Good Eating

I’ve been feasting here in Paris.  It’s a world of culinary delights.  Two of the meals in the past two weeks definitely belong on my hypothetical Top Ten list, which got me to thinking about what that list would actually be.  I’m a list maker, love lists, think in lists, speak in lists; yet I had never created an actual Amy’s Top Ten list of restaurants and/or dining experiences.  So after considerable thought, and in consultation with Brad to confirm my memories, I’m creating at least a first pass at that list here, in no particular order:

• Le Cinq (Paris)
• Restaurant Guy Savoy (Paris)
• Biba (Boston)
• L’Espalier (Boston)
• Restaurant Daniel (New York)
• Gramercy Tavern (New York)
• Sushi:  Nobu / Matsuhisa Nobu (Las Vegas) Matsuhisha (Aspen and Los Angeles)
• Aqua (San Francisco )
• La Pont de la Tour, (London)
• Lespinasse in the St. Regis Hotel in New York, which no longer seems to exist?  Does anybody have current information?  I just spent an inordinate amount of time trolling around the internet and could find old articles from 1991 about the restaurant, but the hotel’s website doesn’t contain anything about Lespinasse.  This was my very first degustation menu, and a vegetarian degustation at that.  Forever memorable.

Restaurant opinions are very personal, of course.  As they say here: Chacun a son goût.  I’ve been fortunate enough to experience meals at so many superb restaurants, several of them on this Top 50 List.

My two Top Ten Paris restaurant experiences at Le Cinq and Restaurant Guy Savoy had plenty of similarities, all of them wonderful.  The food was exquisite:  delicate, fresh, beautiful, aromatic, unique, full of adjectives.  At both places the staff is clearly delighted to be doing what they’re doing, and proud to share their knowledge and the evening in high good spirits.  There was not a single second of feeling awkward about being an American or not really speaking French.  Both evenings were lengthy, and I never noticed time passing.  Zen gourmet.

I think I’d have to say that the major difference between the two evenings, which may make Le Cinq slightly more memorable in the long term, is that I forgot to tell the incredible staff there that I’m seriously allergic to wine, and something was prepared with that vile substance, and by the time we got home after the meal, I was sick as a dog.  I thought I might be sick in the back of the taxi or in the street.  Yippee.  Later that day (since I was up until well after 2:00, procrastinating as hard as possible the inevitable vomiting process, and then puking my guts out), while waiting to feel like a human being again, reading the menu more closely, it very clearly states, “Salade de morilles a l’araignee de mer at AU VIN JAUNE” which in English means Morel Mushroom Salad with Spider Crab and YELLOW WINE, YOU ILLITERATE, PRETENDER TO BE SPEAKING THE FRENCH, SEVERELY ALLERGIC TO THE WINE PERSON.”  Of course, the reason I was able to lazily peruse the menu was that when Brad asked for a copy of the menu during our dinner, meaning a single quick photocopy, the restaurant prepared individual copies of our own particular degustation menu for the evening for each member of our party.  That’s a new level of service for me.

The other thing that was unique in my experience was the positioning of a small padded stool near my chair to serve as the home for my purse.  My purse usually hides quietly under my chair; it doesn’t get its own comfortable seat near the table.  Now it expects that kind of treatment at home.

Brad blogged on April 7th about his experience of the evening, and very kindly left out all the yucky part that happened after the yummy part.  I’m cutting and pasting his typing efforts here (stealing?  community property blogging?)

Mercredi 06 Mars 2005
Diner au Restaurant Le Cinq
Philippe Legendre, Chef des Cuisines, Meilleur Ouvrier de France

Blanc et noir aux ecrevisses pattes rouges
Salade de morilles a l’araignee de mer et au vin jaune
Grosses asperges vertes au Parmesan et a la truffe, polenta et olives noires confites
Turbot de ligne au melon d’eau, nage aux epices et au citron vert
Langouste puce aux petits pois et aux oignons doux des Cevennes
Bar de ligne roti aux epices et aux artichauts poivrade
Le selection de nos Maitres fromagers
Granite d’ananas a l’hibiscus et parfum de litchi, emulsion coco
Du chocolat exclusivement …

Eric Beaumard, Directeur du Restaurant

or – in English – according to Babelfish

Wednesday 06 Mars 2005
Dinner at the Restaurant Five
Philippe Legendre, Chief of the Kitchens, Better Working of France

White and black with the ecrevisses red legs morel
Salade have the araignee sea and with the YELLOW WINE, YOU ILLITERATE, PRETENDER TO BE SPEAKING THE FRENCH, SEVERELY ALLERGIC TO THE WINE PERSON
Grosses green asparaguses with the Parmesan and have truffle, polenta and crystallized black olives
Turbot of line to watermelon, swim with the epices and with the green lemon
Langouste chip with peas and soft onions of Cevennes
Bar of line roti to the epices and the artichokes poivrade
The selection of our Maitres Granite Cheesemongers
Pineapple has the hibiscus and perfume of litchi, emulsion coconut
Of the chocolate exclusively...

I really insist that the fact that I’m unable to read and am allergic to wine is completely separate from the elegance and seamless luxury of the experience of dining at Le Cinq.  It’s not their fault that I ate a poison.

I was much smarter by the time Renee and I got to Restaurant Guy Savoy last week, and the first thing I said after “Bon soir,” was “Je suis allergique du vin.  J’ai une allergie du vin.  Je ne boire jamais du vin.”  Of course, since all of the staff speak beautiful English, I needn’t have bothered, but I’m going to get in the habit of announcing my allergy at the beginning of every restaurant meal so that I never have to have the retching through the night experience again. 

The differences between the experiences are more about the atmosphere than about the food.  When a course is delivered at Le Cinq it’s almost as if there’s a flourish of trumpets.  The room is grand and exquisitely French and makes one feel like Marie Antoinette (before the beheading, of course).  Guy Savoy feels like you’re dining at a friend’s home; a friend who really knows how to cook!  The space is small and intimate, divided into multiple alcoves and rooms, fairly dark with pools of light along the walls highlighting the contemporary artworks.  There were a total of four tables in our room.  There are sight lines into other rooms so that you glimpse other diners, but feel as though you’re having a very private and special experience. 

A new dining experience for me at Guy Savoy was individual pairings of bread with each course.  The bread cart is rolled out and a staff member describes the different options and makes a recommendation to complement your particular food choice.  It’s a great idea, and once you’ve heard it, seems obvious.  The flavors of the bread are an important part of the degustatory experience, and they wouldn’t want you to inadvertently choose a bread whose flavors would overwhelm the delicacy of a course, or a bread that wouldn’t hold up to something very flavorful.  The most memorable bread has little spikes along both sides and looks like some kind of sea creature and is called Mustache Bread.  The staff is always only making a helpful suggestions to enhance your experience; never any hint of snobbery.  “We recommend this, but if you prefer something else, we’re happy to accommodate you,” is the tenor of the entire evening.  Incredibly elegant and intimate.  After some course midway through the evening, I guessed that it was 9:15 and when I looked at my watch it was 10:30. 

My recollection of my food choices for the evening don’t include the various amuse bouche and extra dessert goodies that magically appear.  I do remember that we had small little delicacies like a raisin wrapped in crispy mille feuille still warm from the oven.  The first amuse bouche was a foie gras something, so after I said that I don’t eat meat, they brought me tiny carrots and sugar snap pea pods on a tiny skewer with a citrus sauce of some kind.  I started with the Soupe d’artichaut a la truffe noire, brioche feuilletee aux champignons et truffes (creamy artichoke soup with black truffles and a flaky brioche roll with mushroom and truffle butter) and then had an appetizer portion of seared tuna with various scents in a ginger cream sauce, followed by some morel mushrooms with tiny asparagus and then the entree of Breton lobster roasted in its shell, with Bordelaise sauce and tiny coral beads decorating the plate.  This dish made me wish I had a camera.  Perfectly arranged, colorful, and presented like a jewel, with bright citrus flavors in the sauce.  Just beautiful.  I love a nicely presented lobster.  I still remember the first whole lobster claw I ever had, at Jasper White’s in Boston, another restaurant that I think doesn’t exist anymore, or at least not in its Atlantic Avenue incarnation.  (Jasper White’s Summer Shack restaurant)  The lobster at Guy Savoy was perfection.

I think it was finally time for dessert, although it seems possible that I’m omitting a course in here somewhere.  I couldn’t decide between the two juicy chocolate dessert choices, so they offered to bring me half portions of each.  Now that’s a good idea!  I had a half portion of dark and milk chocolate fondant terrine with praline leaf underneath and chicory cream and a half portion of a dense dark chocolate cake with a dark chocolate ganache, dark chocolate sorbet, infused with a perfume of some mysterious Tonga flat bean  (Fève de tonka ) that was almost vanilla, but different, darker, richer, less sweet. 

Okay, I love the internet [sometimes].  Instead of fumbling around making stuff up, I just looked up Tonga bean on Yahoo and found all kinds of good stuff.  It actually is Tonka, not Tonga as I was automatically and erroneously translating for some reason.   Yahoo results for Tonka bean    So cool.  Tonka Bean  info everywhere

I was offered a bean for inspection before making my dessert selection from a glass container full, and I slid it into my purse and kept it as a rather strange souvenir of the evening.  My personally autographed menu Renee especially requested on my behalf is a rather more visually appealing souvenir — a million thanks to Renee for such a generous thank you gift from her, and for introducing me to this spectacular restaurant, and for sharing a wonderful evening.  As we were staggering out the door with our Restaurant Guy Savoy bags containing our menus, the front desk staff tried to offer me a last morsel of sweets, which I tried to decline; but they slipped it into my bag.  And since I didn’t get sick afterward, it was an especially delightful evening.  I think I’ve experienced the best that Paris has to offer, with these Michelin three star experiences, and fear that I’ve been wrecked for lesser dining experiences — but I think I’ll keep eating..

Comments

[Alternative Energy Blog]

After sampling the delights of Paris, I highly recommend a trip to Spain. There is fantastic Basque and Catalan Michelin starred food to be had in San Sebastian, Barcelona and Madrid.

Among others I would highly recommend the following:

Arzak - San Sebastian
Akelarre - San Sebastian

Neichel - Barcelona

Zalacain - Madrid

James
Alternative Energy Blog

[Chris]

You may have already been to Taillevent in Paris, but if not, I humbly suggest it. My wife and I had an incredible meal there last fall. One to remember

[-]

Two restaurants to add to the list. Bacchanalia in Atlanta. The Herbfarm in the Seattle area.

[Jeff Clavier]

Sorry to read that you are allergic to wine, that is one of our (sort of) specialty, and we tend to use it a lot in our cooking.

[Matt]

Amy,

Lespinasse closed in April 2003. The chef there, Christian Delouvrier, joined Alain Ducasse as the Executive Chef at ADNY in 2004:

How Many Stars Can One Kitchen Take?
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/07/dining/07DELO.html?ex=1396670400&en=c982498cdd7552f3&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND

I decided not to drop $280 on a 7 course tasting menu when I stayed at the Essex House during a recent trip (with a splendid view of The Gates outside my window). Perhaps another time....

Matt