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Touch of the South
Paris – They are known, quite simply, as the Pourcel
twins, the 36-year-old Jacques and Laurent, part of
the youngest generation of Michelin three star chefs.
After learning their craft at the hand of the best –
Alain Chapel and Pierre Gagnaire to name just two ---
they opened their own restaurant, Le Jardin des Sens
in Montpellier in 1988. Within a decade the Pourcel
brothers, along with their partner Olivier Chateau,
had their coveted third star.
Now, for those who spend more time in Paris than in
Montpellier, we have the pleasure of sampling their
distinctively modern cuisine at the newly remodeled
Maison Blanche, the large mezzanine-like affair set
atop the Theatre de Champs-Elysées on the Avenue
de Montaigne. There, amidst a blaze of white, with contemporary
touches of black ,we dine with a chic and worldly crowd
on such famed Pourcel fare as tiny Mediterranean sea
urchins filled with crab meat and caviar, as well as
their salad of cooked and raw vegetable of the moment,
set off by a red beet caramel sauce.
Since January, the Pourcel and Chateau trio have been
splitting their time between Paris and Montpellier and
Paris, where they are consultants to the 10 year old
Maison Blanche. The restaurant was created by chef José
Lampreia, whose Maison Blanche in the 15th arrondissement
was a 1980’s hit. Ten years ago he moved to the
Avenue Montaigne address, but died soon after the opening.
At today’s Maison Blanche the Pourcel fare is based
on the best of southern French ingredients – artichokes
and asparagus in spring, truffles in winter months,
along with Mediterranean sea urchins, rouget (red mullet)
and daurade royale (porgy), lamb from the Pyrenees and
green Lucques olives from the Languedoc.
Their wine list is amazing, filled with the best wines
of Provence and the Languedoc, such as the rich and
intense Domaine de la Grange des Peres, a vin de pays
from the Herault, as well as the famed white Chateauneuf
du Pape from the cellars of Chateau de Beaucastel.
The best dishes sampled here over several visits include
their tiny penne pasta tossed with fresh fava beans,
aged Parmesan, and tiny clams, all bathed in a rich
basil-flavored sauce pistou; and their perfectly roasted
baby leg of milk-fed lamb, cooked with a thick layer
of varied herbs and served with the juices of a sweet
confit of garlic. I loved, as well, their filling portions
of sea urchins and caviar, and the perfectly cooked
tiny poivrades artichokes, meltingly tender and irresistible.
While I find their food simpler than in the past (and
applaud their success with it) I also adore the fact
that, along with menu sections for cold and hot starters,
fish and shellfish, meat and poultry, they also offer
a good pasta and rice selection, as well as a choice
of side vegetables, ranging from a rustic polenta to
tiny ratte potatoes cooked with pork fat.
They even tempted me with their desserts, ranging from
a loving confit of grapefruit served with a lovely lemon
verbena sorbet, and an astonishingly delicious assortment
of chocolate selections. Try the Mikado pralin meringue,
as beautiful as it was delicious, a masterpiece of chocolate
and meringue.
Maison Blanche
15 avenue Montaigne
Paris 75008
Tel : 01 47 23 55 99
Fax : 01 47 20 09 56.
Open daily. All major credit cards. A la carte, 265
to 740 francs, including service but not wine.
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