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