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A Spring Splurge of Creativity
PARIS – The city’s best tables may be
suffering from a loss of customers – atypically
almost every grand restaurant currently has at least
an empty table or two – but that does not stop
the top chefs from continuing their ongoing bursts
of creativity.
Is it spring that’s in the air that gives the
chef’s such cognitive energy, or the fact that
spring ingredients just look, smell, taste better than
at any time of the year? With some chefs, I’d
give them three stars just for coming up with the ideas
they do, even if they weren’t executed.
Often, it’s the simplest idea, a little twist
or extra touch that make my enthusiasm jump off the
charts. At the elegant Michelin two-star Laurent – hand’s
down the best place for romantic dining outdoors in
Paris – chef Alain Pegouret almost made me leap
from my chair when the waiter set down a trio of giant
langoustines cooked “tandoori” style, accompanied
by a glistening green, perfectly formed mound of finely
shaved avocado, drizzled with almond oil. The langoustines
had been gently marinated in a not-too-spicy tandoori
marinade (a blend of cumin, ginger, chili pepper, quatre épices
and salt) then quickly pan seared. Gratefully the spice
did not overwhelm the delicate, deep-sea flavor of
the langoustines, served with a welcome tangle of well-dressed
herbs. The gorgeous avocado dish appeared as perfectly
formed curls of the rich and meaty fruit, stacked cautiously
one atop the other, almost too pretty to eat. Pegouret
sets the curls atop a spicy guacamole, and seasons
it all with mixture of lime and orange zest, for a
colorful and flavorful contrast. The langoustine/avocado
pairing was brilliant, the dish a symphony of texture,
color, flavor, aromas.
With the dish we sampled a delicious white Château
de Cazeneuve from the Languedoc, a blend of Roussanne,
Grenache Blanc and Viognier, and rich with flavors
of honey, acacia, pears and ripe fruit.
Guy Savoy’s three-star creativity knows no boundaries,
and his recent creation of a carpaccio of Daurade royale – the
Mediterranean sea bream – was smothered in a
cream made of oysters, creating a delicate but brightly
flavored starter.
In the same vein, at the three-star Ledoyen,
chef Christian Le Squer offered us a startlingly delicious
pairing of giant oysters with a tiny bowl of oyster
cream topped with a welcome dose of caviar. At the
same meal, he surprised us with what the waiter called “pain
de crevettes” and lo and behold the bread did
taste as though it had been infused with shrimp. In
fact, it was prepared with a healthy dose of mixed
dried seaweed from the Brittany coast.
One can always count upon three-star chef
Pierre Gagnaire to come with something new and different:
At a recent lunch he created no less that eight dishes
I had never sampled before. The two most amazing were
a dish he simply called aubergines braisee and it consisted
of a mix of eggplant that had been reduced to a purée
so rich it was as if he had completely captured the
smoky, dense essence of this versatile vegetable, almost
multiplying its flavor, then topped the little round
with a shard of very thinly sliced, dried eggplant.
If there is an upcoming trend to follow what I call “shot
glass cuisine” – the proliferation of tiny
mousse-like concoctions served in a clear shot glass – it
will be the gelatin mode. Gagnaire’s rendition
hit the spot: Cubes of bright green zucchini were folded
into a pale golden wobbly jelly made with the fresh
lemons from Menton, all topped with a soothing fromage
blanc ice cream.
Finally, at the two-star Pre Catelan chef Frederic
Anton’s creative combination of beets and Comté cow’s
milk cheese wins raves. Who would combine beets and
cheese? Here he combines paper-thin shavings of cooked
beets perfumed with a touch of nutmeg, with equal-sized
rounds of aged Comté from the Jura, drizzling
it all with meaty cooking juices. The starter opens
the palate, soothes, and makes one salivate, getting
ready for even more to come.
Laurent
41 avenue Gabriel
Paris 8
Telephone: 01 42 25 00 39.
Guy Savoy
rue Troyon
Paris 17
Telephone: 01 43 80 40 61.
Ledoyen
Carré Champs-Elysees, first floor
Paris 8
Telephone: 01 53 05 10 01.
Pierre Gagnaire
6 rue Balzac
Paris 8
Telephone: 01 58 36 12 50
Pré Catelan
Route de Suresnes
Paris 16
Telephone: 01 44 14 41 14
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