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Taillevent Celebrates 30 Years Of Three
Stars
PARIS -- This has not been an easy year for France’s
top restaurants. There’s the economic crisis,
the suicide of Bernard Loiseau of Burgundy’s
Côte d’Or, and the recent retirement of
Champagne’s Gerard Boyer of Les Crayeres in Reims,
reportedly linked to Loiseau’s death.
So it was a pleasure to put a positive spin on it
all with the recent celebration of Paris’s Taillevent’s
30 years of three Michelin stars, the guide’s
top rating that is currently shared by only 25 restaurants
in France, 15 of them in the provinces, 10 in Paris.
In 1946, Andre Vrinat opened the first Taillevent
in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, receiving his first
Michelin star in 1948. In 1950, the restaurant moved
to its current quarters --- an elegant and classic
hotel particulier --- and by 1956 was awarded a second
Michelin star. Andre Vrinat’s son and current
owner – Jean Claude—joined the restaurant
in 1962 and by 1973 the restaurant had gained the Michelin
three-star rating. That same year, three other restaurants
shared the honor. Chefs at two of them – Alain
Chapel of La Mère Charles in Mionnay, and Jacques
Pic of Pic in Valance --- have since passed away, and
Claude Peyrot of Le Vivarois in Paris closed his restaurant
several years ago.
Since 2002 the kitchen at Taillevent has been in hands
of Alain Soliveres, who seems to be leading the restaurant
down a positive path. Taillevent will be ever respectful
of classic cuisine but both Vrinat and Soliveres realize
that classic need not mean worn or outdated. The celebration
meal, and careful choice of wines, showed just what
Taillevent can be and can mean some 30 years later.
A starter of chilled tomato gaspacho, studded with
capers and celery and embellished with a scoop of mustard
ice cream set the stage for things to come. Bright,
pretty, and full-flavored, the appetizer shouted modern
and elegant all at the same time.
The first course viennoise de sole aux ecrevisses
was a wink at two of the most classic ingredients of
French cuisine. Perfect rectangles of moist and delicate
sole were escorted by the mellowest of crayfish, almost
sauceless and pure. Coincidentally, the waiters poured
the 1999 vintage of Domaine Henri Gouge’s Nuits
Saint-Georges Les Perrières from glistening
carafes, the same wine I sampled on my very first visit
to Taillevent in 1979. The golden, rich, and complex
wine married perfectly with the sole, with neither
overwhelming the other.
As another nod to modernity, the 40-year-old Solivérès – born
in the south of France -- offer an earthy bowl full
of epeautre du pay de Sault en risotto, or spelt from
the region of Mont Ventoux in northern Provence, cooked
like a risotto in plenty of rich stock. Tiny bits of
arugula were intertwined with the grains, and all was
topped by a generous portion of the tiniest of girolles,
or baby chanterelle mushrooms. Here, a modern French
wine – from young cult winemaker Laurent Vaillé at
the Domaine de La Grange des Pères in the Languedoc
--- brought the pleasures of the dish full circle.
The poor man’s wheat, as épeautre is known,
cried out for the crispness of and coolness of this
solid white, a Roussanne-based wine dripping with comforting
flavors of honey and butter.
For his classic touch, Solivérès looked
back to Taillevent himself, 14th century chef to French
royalty who was the first to codify French cuisine
in the form of a manuscript published in 1373, le Viandier.
Soliveres offered his rendition of Taillevent’s
roast pork, with a succulent roasted suckling pig,
anointed with such rustic ingredients as chestnuts,
and lentils, as well as grapes and pears. Spicy, ginger
and cinnamon-flecked meatballs – or caillettes
-- were made of pork liver, hearts, brains and tongue
and wrapped in delicate caul fat.
To accompany this creation, Jean-Claude Vrinat hesitated
between his father’s favorite wine – the
Bordeaux La Mission Haut Brion and a Burgundian Volnay
Marquis d’Angerville. His father’s love
won out, and this full, rich red at its height of maturity
blended seamlessly with the complex pork offering.
A pure passion fruit soufflé – served
simply and elegantly in the fruit’s shiny purple
shell – closed the meal, with sips of 1925 Bas
Armagnac to send diners on their way.
Taillevent
15, rue Lamennais
Paris 8
Telephone 01 44 95 15 01
Fax : 01 42 25 95 18
email : mail@taillvent.com
web : www.taillevent.com
Closed August, Sunday, Monday, and holidays. All major
credit cards. A la care, 110 to 140 euros, including
service but not wine.
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