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L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon
Robuchon: Playing
by His Own Rules
PARIS – It’s now exactly eight years since
Joel Robuchon left the restaurant world in all his top-of-the-heap,
Michelin three-star glory.
We all know the story: he didn’t leave for good,
just long enough for us to forget that he’s the
only one who ever offered us such culinary perfection.
And long enough for us to learn to miss him.
He’s back all right, in a very new kind of glory.
In the old world, he had to play by the rules to get
to the top. In the new world, he’s in charge and
makes the rules, thank you. And I, for one, am grateful.
Not many people get to reinvent themselves to their
own tailor-made desires, but Robuchon has done it. First,
with the all-new restaurant concept at L’Atelier
de Joel Robuchon, where we sit on stools in a cozy red
and black dining room, sample just a few perfect langoustines
and a glass wine, or go all the way with a knock down
drag out meal. There, he combines updated old favorites
from the 1980’s – like the langoustines,
deep fried whiting, and the unforgettable cauliflower
cream doused laced with soothing oysters.
Robuchon also shows us how modern he can be, with a
totally memorable dish such as his “fine rôtie
de legumes” a gorgeous layered stack of freshly
toasted sourdough bread, the best Spanish ham, gutsy
sun-dried tomato, smoky eggplant, a white surprise of
mozzarella, all melted to a fragrant delight, doused
with a thin pesto sauce and flanked by a thick slice
of caramelized cèpe mushrooms. Not your 1980’s
sort of thing!
Now, since late spring, he’s offered us another
Parisian choice, in the name of La Table de Joel Robuchon,
where we sit at tables, and admire once again his sense
of simplicity, perfection, expressions of pure gustatory
pleasure.
The 16th arrondissment restaurant was once the table
of Ghislaine Arabian, and her chef, Frédéric
Simonin, is ably taking over as a new Robuchon acolyte.
The food here is just sensational. So simple you want
to think maybe you missed something. But it’s real,
it’s precise, it’s direct in flavor and full
of the sort of self-assurance you find only at a Robuchon
table.
The dining room is like a shimmery, golden, sparkling,
gilt-edge package, with touches of deep brown wood and
traces of Robuchon’s signature deep, blood red.
Yet like the food, it is far from daunting, and a fine
combination of elegant and casual, the way at least I
want to live today.
Spectacular early summer tastes include a textbook
gazpacho – gorgeous red ladled into shiny aqua
bowls – topped with the best of the freshest almonds
and a drizzle of spring green basil oil. His eggplant
caviar was as smoky as they come, pleasantly chunky and
set in a bowl surrounded by a lean, acidic tomato sauce.
Anointed by the crunchiest of deep-fried eggplant curls,
it was a feast in a single dish.
But swoon is the only adjective I can find to describe
his starter of fresh crab meat in avocado cream, a Cinderella-like
creation that appears in a thick white porcelain egg:
Avocado cream hides at the bottom of the egg, topped
with highly seasoned ultra-fresh crab meat laced with
a fine acidic touch of tomato.
I did say a few weeks ago, if given the choice between
a restaurant where the chef-owner is at the stove and
one where he is not, I’d go for the former. Any
place under Robuchon’s direction, of course, is
an exception.
La Table de Joel Robuchon
16, avenue Bugeaud
Paris 16
Tel: 01 56 28 16 16
Open daily. About 100 euros per person, including
service but not wine.
L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon
5, rue de Montalembert
Paris 7
Tel: 01 42 22 56 56
A la carte, about 50 € per person, including
service but not wine. Open daily from 11:30 am to 3:300
pm and 6:30 pm to midnight.
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