Italians and almost Italians (The OFF feuilleton, part 1)

With delay, here is my feuilleton about the OFF4 – It has four episodes, or maybe five, we’ll see.

De OFF 4- Day 1

As I first told you, the overwhelming impression of the OFF4 was that the Danes stole the show, because of what I’d have to call their sincerity – their genuine passion for food and their country, and for exploring. There were a few other trends I should mention. For instance one common thing among the many Italian participants was that, no matter how inventive, different of convincing they were, they all proposed reinterpretations of classics of Italian cuisine. One was cooking without wheat, the other was reinventing the pizza, a third one was redefining risotto, some were pretty orthodox and some went wild, but it always seemed that you cannot cook as an Italian if you are not cooking a traditional Italian course. It’s OK if your recipe has no ingredient or technique in common with the original, but the name needs to be familiar.

De OFF 4- Day 1

Another thing I’d like to remember is the humility and devotion of a few chefs – but only a few. Chief among them was Frank Ceruti, he who ran the Louis XV (Ducasse’s flagship restaurant in Monaco) until recently. That guy has been a three star chef for almost twenty years, but it was moving to see him prepare a plate of pasta with vegetables in front of us. Now of course, he’s part of the Ducasse team, so there was a lot of memorized (internalized, even) marketing bullshit he gave us, like when he claimed that they just discovered the technique to rub your knife on garlic before slicing truffle at the Louis XV. But at the same time, he was indeed sharing this little known technique (mentioned, I should point out, in Ptipois’ book with Pébeyre, the truffle king), even though, in the context of a cooking show where dishes are meant to be photographed not eaten, emphasizing the taste and smell of the truffle did not make a difference.

De OFF 4- Day 1

So while the confirmed three star chef is cooking pasta, and Sébastien Démorand, the host of the show, asks him something about what he’s thinking about I don’t know what. And he says “right now, I’m thinking about not screwing this dish”. Seriously. Three star chef. Confirmed. Cooking show. I couldn’t help thinking that there might actually be something authentic, maybe even human, somewhere at the heart of the Ducasse empire. Really.

De OFF 4- Day 1

Cinq you very much

La version française viendra plus tard.

De Le Cinq, Briffard

(Photo Ptipois)

News from my favourite active chef : Eric Briffard. Followers of the Parisian food scene know that Eric Briffard, once the almost three star chef of the Plaza Athénée, then ousted for cause of Ducasse-isation of said palace, then lost in the Parisian desert, then sheltered at Les Elysées where he used to offer the best value in town, is now heading the many kitchen of the Four Seasons hotel of Paris, a hotel historically known as “George V”, whose gastronomic restaurant is called “Le Cinq”.

De Le Cinq, Briffard

This means that this brilliant, yet skinny, (maybe the two are unrelated after all?) chef moved from a kitchen with maybe six cooks where he finished every cooking himself and would let no one else chop the vegetable juliennes, to managing an army of app. 90 cooks: gastronomic restaurant, room service, bar, banquets, etc. Now, I won’t lie to you: it is a rough transition.

De Le Cinq, Briffard

This is made rougher by Briffard’s very subtle cooking. First he’s a Robuchon boy, which makes him demanding as far as ingredients and techniques are concerned. Second, his specific talent is one of bringing together a high number of ingredients and making the whole dish feel simple and obvious. He’s somewhat of a symphonist, in that sense. See for instance his raw foie gras dish, in fact a salad of vegetables, fruits and flowers with slices of raw foie gras. The experience of eating this dish is very basic and intense – it’s fresh and fatty at the same time. And it feels perfect and simple.

De Le Cinq, Briffard

How do you manage to get two or three teams of unionized palace cooks to implement and respect the subtle balance that your food requires? Since Briffard took over Le Cinq, there clearly have been tough times in that regard. This leads me to suppose that maybe, the reason the former chef, Philippe Legendre, left, had to do with the staff being difficult. The restaurant is open everyday and some friends and clients, taking advantage of this feature, went to Le Cinq on days when Briffard was off and only had so-so meals. Luckily the waiting staff is world class, led by the legendary Eric Beaumard and an army of Maître d’ who all manage to constantly look delighted to serve you and keep the goodies coming. And the wine list is unimpeachable.

I myself, on a sad February night, had the sad experience of spending a comfortable amount of money on a tasting menu that was a mean caricature of the food of my favorite chef. The subtle compositions of Briffard and their magical effect in the mouth had turned into arbitrary juxtapositions of incompatible flavors with approximate cooking and seasoning. Not to mention, a waiter came to us at the end of the meal saying it was on the house, and then a captain came to apologize – no, it wasn’t on the house and this was the bill.

De Le Cinq, Briffard

(That's good pastry: when there are toys inside)

Even when Briffard was in the house, food was not always as good as it was at Les Elysées, Briffard’s former restaurant. The good news that prompts me to write this post is twofold. 1/ The excellent meal I just had relied on perfectly conceived and typically Briffard dishes. There had been, in recent months, a temptation to offer courses that were fundamentally unworthy of Briffard’s talent; at least in the lunch menu (I remember in particular a pointless palace interpretation of Osso Bucco).

De Le Cinq, Briffard

(This is a whiting dish, but the stars here are the fava beans)

2/Even better, my latest excellent meal happened to be once again when Briffard was not in the house, which strongly suggests a leap in the hold he has on his teams. Maybe he got a new sous-chef, or the right one was handling business that day. I don’t know.

One good meal is not enough for a definitive statement, but this is going in the right direction and consistently has been in the last few months. And there is the precedent of the Plaza-Athénée, where veterans say the food was just great. And this was not my first great meal at le Cinq – just the first great one when he wasn’t in. This requires confirmation, but I have the same message I had in a recent posts about bistrots: you can go out again.

De Le Cinq, Briffard

One more thing: among the many traps of managing a palace kitchen is the sacred independence of the pastry chef. Apparently, Briffard just doesn’t have a say when it comes to pastry and dessert at le Cinq. That’s too bad, because all my experiences in the last year demonstrate that the pastry chef is nowhere near Briffard. Desserts are dull, academic, over-sugared. If you have a sweet tooth, rely on the mignardises: there’s more than enough. But just skip dessert until I tell you otherwise.

De Le Cinq, Briffard

(Feuilleté de pigeonneau, not for wusses)

Oh, I forgot: lunch menu is 85€, everyday. Go.

Alive and well

De Lasserre

La version française est ici.

Lasserre is a historical monument of a restaurant. It once was ZE top restaurant in Paris (say, in the 50s?) and it still is today a solid institution, who not only keeps its standing but also has loyal regular clients. From the moment you step in, you know they take French art de vivre seriously in here. It starts downstairs with this hall like in a cozy bourgeois mansion. This lobby is transition – you wouldn’t want to enter such an institution directly from the street. You are taken upstairs, where the dining room is, in a small elevator that is of course operated by one of the waiters in tail coats – you probably couldn’t manage the technical complexity. The tiny elevator leads to the large, generously decorated and flowered dining room, its large windows and mostly its spectacular opening roof.

De Lasserre

Like the house, like their outfit, the attitude of these waiters seems to be from another time, friendly in fact, but obviously distant, professional, somewhat ironic. Don’t let the attitude fool you: they’re here to please you, and they don’t act snutty or condescending when you want the75€ lunch menu with tap water. Neither do the cooks. Unlike other top restaurants in town, the value lunch at Lasserre regularly features the top hits of the house like the macaronis, the pigeon “André Malraux”, the “timbale” or strawberry.

De Lasserre

Despite the names and the setting and the tailcoats (did I mention them?), cooking is not stuck in the 1950s. On the contrary, it is rather modern, led by one of the best Ducasse boys, Jean-Louis Nomicas, a great technician but also a genuine food lover who does not get carried away by technology or fashion. Thus among the amuses is the foie gras simply served between two crispy ginger bread slices. Beyond the crisp, they bring a discreet seasoning. The quail egg, fried, lies on a sable. At the end of the meal, small profiterolles and lemon tarts are at the same time plain but modern and light, with flavours that are clear and intense if classical.

De Lasserre

The food welcomes you like the place does: it is accessible, familiar, but it is still special and made with extreme care. This is a place where you can come as a food lover obsessed with what’s in your plate, but you can also come for a civilized meal, family or business, where the food is not a conversation-stopper.

De Lasserre

Of course, you should expect no revolution – that’s no what they’re here for. Foie gras ravioli is thus immerged in a lobster bisque that, if its taste is clear and precise, is still heavily buttered and creamed. It comes with mushrooms and foie dices that are violently seared.
Lasserre is also home to the famous Canard à l’orange, carved tableside, a recipe which does seem unchanged from the times of André Malraux. The pleasure starts, and maybe ends, with the expert gesture of a maître d’ carving the duck in a way that not totally Chinese but also not quite French.

De Lasserre

The lambi s cooked with precision, wrapped in a herb crust, with a provencal side which demonstrates the validity of sucj traditional recipes. Too often olive, artichoke and sweet pepper are convoked for some kind of tasteless stew that only masks the taste of the meat. And sometimes it is exactly what the meat needs. But here you see why these vegetables, properly used, emphasize the taste of the lamb, put it forward. The juice with sweet spices is a demonstration of ancient skills – and significant manpower (you don’t get these juices by showing up just before the meal or hiring random cooks).

De Lasserre

The 75e lunch deal is clearly one of the biggest steals in town. Even with the less friendly à la carte prices, Lasserre is still worth a detour. In its warmth, it constitutes a sharp contrast with its neighbour Ledoyen. Sometimes I think that those two together represent the best of top Parisian restaurants – the Dionysian and the Apollonian dimensions, sheer enjoyment on one side and a more contemplative approach on the other.

De Lasserre

A good roll

De Jadis

I don't know why, but I've been on a pretty good roll lately with bistrots in Paris and elsewhere. An excellent one, actually, who reconciled me with dining in Paris -- regular readers will remember that I was slowly losing hope in the seriousness of French cooks. I was also worrying that maybe I was starting to develop the syndrom of the bored food critics, who grew unimpressed by a perfect roast chicken or anything good really, unless it is novel enough to wake him up and make him escape the boredom of his fate.

De Jadis

Turns out, I'm fine. And maybe the economic crisis made people in business everywhere, and in restaurants in particular, work seriously again. Or maybe I just got lucky. Anyway, time to share with you all those very good meals I had. I started the series, I think, after the OFF4 (about which I still have a couple of things to write, stay tuned) and an improvised lunch at Jadis: it was simple and really good, an honest, unpretentious, and very well mastered cooking -- oeufs pochés, rognon de veau, and a superb cheese platter, from no big name fromager, but sent from some shop deep down in Auvergne. Food, not names or ideas. Bravo.

De Joséphine et son pain

It was also long overdue, but I finally tried Joséphine Chez Dumonnet, a true Paris institution, with absolutely traditional Parisian brasserie food, and setting, and an impressive generosity. At first I thought that it did not look cheap, but then it turned out that the paté de campagne easily serves four and the canard aux choux actually consists of a whole duck, so it's actually pretty cheap after all. Also, they have a specialty of truffles (like in the andouillette in puff pastry you can see right upthere), and an excellent bread that they buy at the bakery next door (see the gallery for more pictures).

De Five guys, Bleeker street

In a trip to North America, I also let go of my fine dining/Internet researching way and hit more or less randomly (OK, with some recommendations) some very delicious places, starting with the renowned Modern Apizza in New Haven, Connecticut (best American style pizza I had), the excellent underground Thai restaurant at Fulton and Gold Street in downtown NYC, and the wonderfully "no BS" Five guys (picture), which made up for not having been to the West Coast and In&Out. You know I might actually like Five Guys even more than In&Out. I never had a burger with truly warm meat before ever, I think.

De Au Bon Accueil

Back in France, another long overdue visit what to Au Bon Accueil, a restaurant of which I only ever heard good things. At the same time, that was true of its neighbour in the same rue Monttessuy, Vin sur vin, which turned out to be pretty crappy. And I was still worried when I entered the very black and white restaurant full of old gentlemen in grey suits. But the menu was reassuring, and mostly, the food was perfect (freshness, cooking, seasoning), even in the less than 30€ prix fixe menu. I did not try, but they too appear to be versed in the dark arts of truffle, and with seriously friendly prices --their truffle and vegetable dish at ca 30€, the whole Coucou de Rennes roast for two with a risotto truffle for barely more. I'll be back, and if they confirm, it'll definitely be a new favourite.

De Au Dernier Métro

It kept going with a true bistrot like I did not think they existed anymore. Not a néo-bistrot, not a bistrot de chef, just a place where you'll eat consistently good frites, boeuf bourguignon and other standards, for less than 30€ pp for real, with wine, and dessert and all. Plus, they serve all day (don't you sometimes feel like having lunch at 3pm or dinner after 10pm without having to go to a MacDonalds or Le Pied de Cochon?) and they're open everyday. It's bd de Grenelle at the métro Dupleix. And it's called Au Dernier Métro. At that point it was clear that I was protected by the Gods, and even the new Big Mac with wholegrain bread I had at Saint André les Vergers (Aube) wasn't bad.

De MacDonalds, Saint André les Vergers (Aube)

And indeed said Gods then sent me to more places that I want to return to, and frequently if they serve me meals as good as the ones they served me the first time. In fact, I already went back to L'Auberge du Quincy chez Boboss, another institution that was new to me, and Boboss confirmed that I was not only lucky the first time. Auberge is a very tired word, but it has its meaning with Boboss, who is not only colourful but also obviously a fine palate and a demanding boss. A case in point would be the Parma ham that he has aged three years for him, or the goose foie gras that he serves (they're both on the picture because they were both on my plate, I wonder why). The Chef is former Benoit, and this is ZE place for old traditional dishes: cassoulet, escargots, pieds paquets, caillette, tête de veau...

De Le Quincy

Now something even less likely happened too: a modern bistrot, one that clearly belongs to the "jeune cuisine", as they say, actually impressed me not because of the good look of the chef or the audacity of his concept (more fashionable chefs bashing soon, stay tuned), but because of an excellent meal, with pleasant service and a wise offer of wines. That would be Le Bistral rue Lemercier, next to the Marché des Batignolles (17th). I grew up there, mind you, but that's not what made the meal special. In fact, I'll talk to you more abou that meal when the pictures are ready -- but let me tell you that the wines were natural and sincere, and the cooking, which looked unnecessarily complex on the black board, was balanced, subtle and delicious. While we're at it, I also confirmed l'AOC as an old favourite, with the caveat that this is one of those places where you have to know for themselves what they do well because they don't know it. That's particularly true of the very average beef they put forward as "bidoche" (slang for meat). But when it comes to bone marrow, to terrinnes and ham, to slowly rotissoired echine de cochon, it is solid and not even expensive.

Bottom line: it's safe out there. You may eat out again.