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Amazing Combinations, Remarkable Presentations, Flavorful
Surprises
Paris -- The best restaurant in Paris today? For my
palate it is the home of Pierre Gagnaire, the hyperactive,
super creative, sometimes off the wall crazy chef who
manages to woo us with amazing combinations, remarkable
presentations, and most of all, flavorful surprises
that please even the most jaded of palates.
I first ran into Gagnaire in the mid-1980. s, when
he was a brash young chef working out of a playful skylit
restaurant in the town of Saint Etienne in central France.
I remember my first meal as though it was yesterday,
especially the astonishingly rich chocolate soufflé,
so creamy he called it a soup.
He was like a jumping bean, so full of ideas and challenges
that just being within earshot of him you felt the energy,
excitement, enthusiasm. Your senses went into instant
overload.
Some 15 years later, after some not so happy days in
another establishment in Saint Etienne, Gagnaire is
still working his magic. Like most of us, maturity has
brought a bit of sobriety (but not TOO much) and clearer
focus on what he is after.
Many adjectives come to mind after a meal in his tranquil,
enveloping grey and white Right Bank dining room: Exciting.
Intelligent. Generous. Challenging. Audacious.
A while back I told Gagnaire that I thought he was
the most intellectual of chefs, because it is hard to
tear into a dish of his without thinking of all the
elements there (why and how did he come up with the
combination of fresh morels in curry powder, paired
with frog. s legs with tarragon, écrevisses with
vegetables in a chervil pesto) that just looking at
the food makes your head spin and question. His response
was . But we have all these incredible ingredients at
hand, why not use them all?.
But of course you can look at his food both ways ,
take it at face value (it tastes great, I. ll have another
bite), or plunge into the intellectual realm to try
get into the mind of the slightly mad scientist.
While he has always dazzled us with his combination,
I feel that today has in fact narrowed the focus of
his food down to main ingredients, while that lost list
of side bars are just that, side bars to uphold and
shine light on the ingredient at hand. Thus a main-dish
of Turbot paired with leeks and codfish and a juice
of highbush cranberries, set off by tiny mackerel in
anchovy sauce, is the end really all about that firm,
white-fleshed star of the sea from Brittany.
But go, see and taste for yourself, and along the way
sample some of the finest wines of the Languedoc, such
as a white 1998 Château Estanilles or a hearty
1997 Saint Chinian, Canet Valette, Le Vin Meghani. And
don. t forget to fasten your seat belt. It may well
be a bumpy and memorable ride.
Pierre Gagnaire
6 rue Balzac
Paris 75008.
Telephone 01 44 35 18 25
Fax: 01 44 35 18 37.
Closed Saturday, Sunday lunch, holidays, and mid-July
to mid-August. Credit cards: American Express, Diners
Club, Visa. Menus at 5320 francs (lunch only), 960 and
1500 francs. A la carte, 800 to 1000 francs including
service but not wine.
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