Robuchon

Sunday 23/08/09    (Afternoon and Dinner)

 

Ok ok enough with all that, my brain is beginning to hurt and I’m feeling inadequate.

 

I visit an awesome little wine shop in the afternoon called ‘Le Dernier Goutte’ (the final taste), run by 2 cool americans. They have a mad selection of stuff, grower champagnes, biodynamic rhone wines, 40 year old banyuls, weird jura wines, HEAPS of magnums…and all cheaper than anywhere else I’ve seen!

 

I again enquire about getting the damn stuff back to Australia. They, totally straight faced, tell me to stick it in my luggage and lie to customs. Thanks guys.

They are not confident about sending it, reckoning it to be about 100euros per six bottles freight, then extra tax once it lands. This is becoming annoying, seeing as I’ve already got 4 botttles and one magnum…plus whatever I get conned into buying in Champagne.

 

At home I get stuck into a Biere la Goudale, by les Brasseurs de Gayant in Douai (??? Any word with 4 consecutive vowels is either Welsh or just downright strange in my mind)

Anyway its a Biere de Garde – wheaty, malty, fairly light, carbonation noticeable. Touch of honey and orange. Fairly nondescript. Balanced tho. 7.2% alc.  I’d give it 4/10

 

Flicking through my guide book, I realise where I can go for dinner tonight…

 

L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon :

 

Whoa.

 

This is what they call “returning to the scene of the crime”.

 

In June 2004 I was abiding in Hoxton, London. My dear mother came to visit me on the eve on my 20^th birthday and took me on a trip to Paris. Whilst here we dined at the relatively new (and at the time, much hyped)……L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon.

 

I was a mere novice a the time, in fact only discovering post-dining, who JR actually was. Silly me.

 

Anyway the memory of that dinner has lingered in my mind for years. It has been the seminal meal of my life, the one that opened my eyes to the fact that dining can be art and grace and joy and discovery, as well as ridiculously tasty. I was overawed then. I was in rapture.

 

Now I was to return, to sample again the menu of the man dubbed “greatest living chef” and “chef of the century”.

 

As soon as I walked in I had the uneasy feeling this was going to be one of those moments where the teenager meets his childhood hero…and discovers he’s a dick.

 

For starters, I was greeted by a kid in a t-shirt, obviously hired to open car doors, smile a 100kw smile, and be payed fuck all. My basic French got me nowhere and we smiled at each other for a good 5 seconds before being rescued by door bitch no 2.

 

Once seated, the games were to begin. Specials were announced – a barely conscious but still moving (I suspect they use the same one all night, poor bugger) lobster is placed on the counter and the dish is described. Nice.

 Of course I’m a sucker and go for the dego, a steal at 140euros. Roll tape…

 

Amuse of (is that déjà vu?) tomato gazpacho with mustard ice cream. Colder and more textured (can’t decide if this is good or bad) than L’arpege, but the mustard carries more bite. Also dots of balsamic and basil puree to liven things up. Stupidly served with a burnt crouton.

 

Cod brandade next, under toasted brioche with tapenade and tomato cubes, witlof and rocket. Meh, I can leave it.

 

Soft shell crab now…super sceptical having eaten my weight in it at late night chinese places for years. But. It’s been done up, tricked up, smarted up.

The crab has been either lightly poached or marinated first, then fried, giving it a mad silken texture. A tasty mix of pimento, paprika and chilli coats it and gives it oomph. Served on the smoothest (richest) avocado puree in the world, and finished with…..oooh yeh….crab crackling. That’s right, take off the soft shell, then fry the bitch. Awesome.

 

Next, just to make me happy, hot foie gras with cherries, hibiscus syrup (déjà what?) and a rhubarb and rose gel. Nothing new I suppose but fuck it’s good. Cooked foie is even lusher than room temperature!! Like eating sweet duck butter.

 

You know how when you read a menu and get really excited about a dish and it comes out and its average, then the next one is like a total dark horse and blows you away? Yeh….

 

Oeuf cocotte – served in a martini glass (why oh why), with a parsley puree at the bottom, egg custard, then little poached eggs, then pan fried girolles, then egg/milk foam on top. I am told “you must eat to the bottom”. As I shall.

A spoon encompassing all layers tickes all my boxes for contrast and complement. Different textures, different temperatures, mad flava (those girolles are off the hook, and the custard is great), but all bouncing off each other. Equal first for dish of the night.

 

The level cannot be maintained however…it is here that the annoying habit of having the dishes up way too quickly catches up us. All night I have been digesting my final mouthful and the next dish arrives. Once I’m done, they whisk it away and plop the next one down. The fish course arrives when I am still going of the golden eggs. So…they take it away and stick it under the hot lamps. I can see this coz its an open kitchen. When I’m ready (a good 6 minutes later), the same dish comes to me. Grrr….th sauces are stuck to the plate, the fish itself is only warm…

It’s boring anyway, a piece of rouget ( the same fish I tried down south), with more tomato, a gentle sauce nicoise, one whole almond on top (pointless) and a little raviolo ( made from almond bread/toast/flour paste stuff) filled with olive and tomato. The rav is cool, the rest is bearable.

The main is a choice – lamb with thyme, sweetbreads with bay, or foie gras with truffled potato puree. Yes the foie is the obvious choice but I decide to go a bit adventurous and hit up the sweetbreads.

 Make that singular. The biggest fucking sweetbread in the world comes speared with bayleaf, next to a cabbage leaf wrapped around a sweet onion mix. The texture of the sweetbread is ridiculous, melt in the mouth stuff, again on the meaty butter theme. The bay keeps it from being too sweet, the onion pushes it back again. Bang.

 

Interesting point here – why are my main courses being the most interesting here? In Australia, I’d happily have 2 entrees in most restaurants, rather than a main….they are invariably more interesting, more playful, better technique. Here it seems the big dishes get all the love.

 

Better do a quick wine wrap here before I get to dessert.

 

NV Bruno Paillard Premier Cru en Magnum to start

 

When I start asking questions about cepage for the weird appelations I’ve never heard of (Chateau de Vaux AO VDQS Moselle anyone? – Muscadet Traminer blend….of course, what else would it be?), the killer somm starts asking if I like wine, do I work in wine etc etc. So I spill the beans…et voila. Its like I’m fucking royalty or something. He recommends

 07 Pignier Cotes du Jura (Chard) – smells like butter and cream, has mad sparkling spider-web acidity all the way thru, with a crunchy bite about half way thru. Medium bodied, smooth, amazing.

Then I try

08 Domaine Coume del Mas Coullioure “Follio”, 100% Grenache Blanc. Fucking brilliant with the sweetbreads.

 1^st dessert – tiny fresh strawberries swimming in thick tomato coulis, with a Tequila and Lime Sorbet (!!!!). Ps this is dope.

I am brought a glass of 08 Moscato d’Asti di S.Stefano

 Now as much as I love moscato, I am over being served it in top restaurants. Both the somm and I know the bottle costs like 10 bucks. But. Upon tasting this combo, I can think of nothing better in the world that would go with that particular dessert. Its like mythbusters – throw aside your preconceptions and look at the truth. It opened my eyes and made me see wine matching slightly differently. You cannot taste the wine one day, the dish another, and hypothesise (well I cannot). You also cannot simply go by the merits of each. The combination is a new sensation. I am glad to have discovered this.

 

2^nd dessert – profiterole, Tahitian vanilla, cacao sauce, choc dome, choc praline ice cream. A little theatre to finish. The dome is all you can see, a half sphere, with holes, covering the choux pastry, and dusted with a bronze powder (edible eyeshadow I am told!!). The sauce is poured at the table, and gradually melts the dome to the profiterole. Clever.

Again texture is of import, and the chocolates are of a richness and a density of hightest quality.

With this I am bought a glass of 20yr old Noval tawny. The alcohol is too much for me, but the sweetness levels are about right.

 

Then a big flourish to finish – the somm who has been looking after me all night brings out this huge rectangular plate, with five little slices of tart on it – each one a different flavour - cheesecake, snickers, apricot, lemon, choc/coffee.

SWEET.

 

Nothing fancy, just a nice little way to finish the meal, and exceptionally generous.

 

All this free stuff is obviously getting on the nerves of the guy sitting next to me (nb l’Atelier has no tables, just stools perched around a counter, sushi  style, all looking into the open kitchen – it has its pluses and minuses I suppose). He also is dining alone, and is getting nothing, all the while watching the waiter parade more stuff in front of me. Oops. Oh well, love the perks…

 

What strikes me about this place is the hype it still seems to have. I am treated to two separate American couples to my right over the course of the evening, both a little overwhelmed by being there, and loving every mouthful, even before they have it in their mouth!

 

So…did it live up to memory? Well it must be said I’m more of an experienced eater these days, more critical too. So no, it didn’t blow me away like it did the first time, and the service was a little casual and lazy at times (my wine friend the exception). The wines I enjoyed very much however, some very interesting things by the glass. And the food did shine at times…I am in no way disappointed.

 

I leave feeling uber-Fat.