seemed to be an unlikely fit for the task. Firstly, because the menu he serves at Table, his restaurant set behind a green curtain of plants and shrubs in a quiet alleyway in Paris' 12^th arrondissement, is one of the most expensive in the capital, at €400 per person. Secondly, because this amateur turned professional "through the power of the palate," as he wrote in his book L'Art de Nourrir ("The Art of Nourishing"), swears only by "living" products – meaning those very freshly picked or caught – from suppliers who have, for the most part, become his friends.

His vegetables come from Xavier Fender's almost wild plantations in Sancy-lès-Provins, his citrus fruits are pampered by Perrine and Etienne Schaller, at the foot of Mont Canigou, and his ancient-breed poultry is well-tended by Frédéric Ménager in Burgundy. These are top-quality products of exceptional quality and (sometimes) price.

However, for Verjus, the pleasures of the palate are not just a question of money. "Above all, cooking is about giving love and knowing how to find good products wherever they are, even in supermarkets," he explained. If this self-taught chef wasn't afraid to take on the supermarkets, it was perhaps because, deep down, he has never done anything like everyone else. A former medical student, medical equipment entrepreneur and food journalist, he wandered between the United States and China, before opening Table, later in life, at the age of 54. "In the early days, there was just me in the kitchen, cooking up a €25 menu," he said. "In fact, I still have a few loyal customers from those days, and I still charge them that price."

You have 70% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.