John Talbott's Paris

Reviews of reviews: The Week of April 11th, 2011

Monday-Tuesday, in A Nous Paris, Philippe Toinard reviewed and gave 3/5 dots to the empty-at-lunch Christophe coordinates well known, where he raved about the cochon basque, ventrèche et boudin, en nems, lamb and chocolate mousse on the 19 E lunch menu (a la carte 50 E); meanwhile Jerome Berger went to the Italian Retro Bottega in the 11th.

Tuesday, Patrick Astor of Le Fooding reviewed the opening of the long-heralded new wine bar Vivant, 43, rue des Petites Ecuries in the 10th, 01.42.46.43.55, closed Saturdays and Sundays, by Pierre Jancou (ex-Racines,) costing 36-50 € for green asparagus with rocket and parmesan, ham, chicken, and herb gnocchis.

Wednesday, Emmanuel Rubin reviewed his five new restaurants in Figaroscope’s “Les nouveautes a la carte” and this week only one merited two hearts: Akrame, 19, rue Lauriston in the 16th, 01.40.67.11.16, closed Sundays, costing 25 and 35 for weekday lunch and “menus” at 45 (4 plates) and 55 E (5) at other times, for items such as calamari like risotto, cod, black quinoa, lemon pasta, mango and strawberries. Then came 3 one-hearts – l’Ane & la Mule, 14, rue Guisarde in the 6th, 01.43.26.27.71, closed Sunday and Monday, serving lots of wine and stuff out of the frigo, such as Camdeborde frere’s charcuterie for 20-40 E depending on your soif; Josephine, 69, ave Marceau in the 16th, 01.47.20.05.96, closed weekends, costing 25 E for veal blanquette and pastries; and La Bonne Chasse, 3, rue Malassis in the 15th 01.48.28.36.16, closed Sundays and Mondays, costing 25 a la carte and a lunch formula at 15 E for a terrine and curry chicken and frites. Poor broken-hearted Bouche B, 6, rue de la Tacherie in the 4th, 09.54.34.34.18, closed Saturday lunch and Sundays, costs 15 E for the lunch formula and about 35 for the carte of things such as oeuf cocotte, duck breast and bar.

Figaroscope’s “Dossier” this week was by Colette Monsat and Alexandra Michot and listed a few places in Paris where you can eat “local:” (PS there were lots of shops listed as well).
Le Meurice
L’Orenoc
And Francois Simon wrote a “Hache Menu” about one of them, Les Comediens in the 6th, which he says to go to.

Thursday, in l’Express, Francois Regis Gaudryheaded up the team that did a special section on vegetarian places mentioning: Un Vegetarien, Aquarius, + Joy in Food in Paris and Le Cours en Vert + Jardin interieur in Marseille & Lyon respectively.

Saturday, in Le Figaro Francois Simon’s Croque Notes talked about Wulf in Belgium.

In Bonjour Paris, Margaret Kemp wrote an essay that included Hôtel Thoumieux and Maison Thoumieux and John Talbott one entitled “Forced Courses For Two: Is This a Trendette?

 

An invasion of Japanese chefs and cooking.

I picked up A Nous Paris the other day and quickly went to the Resto section to see what’s new by Toinard and Berger or Berger and Toinard as the case might be. Kura, another Japanese place. What’s going on?

Now a very quick scan through the 2010 and 2011 Figaroscope’s and ANP’s reveals the following have opened in the past 15 months:
Le Petit Usagi
Atao
Momoka 2.0
L’Arc Bento
Kei
Izakaya Isse
Kura
Kunitoraya II
Sola
Happa Tei
Nobu
Komaki
Tokki
Isse
Bizan
Toyo
Orient Extreme Montaigne
Concert de la Cuisine (well I’m cheating a bit with the last since it opened December the year before but as Yogi Berra might have said “No one went there.”)

In any case, that’s about one a month.

Again, I wonder “what’s the deal?”

I think there are several models:

The oldest type, except for the ubiquitous sushi joints and carts all over town, is probably represented by Carte Postale, a place that advertised that it had “fusion” cooking when it opened decades ago; a fusion of Japanese and French specifically. Stella Maris may represent the pinnacle of this trend.

Then there are places like Guilo Guilo, where an (apparently) much-heralded-chef comes to Paris and cooks Japanese-Japanese cuisine, no fooling around.

The opposite is represented by Hide, run by a Japanese (in origin) guy who cooks French-French cooking, no fooling around. And, Ribouldingue, that French abbat heaven for offal lovers, has recently had its piano taken over by a Japanese chef.

Then there are spins on the middle ground:

With Ze Kitchen Galerie, William Ledeuil, a classic Savoy-type French chef, started using Asian ingredients and preparations (for example raw fish) and creating what is not really fusion cuisine but French cuisine with Asian twists (and it helps of course to have a lot of Asians in the cuisine itself.

And Qui Plume La Lune represents another sort; here chef Jacky Ribault works with three other guys in the kitchen and none looks to have Asian blood in the veins. Ribault, himself, has worked at/with some pretty classic French places – Taillevent, Pierre Gagnaire, Pierre Hermé and Alain Passard, but undoubtedly it was his stint at Shozan that informed the cooking and plating he now does.

Le Concert de la Cuisine is another different take on the middle ground. Here a Japanese born guy (and wife and souschef) who worked at a classical Japanese place in Paris, branches out on his own and cooks what I can only call Haute or paradoxically Nouvelle Japanese Cuisine.

And finally there’s Sola, which when it opened, made a point of trying to insist that it presented French and Japanese food without mixing the two. Well, not quite. It’s exquisite cuisine and as I was exiting the Metro I thought you know, good food is good food, who cares whether it’s French with a Japanese twist or fusion or just a great Japanese-born chef using clever ingredients, herbs and spices and doing inventive cooking?

What is my point? Well, several things are clear. The French love Japanese cuisine and Japanese chefs and Japanese chefs love preparing a whole range of dishes from pure Japanese classics, through fusion stuff to pure French classics.

This is clearly a change. Because I remember in 1989 I had to plan out periodic forays to a purely Japanese place; now go practically anywhere in town far away from the Sainte Anne/Richelieu axis,and you’ll stumble over one.

Are they all good?

In no way. I had one of the worst meals of one week at Toyo; my local joint can occasionally be off and some fish may not be the freshest in the market. But for the most part things are pretty good.

The latest three of these were:

Sola aka Sola par Hiroki Yoshitake
12, rue de l'Hotel Colbert in the 5th, (Metro: St Michel)
T: 01.43.29.59.04 (but beware quirky phone-answering reliability)
Closed Sundays and Mondays
“Surprise” menus at lunch - 2 entrees,1 plat, 1 dessert = 45; one more plat = 50E; dinner 45 and 60 E for the same.

Kei
5 rue Coq Heron in the 1st, (Metro: Louvre-Rivoli)
T: 01.42.33.33.14.74
Closed Sundays and Mondays
Lunch menus 38 + 48 € for 4 or 5 dishes and dinner ones for 75 & 95 € for 6 or 8 dishes

Le Concert de la Cuisine

14, rue Nelaton in the 15th, (Metro: Bir-Hakeim)
T: 01.40.58.10.15
Closed Sundays and Saturday and Monday lunch
Lunch menus 24 & 29, dinner 40 & 57 E.

 

Madrid/Barajas Eats and Sights.

Easter week we decided to flee the hexagon and meet grand-kids/etc in Spain for a week.

We arrived in beautiful 22-28 degree sunny weather and decided to eat at La Plaza in the square not far from our hotel in Barajas, the town/quarter not the airport.

Spring in the 1st: How does Daniel Rose keep doing it?

 
Colette would eat at Spring 365 days a year if she could; I need breaks from the brilliance.  Today, he promised very simple food - sure!  Maybe simple in his book, but not in mine.  We had called last week to request the front table facing the ever-changing soon-to-be-pedestrian street, hoping Sean Penn (see last meal)

might be back at work, but all that was going on was the instillation of a newer, more powerful, electrical supply.  In any case avante.

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Beautiful eh?

-Sea urchins with horseradish

-Giant but melt-in-your-mouth green asparagus with cuttlefish and a duck reduction/egg yolk vinaigrette

-Turbot with morels and blettes and an almost bisquey sauce (pix missing in action)

-Rhubarb with ice cream and broken biscuits and a strawberry sauce

-Grapefruit sorbet with cacao.

Our bill with bottled water (how did I let Colette order that? too busy chatting I'm afraid), a bottle and a half of reasonably-priced wine (Audrey has figured out I'm more Scots than French), much better bread than I recall = 110 E.

Go?  For lunch there are still slots and Josh is working on a new system to record reservations, changes, cancellations, etc. electronically, so by the time you come, it might be in place.

Gaya par Pierre Gagnaire aka Gaya Rive Gauche: an archival review*.

Gaya par Pierre Gagnaire aka Gaya Rive Gauche, 44, rue du Bac in the 7th, 0145.44.73.73, still looks like the building it’s in is wrapped a la Christo under gauze, but the place itself is in full swing at long last. As someone who’s always liked GRG, in its various incarnations, I was delighted to see that the “lifting” had made it even lighter, brighter and bluer. Clients at this point seem to be a mixture of political & cinema celebs, local business-folk and functionaries, but dress is from ties to tees.

Seating is easy at lunch, but dinners are already fully booked. The boss was there the day we went and as far as I’m concerned it was all Gagniere with none of the old Gaya left over.

First, we had three amuse gueules; raw fish on a toothpick (I assume to show you he still can pick the product), anchovy paste on toasted bread and little, almost desserty-type cookies and flat breads.

We shared the courses: to start, we had a few Special #2 oysters; then our firsts were a “cocktail” glass of wasabied mango & grapefruit, then noodles, topped off with thinly sliced cod as well as an “egg mimosa,” what were really three lines of incredible fishy-food, a chopped herring thing, a chopped bulot thing and balls of egg yolks surrounded by cod (I think) and accompanied by a tiny bowl of the water the bulots were cooked it – very neutral but refreshing; mains were a deconstructed tempura-ized cuttlefish and haddock and coques on a bed of mixed grains (bulgar, quinoa and an ancient variety of wheat from Provence) – both exquisite; and desserts of a turinois (sour cherry sauce at the bottom of a glass, with a middle of pralines and other crunchy stuff, topped off with a chocolate wafer and a “chantilly” with green apples – really a rocket salad with whipped cream enhanced with pistachio and Izarra liquor on top.

The coffee was served with macaroons of different flavors, each sliced in the middle where delicious confiture stuff was layered.

The price – I notice no one else gives prices but I will – without liquid and oysters (which we ordered on a whim) would have been just about 100E/2 – not bad! (firsts are 6-32 E; mains are 22-65 E; and desserts 8.50-10; so it’s an elastic price-range.

Go back? you bet, soon.

*Originally published in September 2005.

Miro's Sculptures at the Maillol: I didn't get it.

In about a week, we'll be in the Miro Museum in Barcelona, a place I love and am really looking forward to.  As a prelude (I thought), we'd see an exhibition of his sculpture at the Maillol.

Well, my verdict, unlearned as I am, is that without a two dimensional canvas and his brilliant colors, these goofy blobs of metal are pretty much just that - goofy blobs of metal.  On to Catalonia!

A minus wow (until July 31 if you must.)

Sola in the 5th: Hiroki's Undiscovered Hideaway

Sola par Hiroki in the 5th remains a charming, largely as-yet undiscovered gem.   Today Colette and I ate there with old/new friends who just got back from two weeks in Morocco and were hankering for fine Parisian cooking; well, Hiroki offers that.

After the last time's almost-faux-pas, when I attempted to attack the "baby marshmallow" with a knife and fork I was saavy enough today, to use the cleansing towel for its intended purpose.

The starter/amuse was a soup of fennel, grapefruit and lemon oil which, if we hadn't been told, I would have guessed to be a cream of leeks with agrume flavoring.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then came minced salmon with beets, burrata and a foie gras "omelet" with shiso (perilla, wild coleus, etc.,) followed by a foie gras "omelet" (I swear) on top of white, barely cooked, or perhaps blanched and cooled asparagus, honey, parmesan and pousses de miel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then for mains, the ladies had pieces of merlan, radishes, potatoes, baby scallions, on a bed of garlic and covered with an emulsion of emulsion, and the men had slices of beautiful entrecote with Japanese mushrooms, other veggies and potatoes with a wasabi sauce.  Great both!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Desserts were a platter of a dark chocolate creme, vanilla ice cream, caramelized nuts, meringue and almond tuiles as well as nuages (yes, clouds) of soya.

With two bottles of wine, no bottled water and four coffees, our bill was 115 E a couple.

Anything else John?  As a matter of fact yes; there were so many ingredients, many of them unknown to us, we needed not only the waitguy's wonderful descriptions but the help of the gracious chef at one point.

Chagall's Bible at the Musée d'art et d'histoire du Judaïsme.

 
Chalk it up to an omission in my erudition or the fact that the book appeared near the end of my otherwise pretty classy classical education, but I had no idea that Marc Chagall did the illustrations for two editions of the Bible.  And, while the finished product (of the first from 1956) sits in a case looking all black and white, the walls of the exhibit are aglow with Chagall-Chagall yellows, reds, greys and blacks of his later 100 copy edition.

It's almost too much to absorb of a sunny afternoon in Paris.

3 Wows, Until June 5th - will not travel (a shame!)

Qui Plume La Lune in the 11th: How inventive he is: Still a wow and filling up quickly.

 
Colette's back in town and sampling the best places I had the pleasure of eating at while she was elsewhere.  Our first (today) was Qui Plume La Lune in the 11th where I'd eaten with fellow blogger R. just a few days ago; but this time I plunged into the forced choice 3-course "formula" for 23 E that sounded terrific.  And not to spoil the ending but it was.

The amuse bouche was again a creme but this was cauliflower with salmon topped with sesame seeds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Colette had the scallops today which were on a bed of pureed vanilla artichoke and two types of greens (one of which our waitguy said usually only birds ate - they know something we don't - delicious.)  I had a large Thai salad with a ton of veggies and greens as well as first-rate chosen and cooked turbot with crisps of something ineffable on top and within.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She then had poached bar with vinegared strawberry slices and pureed petit pois and I the scallops with 5 "perfumes" and a lot of veggies on top of soy vermicelli - both first-rate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, Colette had what R. and I toyed with having last time - the rhubarbapapa, poached rhubarb on a sable cookie and topped with circus-sized cotton candy; I on the other hand didn't know what to expect from my forced choice warm coconut milk with toasted sesame seeds - one taste and I feared no longer - it was ambrosia.

The bookend was/were madeleines and lemon tarts that were again celestial.

With no bottled water or coffee but great bread and a nice wine, our bill was 92 E.

Go?  Come on; this is inventive stuff - the Spring, l'Agrume, Frenchie, Bigarrade, Regalade/St H., Moustache, Dauphin, etc., of the season - in a group with Sola + Kei.

Lessons Learned in Italy (or at least Venice); Cultural Differences.

-They’re enthusiastic and up and love it if you (an Anglo) speak even one word, mispronounced.
-The veggies and salad stuff comes in early here, not marked Provence (from unmarked hothouses).
-They still 85.785 % order bottled water – no tap.
-They love raw fish.
-The breads remain pathetic except in high priced places (don’t just believe me – drive from Genova to Menton.)
-They are loving Steak Tartare these days, of course made with Italian Worchester and Tabasco (not).
-They love olives.
-They love EVOO
-They love ground pepper in real not frou-frou grinders filled daily.
-They love big capers with stems
-They love children and take them to restos.
-They can make pizzas, risotto and (occasionally polenta) even though “they” are from far South of Europe.
-They offer carafes of house wine still.
-They buy good coffee from other than their ex-colonies, roast it and make it and correct it correctly.
-They cook tripes and liver, better Florentine & Venetian than Caenian and Lyonnaise.
-They still cook “regional.”
-They eat lunch much later and get out from dinner much earlier.
-Waitresses are openly flirtacious and women on the ordinary bus as well as TV news and in Berlusconi’s cabinet are – how shall I say it – showing their mettle.
-They respond to suggestions to change things easily – pastas and sauces for example.
-They love peasant music, be it Italian or American.
-The men come in in suits and ties and the women in jeans vs. France where it’s v.v.
-They clear plates Los Angeles style not waiting ‘til everyone is done.
-They have no problem if you take 5 waitperson's visits to order (cf France where if the table is not ready, it’s “forgotten” for an hour).
-There’s one chef in the kitchen and 3 folks out front – the opposite of FR.
-They have Slow Food and a Slow Food movement.
-The food and other shops are open during what used to be their siesta.
-They drink more bubbly during dinner, not just before.
-They don’t serve (at every meal)
- Pseudo American frites
- Pumpkin soup
- mashed potatoes
- rice pudding
- moulleux of chocolate
- apple tart/tatin
-They have no “philosophy” of food – cf El Bulli or molecular.
-They still have a “cover charge,” a charming throwback to the past.
-They still want you to make your own dressing for salads (mine is 2.5 EVOO, -.5 Balsamic, +.5 Regular vinegar and lots of ground black pepper.)
-All waitresses must have wrist tattoos.
-And who knows what else?