Fusion! The French break loose

PARIS -- It’s the modern Parisian restaurant : a clean, contemporary look, cozy chairs, and a menu that might be called many things: fusion, unstructured, Franco/Japanese/Italian. Gone is the French insistence on a traditional first course, main course, cheese and/or dessert. What freedom! Go ahead, break the rules, order two first course, and nothing else! Or just go for two pastas, or, gosh why not just cheese and dessert?


Anything can happen at these places. And while Americans have pretty much been ordering this way for a very long time, this is true innovation for the French. And after a few visits to some of these modern eateries, it is clear that while the French are ready for it, they do sit at the table, often totally bewildered.


Fortunately, at two of the best of the lot --- both Left Bank newly solid spots, Ze Kitchen Gallerie and Caffé – the waiters are patient and informed, and ready to help out any baffled diners.


At one of my favorite new spots, Ze Kitchen Gallerie, chef William Ledeuil has done it again. He has his finger (and palate) on the pulse of the modern diner. Despite the kitschy name, Ze Kitchen Galerie is a delight. The menu is divided between soups, pastas, raw and marinated fish, and main courses, all cooked à la plancha, or directly over a very hot, flat griddle. I have loved just about everything I have tasted over a series of visits. Ledeuil (also chef at Les Bookinistes right next door) wisely hires young chefs from various nationalites so the food has an authentic flavor.


His combinations and creations are always inventive, never wacky. Mussels are teamed up with coconut milk and mushrooms in a creamy, warming soup. Lentils and mushrooms are turned into a wintry soup enlivened with gingerbread, or pain d’epices. I love most, though, the pastas, such as the roborative macaroni with pesto, pine nuts and grilled chorizo. Best of the selection of raw fish and shellfish is his yummy preparation of oysters and scallops in a spicy horseradish cream.


Desserts are simply fun. Try the roasted pineapple served with a tiny vanilla milk shake and a scoop of rich vanilla ice cream; or the cinnamon caramel ice cream with a chestnut milk milkshake.


There is a small but always inviting wine list: Try the always dependable Faugères from the Languedoc, here the intense, well-structured red Château Anglade from Marie Rigaud-Anglade, a fine blend of Syrah, Grenache and Mourvèdre grapes. The décor here is modern and a touch cold, but that’s the style today.


Caffé, open since the first week of January, is a delight. I adore the décor: Solid brick walls and arches make for a warming setting, and bare wooden tables make for a nice, open room. The menu offers simple, solid, contemporary fare. And rather than the traditional menu separated into first course, main course, cheese and dessert the selections include à la vapeur (steamed); marinés et cru (marinated and raw); plancha (grilled on a flat hotplate); pates et riz (pastas and rice); les canailles (and those favorites of childhood).


Do try the unusual steamed oysters – the tiny boudeuses from the Brittany village of Prat ar Coum -- served in elegant white bowls with a series of sauces. The oysters are also available oh so simply, on the half shell, served with the traditional bread and salted butter.


On one visit, I feasted on a daily special --- the freshest of rouget, or red mullet fillets, delicately wrapped in feuilles de brick, the light Moroccan pastry, and deep fried. Palates in search of heartier fare will adore the steaming, homey casserole filled with joue de cochon, or pig’s cheeks, served with a bounty of winter carrots.


Other specialties include a simple carpaccio of beef; steamed cod with cabbage and smoked milk; orrechiette pasta with broccoli; and traditional risotto Milanese, laced with bone marrow and saffron.


The wine list is brief: Do try the dense and tannic red Corbières, Castel Maure, well- priced at 28.50 euros.


Ze Kitchen Galerie
4, rue des Grands Augustins
Paris 75006.
Telephone :01 44 32 00 32.
Fax: 01 44 32 00 33.
Closed Saturday lunch and Sunday. Credit card: Visa. 30 to 40 euros, including service but not wine.


Caffé
74, boulevard de Latour Maubourg
Paris 75007.
Telephone : 01 47 53 80 86.
Closed Sunday and Monday. Credit card: Visa. 30 to 50 euros, including service but not wine.


From a Perfect Angle

PARIS -- I don’t know when I last had such authentic, well-prepare and well-presented French fare as this: Succulent, moist, glistening cubes of lamb shoulder, paired with meltingly tender potatoes enhanced with the essence of violet-toned garlic. Braised veal cheeks so gorgeous any French housewife would fall on her knees with joy if she had prepared them, teamed with a truly original (and successful) gratin of macaroni and artichokes. What could be bad about that? Add a glass or two of the rich, velvety red Vin de Pays d’Oc L’Hermitage, Les Domaine Camplazens (a bargain at 30 euros) and you are certainly on the road to heaven.


All this at the very understated, carefully conceived l'Angle du Faubourg, owner Jean-Claude Vrinat’s “wine bistro,” or little brother of his august restaurant, Taillevent. L’Angle has been open since last March, showing us all that Monsieur Vrinat, once again, knows how to create a winner. The restaurant is just what one wants of this talented man: Excellent classic fare with a modern flair, a drop-dead wine list at worthy prices, and a pleasant setting that does not look and feel like every other new restaurant in town.


The bare, colored-cement floors, brick-toned walls, simple white linen tablecloths and soothing celadon china sets a discreet, undistracting background for what is to come. The menu, brief and in the know, remains true to French culture, while not getting lost in a swirl of nostalgia. The beef cheeks and lamb shoulder assuage our classic cravings, but much of the menu is devoted to more adventuresome, modern fare. The ‘’risotto” special changes daily, and on our last dinner the chef created a lovely creamy dish fashioned of the Provencal poor man’s wheat, known as epeautre. Baby artichokes are prepared in the classic barigoule style (braised in white wine, herbs and vegetables) but are paired with shavings of rich Parmesan and a shower of arugula. A pot of foie gras prepared ‘’a l’ancienne,’ is all that foie gras could hope to be; rich, well seasoned, better than butter.


There is always a trio of cheeses with accompaniments, such as goat’s milk Cabécou drizzled with chestnut honey; the rich blue cow’s milk Fourme d’Ambert marinated in the sweet Loire Valley white wine, Coteaux du Layon; and sheep’s milk tomme de Brebis from the Pays Basque is rubbed with piment d’Espelette.


Even the lady who can do without desserts plunges in here: A perfect layered chocolate cake, served with a fine bitter almond ice cream.


Even if the food were just ok, L’Angle would be worth visiting just for the wine list. It is not a heavy, biblical tome, but rather eight pages of wines that would be worth drinking any day of the week. There is a full page of wines by the glass, including Domaine d’Aupilhac’s white vin de pays from the Languedoc, and Domaine du Deffends’ Clos de la Truffière from the Var. On my last visit, I enjoyed the pleasant white Picpoul de Pinet, from Domaine Saint-Martin la Garrigue in the Languedoc (16 euro), along with the Domaine Camplazens. Other wines worth trying here include Domaine Gauby’s Cotes du Roussillon Village Vieilles Vignes (62 euro); Chateau La Voulte Gasparets, Corbières Cuvée Romain Pauc, as well as Domaine Huet’s always dependable Vouvray Sec , Le Mont (44 euro).


All the while, Vrinat manages to keep his grand restaurant, Taillevent, at the same, fine level. The food at Taillevent, under the direction of chef Michel Del Burgo, remains classic to the core, with foie gras, lobster, filet of beef, saddle of lamb and pigeon leading the way. A recent visit offered a fine, substantial meal, starting with a truly satisfying serving of thick, homemade raviolis stuffed with domestic mushrooms and a dash of truffle, all bathed in a frothy creamy, soup-like sauce laced with foie gras. Equally good was the main course veal chop, thick and served just this side of rare, paired with fat, first-of-season asparagus wrapped in lace-thin pieces of pancetta and seared to a golden brown. Only the individual tarte Tatin, or upside down apple tart, left me feeling a bit deprived and disappointed.


The wine list, as well, is as much a part of the Taillevent experience as is the exquisite service and food: Here, Monsieur Vrinat is happy to help you choose. Don’t miss the selection of white Burgundies, starting at 30 euro, or the white and red Rhônes, including a favorite, Domaine de la Mordorée’s 1999 Lirac well priced at 56 euro, or the their stunning white Lirac La Reine des Bois, at 56 euro.


And once you have been to both restaurants, stop off to fill your wine cellar at the companion wine shop, Les Caves Taillevent.


L‘Angle du Faubourg
195 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré
Paris 75008
Telephone 01 40 74 20 20
Fax : 01 40 74 20 21.

Credit card: Visa. Closed Saturday lunch and Sunday. Daily menu at 35 euro. A la carte, 40 to 55 euro, including service but not wine.


Taillevent
15 rue Lamennais
Paris 75008
Telephone : 01 44 95 15 01.
Fax : 01 01 42 25 95 18.
Email:mail@taillevent.com

Credit cards: American Express, Diners Club, Visa. Closed Saturday and Sunday. Tasting menu at 130-euro. A la carte, 105 to 225 euro, including service but not wine.


Les Caves Taillevent
199 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré
Paris 75008
Telephone : 01 45 61 14 09.
Fax : 01 45 61 19 68.
email : mail@cavetaillevant.com
internet : www.taillevent.com

Closed Sunday, and Monday morning.

Thomas Keller: A Chef with a Passion

Yountville, California --- Eating at chef Thomas Keller's famed Napa Valley restaurant The French Laundry makes me think of watching Fred Astaire. When you watch the master dance, you only think about how much fun he must be having, it all looks so easy, so natural. It never crosses your mind that he is working about as hard as a human being can work.

The truth is, no matter how hard the modest, talented Thomas Keller works, you can be sure he is having fun at it. As he says himself, the trick is to learn to ''maintain passion for everyday routine,'' and there is plenty of that in any kitchen, especially one generally considered the very best table in America.

I first encountered Keller's exciting, well-crafted food in 1986, when he opened restaurant Rakel in New York City, just a few years after he served apprenticeships in some of France's best and most up and coming restaurants, including Taillevent, Guy Savoy and Le Pre Catalan.

In 1994 he purchased the 1900's stone building that had actually once been a French laundry, dedicating himself to creating a top country restaurant in the heart of Napa Valley. There are still rough spots to work out (the restaurant is too cramped for his expansive cuisine), but I can't imagine coming to the hallowed Napa Valley and not trying my best to secure a table at this superb establishment.

Keller has what many other chefs don't have, and that's a sense of humor. As our very first taste arrived on a recent dinner at The French Laundry, our table of four burst into giggles, like schoolchildren. Set before us were his legendary ice cream come starter --- buttery, miniature homemade ice cream cones filled with salmon tartare and sweet red onion crème fraîche - food that was both fun and delicious, and they went down so well with delicate sips of bubbly. It is all the better to know that the chef actually created the dish during a moment of personal sadness, while eating a Baskin Robbins ice cream cone!

The Napa Valley was originally inhabited by the Wappo Indians, and nappa was their word for plenty, and plenty certainly applies to a meal at The French Laundry. Rather than a first course and main course Keller will tempt you with many many little bites, well rehearsed, close to flawless, well executed. And there are plenty of them.

A favorite legendary French Laundry treat is Keller's "'Oysters and Pearls,' plump, gorgeous oysters set atop a bed of smooth pearl tapioca sabayon then topped with a small oval scoop of glistening osetra caviar. What could be bad about this? The kind of dish that must be savored, oh so slowly, for once you down the last grain of caviar, it's all over. All that remains is the fine memory, and a palate still filled with the iodine-rich essence of the sea.

Strong, assertive flavors continue as we confront warm, sweet, fruitwood smoked salmon served with feather-light potato gnocchi all joined together with a signature balsamic vinegar glaze. Keller cooks the delicate smoked salmon in milk (much as the French do traditionally with herring) to help retain its texture and to allow him to serve it warm.

The meal moves on, with rabbit treasures and goat cheese surprises, ending with perhaps his most famous dish, Coffee and Doughnuts, another creation born out of sadness, and you guessed it, a trip to S&K Doughnuts in Los Angeles. What Keller serves in a giant bowl of warm ''cappuccino semifreddo,'' or a frothy white blend of sugar, eggs, espresso extract and cream, paired with adorable homemade cinnamon-sugar doughnuts, yeasty, golden, and reminiscent of some of my best food memories of childhood.

Keller tugs at our food memories in the nicest of ways. He is also lecturing us a bit. He rightly considers a respect for food, a respect for life, but admonishes that "our hunger for the twenty-minute gourmet meal, for one-pot ease, prewashed precut ingredients has severed our lifeline to the satisfactions of cooking." He says it all. So go into the kitchen and cook up a meal you can be proud of, with respect.


The French Laundry
6640 Washington Street
Yountville, California 94599-1301
Telephone: 707 944 2380.
About $100 per person, not including service or wine. Reservations are accepted no more than two months in advance.

Fish, Main d'or, Chez Marcel, and Il Vicolo

Enter the Era of the Quiet Chef

San Francisco --- We are, at last, entering the era of the "quiet' chef. Thank goodness, all that stacking and fireworks and dishes with 1,000 misplaced ingredients are beginning to be behind us. This is the day of food that is sensible, subtle, understated. And when it is done well, it is simply delicious.

A recent dinner at the two-year old Gary Danko restaurant in San Francisco solidified that trend for me. The meal was superb, from beginning to end. And what's more, service was in line with the finest you will find in the world: attentive, intelligent, grown-up.

A native of New York state, Danko grew up with a food-loving mother from Louisiana and an architect father. Restaurants played a role in his life from and early age, and by 1977 he was graduated from the country's respected Culinary Institute of American in New York state.

Soon he found himself in California, distinguishing himself with awards, accolades and top jobs up and down the state. His name was always mentioned when one asked where to dine in California.

Two years ago he opened his very own elegant, classic, wood-toned restaurant near the Wharf in San Francisco. Wisely, Danko serves no more than 65 diners. Tables are hard to come by, and the food is not given away, but that's the price diners pay for a top restaurant.

I always judge a restaurant menu by the number of dishes I would LOVE to eat. On Danko's dinner menu, there were too many to count. Shall it be glazed oysters with leeks, salsify and osestra caviar? Or a risotto of Maine lobster, rock shrimp, winter vegetables and rosemary oil? And what about the Vegetarian artichoke, tomato and chickpea stew? (And while I was making the final decision, two glorious cheese carts came rolling past, making the decision all that much more difficult.)

I was in comfort food mode and that meant risotto won out. And was I delighted. A perfectly tooth-tender risotto bathed in a soothing rosemary oil-infused sauce, studded with the truly sweetest of rock shrimp and lobster. Elegant, satisfying, a perfect start to a cool fall evening.

As a main course, my cravings for spice won out, and so it was the Moroccan-spiced squab with Chermoula, orange-cumin carrot. Like a perfect color palette the dish had everything: the richness of the meaty squab, the hit or Moroccan spices, the color or carrots with a fine hint of cumin.

Danko's sommeliers have done him proud, with a world class wine list. I devoured it, as I did the menu, and came up with two true winners from California. By all means try the 1998 100 percent Roussanne from Qupé vineyards in the Edna Valley north of Santa Barbara. The white wine has all the qualities of a pure Roussanne: fresh-tasting, with perfect balance of fruits and acidity, bone dry with overtones of pineapple and honey.

For a red, I turned again to the Santa Barbara neighborhood for a Zaca Mesa syrah, full of flavors of peppers, berries, and spice.

Danko offers a brilliant dining formula: Choose three, four or five courses, and the quantity of each course will be altered according to your tastes. And if you can't wait for reservations, the full menu is available at the lovely bar without reservations.

Gary Danko
800 North Point at Hyde
San Francisco, CA 94109
Tel: 415 749 2060
Fax: 415 775 1805
www.garydanko.com
Open daily, dinner only. All major credit cards. Three-course menu, $55; Four-course menu, $64; Five-course menu $74. Five course tasting menu, $74, with wines, an additional $35.

JoJo's Market? Not Yet

When French chefs head for New York or any other big American city, I assume they’re going for the bucks – they want to test themselves and their money-making aspirations in the American cauldron. But when a French chef who is astoundingly successful in New York (and London, Hong Kong and Las Vegas) comes to Paris, my assumption is that they’re looking not for riches but for confirmation, proof that they can not just get rich but cook for the world’s most demanding culinary audience.

So when French-born Jean-Georges Vongerichten announced plans to open a restaurant in Paris I was cheered at the prospect of more frequent access to the wonders of a chef whose New York restaurants – Jo-Jo’s, Jean-George, and Vong -- I have long admired.

Well, I might as well have bet on a better burger coming across the McDonalds counter. Vongerichten’s Market, (the comma is part of the logo, not my typo) is a major disappointment, from start -- the telephone calls to make the reservation -- to the finish.

New York is a wonderful city and I love most things about it. What I don’t love, and hate to see migrate to this side of the Atlantic, is the indifference and even disdain that the hot restaurant of the moment rains on its clients. It took three calls to get a table. For the first one, the young woman who said hello apparently forgot what came next, because she talked instead to someone else in the room until she hung up. The second one obtained the information that there were tables at 7 P.M. and 11 P.M. but no possibility at all in between.

With a third call, again with a lot of conversation with someone else in the room, we found that there was indeed one table in the bar at 8 P.M.

Nothing quite builds anticipation like not being able to get a table in a restaurant and then succeeding. So when we arrived promptly at 8 we were surprised to be practically alone in the place. That didn’t preclude our being seated at the smallest table in the bar, the one right by the door. The smallest table, but the best seats, because we could observe the ditzy disarray at the front desk as well as the crowd when it began arriving at 9.


The diners matched the beautiful decor, as well turned out as the restaurant is inviting in all detail, from the canopy of trees out front to the lightness of the wood wall panels. And the crowd on a recent Saturday night was older than I expected, more the Arrived than the Aspirational. (They were so much my own contemporaries, in fact, that I wondered if they had the same trouble I did reading the small print of the wine list in the low light of the dining room. Why do restaurants pose that challenge?)


Our first choice, the “Black Plate” starter – the plate itself is indeed black – raised our hopes. A rare example of the “fusion cuisine” that has mostly and happily bypassed France so far, it contained a sampling of crispy nems, succulent sushi and delicious fried shrimp, each with its own sauce, and pan-seared quail with a salad of cress whose lack of peppery character was a surprise. The quail too seemed to have been plumped up on steroids, but otherwise the array of tastes was an exotic delight.


To follow, our choices were chicken and salmon, and with those the letdown was palpable. The salmon was not “fondant,” or melting, as advertised, but rather seemed to have been rescued from something problematic. It was served on a bed of “truffled potatoes.” Now this season does promise to be very difficult for truffles, and I don’t know where these were from, but whatever their provenance the transfer had sucked out all of their lusty flavor.


But the chicken was the most disappointing. It had a crusty, caramel top, but the flip side was undercooked and totally without interest. Even my first mother in law made better chicken.


We skipped dessert and coffee, too.


The wine list also bears “fusion” characteristics, with an interesting sampling of wines from the New World as well as the work of several significant French producers. I particularly enjoyed Chapoutier’s Mount Beson syrah from Australia since it reminded me of my Rhone Valley home.


Prices go with the address, if not necessarily with the greeting or what gets delivered in the plate.


If this is indeed the attempt of a chef I’ve always admired to prove himself in his homeland, he’s got work to do. The French critics have been brutal in their reactions, and for once I have to agree with them. You can do better, Jo-Jo. We all know that and you do too.


Market
15, avenue Matignon
75008 Paris
Tel: 01 56 43 40 90 Fax: 01 56 43 40 92
Open daily. Credit cards : American Express, Visa, Mastercard. About 360 francs per person, including service but not wine.

Moveable Feast, Cross Channel Auvergne Specialties in Paris, A Taste of Lebanon in London

PARIS – One huge, polished wood table for 12, a cozy round table that will just seat five and a few tables tumbling out onto the sidewalk. That is all you get at L'Auvergne Gourmande, one of the newest and finest little places to open in Paris in a while. But the little turns out to be a lot.
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No surprise here, for this is the annex of the generally reliable Left Bank restaurant La Fontaine de Mars. In their newest, pocket-size endeavor the Boudon family has invested all its knowledge of the gastronomically abundant Auvergne region of France, its rich culinary history, its impeccable farm products and some pretty decent wines and cheeses.
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Best of all, they have brought back the daily plat du jour, almost a dinosaur in today's Parisian cuisine. So Monday it is duck à l'orange, Tuesday lamb chops, Wednesday beef tongue, Thursday stuffed chicken, Friday salt cod with the garlic mayonnaise known as aioli and Saturday suckling pig. How's that for hearty?
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But this little table d'hôte - where everyone sits together on bistro-style stools - has a modern take as well. The grande salade de legumes is a mound of greens with seemingly every kind of fresh vegetable imaginable, nicely cooked and dressed and topped with a crunchy tuile, or cookie, made of Cantal, a sturdy Auvergnat cheese of cow's milk. Other starters might range from homemade foie gras and a green salad to a fresh pea soup with little chips of smoky bacon.
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This is the sort of place where you can eat depending upon your appetite. Have a simple Auvergnat cheese platter and a sip of fruity Saint-Pourcain from the gamay grape, or go for the whole shebang with a thick and meaty cote de boeuf, teamed up with a rich potato purée. I feasted on a wonderful breast of guinea hen, pintade, with a deliciously puckery vinegar sauce served with sweet sautéed apples.
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The wine selection, by the glass or the bottle, is vast, inspiring and educational. You can find some little-known wines from the Auvergne, small appellations from the Cotes Roannaise, Gaillac, vin de pays de l'Ardeche and a Coteaux du Tricastin. Paris needs more places like this: energetic, inventive and fun, with some good food to boot.
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L'Auvergne Gourmande, 127 Rue Saint-Dominique, Paris 7; tel: 01-47-05-60-79. No credit cards. Closed Sunday. About 110 francs ($15) a person, including service but not wine.

ON to London. Wonderful ethnic food at low prices has long been a draw here. A quick tour turned up some of the finest Lebanese food I have ever tasted - at Le Mignon, a tiny, seven-table restaurant in the Camden Town area of northwest London.
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The owner, Hussien Dekmak, does all the cooking and serving and offers a fine, fresh-flavored lineup of specialties from his native Lebanon. The pure, clean flavors make for a happy food revelation of a cuisine that makes so much sense. With a diet based on dried beans, fresh vegetables, olive oil, yogurt and a touch of lamb and chicken, what could be bad?
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Don't miss the hommos beiruty, a smooth, tingling chick pea purée flavored with sesame paste and lemon juice with judicious touches of garlic and parsley, topped with tiny cooked fava beans. Likewise, the moutabal (also called baba ghannoug), a smoky purée of grilled eggplant seasoned with sesame paste, lemon juice and olive oil had that essential, mood-elevating sense of purity.
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I had never before tasted batrakh, thin slices of dried smoked roe served with fresh garlic and olive oil, and would surely go back for more.
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I love lamb sausages from any cuisine and Le Mignon's fried spicy lamb sausage, or sujuk, served with nothing more than a touch of freshly squeezed lemon juice, made my palate very happy indeed. Le Mignon, 9a Delancey St., Camden, London NW1 7NL; tel: 020-7387-0600. All major credit cards. Closed Monday. About £15 ($21.50) a person, including service but not wine.

A great place in London for a drink before or after dinner is the Sanderson Hotel, one of Ian Schrager's latest hits. The long, narrow bar is graced with elegantly hung sheer white draperies, with lighting and artwork cleverly veiled by a second layer of sheers. The walls of the shiny stainless-steel-top bar are lighted to reflect a cool lime-green glow, while the stainless bar stools perfectly lined up along the room make want you want to hop on and sip champagne. Hip, chic, magical you might say.
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Sanderson Hotel, 50 Berners St., Soho, London W1T 3NG; tel: 020-7300-1400; fax: 020-7300-1401.

Now Paris has Nobu

PARIS – Some of the city’s most see and be seen restaurants are not the sort any self-respecting gourmande would set foot in. But now Paris has Nobu, the creation of Japanese chef Nobuyuki Matsuhisa, with outposts in New York and Tokyo, Las Vegas and New York, London and Aspen and Milan. How could anyone turn out so many trendy places that actually serve good food?


I, for one, am delighted that Matsuhisa, in partnership with actor Robert de Niro, has managed to offer us such a fine level of cuisine. And such a pretty place, all soothing light beige and warm dark brown tones, offset with shiny black onyx and polished copper. Located on what is now becoming trendy restaurant row – off the Champs Elysées on Rue Marbeuf, on the same street as restaurants Korova and Man Ray and not far from Spoon – Nobu took off immediately after opening this July.


There are problems, of course. Even though the large, two-story restaurant has room for 150 diners plus a sushi bar, diners have to fight to get in. Unless, of course, you love to dine at 6 pm.


But on to the food, which is bright, varied, full of flavor, original and at times even brilliant. On a first visit, at least, I highly recommend the tasting menu (which began at 600 francs in July and has already jumped to 650), which changes from day to day. For those less familiar with the Nobu range --- a very modern take on Japanese fare, with a mix of cooked and raw, with a huge assortment of sushi and sashimi – the tasting menu saves one from roaming aimlessly through the menu. Nobu, 53, studied to become a master sushi chef, then took off four Peru, Argentina, Alaska and then Los Angeles, where he opened the soon celebrated Matsuhisa in 1987.


His Parisian tasting menu might begin with a crisp, highly seasoned tuna tartare, or perhaps a salmon tartare anointed with a welcome touch of caviar. Then he will hit your palate with a tartare of yellowtail, or seriol, spiced with a touch of jalapeno peppers. Nobu’s most famous dish, around the world, is a beautifully cooked piece of the freshest black cod, often served in a rich, fragrant, deep black miso sauce. The menu will close with perhaps a heavenly, clear soup with stuffed shitake mushrooms floating on top. Whatever he serves, the food has an original touch, your senses are aroused by the careful presentation, by color, aroma, texture, warmth or cold.


If one orders a la carte, one can roam all over the world. One finds Florida rock shrimp served as a deep fried tempura in a creamy, spicy sauce. Peruvian-style beef rib steak arrives in a spicy sauce. Alaskan king crab claws arrive in a piquant butter sauce. And Dover sole appears in a rich black bean sauce. The skin of salmon – fat and full of flavor – is used liberally, in sushi rolls and even in salads.


My beverage of choice – chilled, crisp sake – can be found in many qualities nad many prices. The waiter, of course, will recommend the delicious and pricey (495 francs for a 30 cl bamboo bottle) for the rare Daiginjo sake, but I found the less expensive Onikoroshi, dry, rich and spicy , quite drinkable, and easier to swallow at a price of 155 francs for a 30 cl bamboo serving.


Service can vary. The youthful, extremely well-informed staff all wear that Disneyland smile. It can be a bit much, but I’ll take an inauthentic smile over snarley service any day. When the restaurant is crowded and full – which is all the time – the cadence of the service can be painfully slow. But I will return, again and again, dreaming of sea urchin tempura and eel and cucumber sushi, asparagus tuna roll and another sip of sake.


, , Paris 8. Tel : 01 56 89 53 53. Fax : 01 56 89 53 54. Closed at lunch on Saturday and Sunday. All major credit cards. From 200 to 600 francs per person, including service but not beverages.

Nobu
15 rue Marbeuf
Paris 75008
Tel : 01 56 89 53 53
Fax : 01 56 89 53 54
Closed at lunch on Saturday and Sunday. All major credit cards. From 200 to 600 francs per person, including service but not beverages.

L’Auvergne Gourmande, one of the newest and finest little places to open in Paris in awhile

PARIS – One huge polished wood table for 12, a cozy round table that will just seat five, and a few tables tumbling out onto the sidewalk. That is all you get at L’Auvergne Gourmande, one of the newest and finest little places to open in Paris in awhile. But the little bit turns out to be a lot. No surprise here, for this is the annex of the generally reliable Left Bank restaurant La Fontaine de Mars. In their newest, pocket-sized endeavor the Boudon family has invested all its knowledge of gastronomically abundant Auvergne region of France, rich culinary history, impeccable farm products, nad some pretty decent wines and cheeses. And, best of all, they have brought back the daily plat du jour, almost a dinosaur in today’s Parisian cuisine. So Monday it is duck a l’orange, Tuesday lamb chops, Wednesday beef tongue, Thursday stuffed chicken, Friday salt cod with the garlic mayonnaise known as aioli, and Saturday suckling pig. How’s that for hardy?


But this little table d’hotes -- where everyone sits together on bistro-style stools and makes quick friends of total strangers -- has a fine modern take as well. Their grande salade de legumes is just that, a giant mound of greens with every kind of fresh vegetable imaginable, nicely cooked, nicely dressed, and topped with a crunchy tuile, or cookie, made of the sturdy Auvergnat cow’s milk cheese, Cantal. Other starters might range from their homemade foie gras and a green salad or a fresh pea soup with little chips of smoky bacon.


This is the sort of place where you can eat a lot or a little, depending upon your appetite. If it is just an Auvergnat cheese platter and a sip of fruity Saint Pourcain from the Gamay grape that your are after, it’s yours. Or, go the whole shebang with a thick and meaty cote de boeuf from this rich cattle country, teamed up with a rich potato purée. I myself feasted on and wonderful breast of guinea hen, or pintade, with a deliciously puckery vinegar sauce served with a counterpoint of sweet sautéed apples.


Hope that patron Jacques is in charge on the day of your visit: His animation is charming and infectious. The wine selection, by the glass and the bottle, is vast, inspiring, and educational. You will find mostly little-know wines from the Auvergne (St. Pourcain is the best known), and small appellations from the Cotes Roannaise, Gailllac, vine de plays de l’Ardeche, and a Coteaux du Tricastan. In short, Paris needs more places like this: energetic, inventive and fun, with some good food to boot.

L’Auvergne Gourmande (L’Annexe de la Fontaine, Maison Boudon)
127 Rue Saint Dominique
Paris 75007
Tel: 01 47 05 60 79
No credit cards. Closed Sunday. About 110 francs per person, including service but not wine.

Finally, a truly decent place to eat at the main Paris flea market in Clignacourt!

PARIS – Finally, a truly decent place to eat at the main Paris flea market in Clignacourt! Those of us who have had enough of the mussels and soggy fries as

Chez Louisette (yes, Emmanuelle still sings her heart out there) are in for a real treat. In fact, Le Soleil is so good that it is worth a detour, even if you are not in the mood for poking through the market.

Outgoing owner Louis-Jacques Vannucci looks the part. He has just ruddiness and physique to guarantee he is a true gourmand and bon vivant. And he LOVES food and wine. After spending years tracking down great ingredients for French chefs, he finally decided to have a go at his own place. And now, this former café turned into a real familiar family restaurant is the place to show off his talents as a hunter of all things good and gastronomic.

AS one would expect of a place devoted to chineurs (bargain hunters) gourmand, the restaurant has that chic flea market look: Cozy oriental rugs on the floors, sunny golden linens, and clever wine bottle and wine glass logo that is carried out in fanciful wire sculptures framed in flea market finds.

The current menu includes some fine fare, such as a deliciously fresh mesclun salad of mixed greens paired with a generous portion of pan fried langoustines, so sweet they tasted like candy. I loved, too, the generous portions of sautéed chicken, served with a light cream sauce, tomatoes and a touch of brilliant green broccoli. Bean lovers will adore the green bean salad, tossed with cubes of tomato and tons of flat leaf parsley. Vannucci is a fish lover, and the special orders of turbot (served with a fresh ratatouille) and sardines are guaranteed to be sparkling fresh.

On my most recent visit, the owner had just returned from the fish auctions in Normandy, returning with cod so fresh it still had the aroma of the sea, as well as delicate, tiny mussels, almost like jewels. The mussels were cooked in a rich sauce poulette, a mix of reduced fish stock, butter, lemon juice and parsley. The alabaster cod flaked into meaty portions and sent everyone at the table swooning for more.

The wine list here is a but quirky, but there is always something to discover. Or in one case, rediscover. I don’t think I have sampled the white Bordeaux from the chateaux Doisy-Daene is 15 years. The crisp, oaky dry white from the Sauvignon Blanc grape was a pleasure paired with Vannucci’s carefully conceived menus.

A quirky white aperitif wine, a crisp Saint Pourcain, 1998 Domaine Bellevue, is sure to whet your appetite and make you crave a bit more of everything.

But it does not stop there. On weekends you might find live jazz music, and on certain days, as the mood strikes, Vannucci might just go off on a tangent and offer something as wacky and wonderful as an all tomato menu. I think I might just change my ways. And instead of saving those centimes for the flea market, put the change into more visits to Le Soleil.

Le Soleil
109 Avenue Michelet
93400 Saint Ouen
tel: 01 40 10 08 08.
Credit card : Visa. Open daily at lunch, and Thursday through Saturday for dinner. About 250 francs per person, including service but not wine.

Florence: Flair, Enthusiasm and Effervescent

FLORENCE --- It has been more than 16 years since I first set food inside Cibreo, one of Florence’s best and most consistent restaurants, and one that is filled with the flair and enthusiasm of outgoing owner Fabio Picci.

On that first visit Fabio served up some of his now classic fare --- his signature yellow pepper soup emblazoned with a C-shaped drizzle of local extra virgin olive oil; the memorable tomato aspic, brilliant red and shot full of his signature red pepper flakes; and a truly memorable platter of fresh pecornio sheep's milk cheese, shelled walnuts and an avalanche of garlic, Fabio’s own take on the traditional Tuscan starter.

Since that first visit, I never go to Florence without checking in with the effervescent Fabio. This time around, I had barely crossed through the front door and the chef was dragging me into the kitchen to take a look at the gorgeous, glistening fresh tuna a friend had just sent from the island of Elba. But we would have to wait a bit for that, since Fabio – on this evening cheerfully decked out in a crisp white chef’s jacket, a bright red apron and cool yellow clogs --- had a lot in store for us during that single meal.

Fabio’s once-modest trattoria has now grown into a full-fledged restaurant, albeit one with a fine, casual flair. Diners searching out an even more casual world can still check into his small trattoria on the other side of the wall, or the elegant Cibreo café just across the street.

Call it a parade, call it a procession, the food can keep on coming here, all full of intense flavors, refined fare with a distinct personality. Italian, yes. Tuscan, yes, sort of. Pure Fabio Picci at the top of his form, yes. For he takes native flavors and ingredients and punctuates them with his own style, always making sure that flavors knock you out. A tender squid salad blaring with the spice of his favorite red pepper flakes; an ethereal, feather-light salt cod purée, or baccala; lots of cloud-like substances, like the brilliant red tomato aspic; lots of dense, compact flavors that still manage to shock you with their overall lightness, like the cubed pecorino tossed with fresh fava beans and oil. The tuna finally made its appearance as the thinnest of carpaccio, smothered with a ton of herbs and a wealth of minced raw garlic.

And the memories keep coming, from the delicate tastes of his bright red spicy fish soup and on to his brilliantly prepared red snapper, oven roasted with a bright mix of lemon zest, rosemary, garlic, sage, parsley, red pepper, fennel seed, black pepper and olive oil, then marinated a full day in olive oil. Brilliant, you say? Also delicate and delicious.

“I am a happy man,” declares Fabio. Yes, he knows what he is doing and should well be proud.

My other must-visit restaurant in the area is welcoming family restaurant Da Delfina, a 15-minute train ride from the center of Florence, outside the walled medieval village of Artimino. Like the fare at Cibreo, Da Delfina’s food is earthy, and based on the freshest of local ingredients. Delfina herself, now 92, can be seen sitting shelling fava beans or returning from the fields having gathered nettles, mushrooms, or wild herbs for the next meal.

The remaining duties are cheerfully and passionately carried out by her son, Carlo Cioni, seconded by his wife, Franca and their son, Marco. In good weather be sure to reserve a table on the terrace at lunch time, when you will be able to enjoy an exquisite view of the verdant Tuscan countryside. Da Delfina is known for its game, wild mushrooms, extraordinary local sausages, delicate homemade pastas and assorted meats and fish grilled over the giant wood fireplace in the spacious kitchen.

Starters might include the most delicate—I dare you to try to stop eating them --

slices of fresh as well as aged fennel salami. The fresh version is sweet, infused with the essence of fennel, and supremely moist. The dried version, aged up to a year in the restaurant’s own cellars, is all grown up, dryer, with flavors that are intense, meaty, and sophisticated as a salami can be.

If you are looking for fine Italian essence of purity and simplicity, go for the truly fresh and lactic slices of pecorino sheep’s milk cheese – young and mild but far from wimpy – paired with the freshest and tiniest of raw fava beans. No seasoning needed here, for the ingredients speak for themselves.

Depending on what was found in the woods that day, homemade pasta smooth as silk just might be paired with delicate wild mushrooms that have been sautéed just seconds in olive oil and tossed with the tender strands of pasta. Nettles, or ortica, could find their way into a rich and rustic pasticcio, or complex pie made of pasta and herbs bound with a delicate béchamel sauce.

But I guess my favorite dish of the day was simply cubes of the most moist and delicious pork, infused with fresh fennel and roasted on the wood-fired spit. As ever, Carlo Cioni and family were true to their roots. While Carlo travels a great deal to see what is going on in the food world, he does not let it influence his own authentic cuisine: It is as if he says “This is who I am. This is what I do.” And he does it very well, indeed. Some people call Da Delfina the true endangered species of Florence, a city known more for its tourist trap eateries than restaurants of sincerity and quality.

Two wines definitely worth trying here include the fine Tuscan Carmignano from the house of Ambra, vintage 1998, a blend of Chianti grapes with a touch of Cabernet, making for a truly distinctive red; as well as the finely tannic 1997 Chianti Classico from the Castello di Fonterutoli.

Cibreo
Via Andrea del Verrocchio 8r
50122 Florence
Tel: 055 234 11 00
All major credit cards. Closed Sunday evening, Monday, and August. 75,000 to 100,000 lira per person, including service but not wine.

Around Florence

Al Moro Since 1929 Cell Phones Are Tucked Away, and it’s Time to Eat!

ROME -- Anyone looking for a most traditional Roman trattoria need look no more. Al Moro, here since 1929, is the sort of crowded, bustling spots filled with happy and well-fed businessmen and a scowling owner whose barks always worse than the bite.

Go to Al Moro – in a hard to find spot just behind the Trevi Fountain (just keep asking directions) – at precisely 10 minutes to 1 in the afternoon and you will see those businessmen all lined up outside the door. They are carbon copies of one another, all in dark sports coats, white shirts and ties, all talking on their cell phones with animation. At precisely 1 pm the doors open, the cell phones are tucked away, and it’s time to eat!

As you enter, you will come face to face with the owner, Franco, son of Moro and he might try to throw you out. He tries to throw everyone out, but persevere and try to break through that military sternness. The décor here is dark, with every inch of walls covered with artwork of varying value and appeal, including giant-sized photographs of a scowling Moro looking down at you as you dine. (It is said that the departed owner appeared in a Fellini movie and that would be very easy to believe). The scattering of pink roses and the crisp white linens soften that harshness, as do the kind and gentle waiters who only want to see that smile on your face as they serve you.

Specialties here are what we come to Rome for: baby goat (capretto) roasted to a dark golden crisp with tons of rosemary, and served with crispy pan-fried potatoes. Or, Roman-style milk fed lamb (abbacchio) stewed with tomatoes and cooked to a melting tenderness.

Starters must include the rightly famed carciofi alla romana, or Roman-style artichokes that are deep-fried to a crisp. One of those dishes that is close to impossible to do at home, so when you find it on a menu, go for it. Here the artichokes --- crisp on the outside and soft and fragrantly tender on the inside – are served in portions of two huge pieces, so share or go slowly, to save room for more.

And more there is! Al Moro is famous for their spaghetti alla Moro, their version of the popular spaghetti carbonara, though here sauced with the traditional egg yolks and pancetta but neither black pepper nor cream, making for a much lighter, less dense dish. Equally satisfying is their bucatini all’ amatriciana, with those fat strands of pasta smoothly coated with a sauce made up of onion, pancetta, tomato and piquant Pecorino Romano cheese. Overall, the food here tends to be salty, even for salt-loving palates as mine, so go forewarned.

The wine list offers some real Italian treats. Try a beautifully balanced white from the Friuli -- with proper proportions of acid and that intense flintiness that comes from the rocky soils – such as Mario Schiopetto’s 1999 Blanc des Rosis. With your meats, go for Sergio Manetti’s 1998 Le Pergole Torte, the 100% Sangiovese that remains one of Tuscany’s finest new style wines.

As you leave take a soft glance at the carefully dressed quartet of men smoking and silently playing cards. They have been there every day for 40 years: Half an hour for lunch, 2 ½ hours for the daily card game at their home away from home.

Al Moro
Vicolo delle Bollette 13
Rome 00185
Credit cards: Visa and MasterCard. About 75,000 lira per person, including service but not wine

Italian Back on New Yorker's Minds

NEW YORK CITY --- It seems as though 100 new restaurants open each week in Manhattan, and for the past few years, few of them have been Italian. It was as if New Yorkers had done Italian and were moving on to explore other cuisines, along with their own. But on a recent visit, Italy seemed to be back on everyone’s minds.

The newest Italian to open is Beppe, a smooth and colorful trattoria-style restaurant in the city’s Flatiron district. With warming ochre-toned walls and a roaring fireplace, it is easy to be at home in this new creation of chef Cesare Casella, from the city’s popular restaurant Coco Pazzo.

The best sign of any restaurant is when you sit down to peruse the menu and decide in a flash not only what you’d like on this visit, but also make mental notes of what to sample on the next. I felt this way at Beppe, settling into a lovely mix of marinated mushrooms set on a bed of golden polenta crostino, and teamed up with a peppery arugula salad. Less inspired was the thyme-marinated squid, which lacked essential seasoning, was dry, and simply repetitive.

I loved the idea of his 11-herb pastas with 11-herb pesto, topped off with a colorful mound of chopped, fresh tomatoes. Unfortunately, that old devil herb, sage, was a bit too dominant and overwhelmed the character of its ten other partners.

But the star of the evening without doubt was the spare ribs, Tuscan cowboy style, slow cooked with tomatoes and garlic. The ribs were nice and meaty and made you sit up and take notice.

The wine list is fine, with an old time favorite white, a Vernaccia di San Gimignano as aperitif, and the bold and virile Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Vino Nobile from the house of Carpineto.

Beppe
45 East 22nd Street
New York, N.Y. 10010
Tel: 212 982 8422
All major credit cards. Open daily. About $50 per person, not including service or wine.

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.

May the Force Be With Alain Passard

PARIS – On January 14th when chef Alain Passard boldly announced that the kitchen of his Michelin three-star restaurant Arpege would be devoting itself to vegetables, shock waves were felt throughout the food world.

But most journalists reporting the story got it wrong. While vegetables are now the focus of Passa rd’s ultra-modern cuisine, they are not the only ingredient on the plate. As revolutionary as Passard’s approach is, the shift is not towards vegetarianism, it is not aiming for nutritional balance (he has long been known for his hefty hand with butter), and its relation to the mad cow scare is only happenstance.

So while we will be seeing a lot more asparagus and spinach, carrots and beets, sage-filled ravioli and a medley of vegetables paired with couscous, Passard is also delighted to cook us his moist farm pigeon rolled in crushed almond candies, or dragée; fresh lobster from the bay of Granville in Brittany; and iodine-rich sea urchins, or oursins, served with nasturtium flowers and leaves.

Now that we have the facts straight, let me say that Passard is certainly part of a larger revolution, one I consider as grand as that revolution of the 1980s known as nouvelle cuisine. Until the last decade or so, vegetables have taken a major back seat to the protein sources on the plate: fish and shellfish, poultry and meat. They have almost always been little more than a garnish. Until Joel Robuchon made us fall in love with luscious mixed green salads and mashed potatoes, those ingredients were pretty much relegated to the home. How many of us have had a series of wonderful meals in French restaurants, only to suddenly crave greens, vegetables, anything that comes direct and fresh from the soil?

Passard, and many of his colleagues – namely the Pourcel brothers from Jardin de Sens in Montpellier and now Maison Blanche in Paris; Pierre Gagnaire, Guy Savoy and Guy Martin of Grand Vefour in Paris --- have long been vegetable advocates, serving creative dishes made up of nothing but, or using the carrot or the beet, the tomato or the radish as a starring ingredient.

Like the others, Passard’s focal shift did not happen overnight. As he likes to say, it could never have happened if he had not spent 30 years devoting himself to perfecting methods of cooking poultry and meat. His approach has always been unusual, one learned from his grandmother Louise Passard. While other chefs were oven roasting and grilling, searing and braising, he was there cooking his meats and poultry on top of the stove in a pan over the lowest possible heat in almost no liquid, a process that takes a lot of attention and a lot of time. But the result is meat and poultry that is ultimately moist and tender and full of pure flavors.

So today, he is taking that same gentle approach to vegetables and fish, cooking them ever so slowly in his favored salted butter. Again, the results are clear, pure, and admirable.

Passard likes to say of his new approach to vegetables: ”It is as if I had this friend standing next to me for 30 years in the kitchen, and I never even said hello!”

Likewise, he defends his pro-vegetable evolution by saying “’There are restaurants devoted to fish and shellfish, why not vegetables, too.”

A recent multi-course lunch at Passard’s modern dining room embellished with lovely Lalique glass panels copied from the old-fashioned railroad dining cars, suggests that he is making a fine start, but I would say he is only halfway there. Much of the problem was the very poor quality of the vegetables used (he needs to do research to find the many fabulous sources in Paris, right under his nose) as well as the overly experimental nature of many of the dishes. People may not scream at the though of paying 620 francs for a lovely layered affair of thinly sliced celery root filled with a chestnut purée, lasagna style, embellished with a fine and fragrant fresh black truffle cream. But they will blanch at paying 320 francs for a watery and tasteless turnip the size of a golf ball rolled in those almond candies and serve in a reduced onion sauce. I also feel that as Passard and other chefs delve into pure vegetarian menus that they need to learn a little bit more about balancing protein, fat and carbohydrates in a menu. While they should not be expected to be nutritionists, they need to think about satisfying a client’s need for a meal that contains at least some protein balance. They need to delve into pastas and rice, beans and legumes to balance out the pure dose of vegetables.

There are many lovely combinations to discover with Passard, and if you are willing to learn along with him, the ride could be exciting. As well as costly and filled with a touch of a gamble. I love his marriage of carrots with an iodine rich sauce of sea urchins; as well as his onions teamed up with chopped fresh pears, flambéed with pear William eau de vie, all united with a rich and endearing hazelnut sauce. Brilliantly, he cooks onions in lemon grass, or citronnelle, and pairs it with sole cooked in the sherry-like vin jaune of the Jura.

The shift towards vegetable dominance at the table is also calling for an overhaul of the Arpege wine cellar. Heavy reds don’t go well with this sort of cooking, so Passard will be changing his entire cave, adding more whites, particularly those with a vegetal bent, such as Alsatian Riesling, as well as pinot blanc and pinot gris. He favors wines from the chardonnay and Chenin blanc grapes as well.

Rightly, Passard blames standard vegetarian cuisine – with an approach that is based more on fear of food than on a love of flavors and variety -- for giving vegetables a bad name. He hopes that his approach, based on pleasures and delights and discovery will open our eyes. It is exciting, after all, for us to watch a top French chef delve deeply into this cuisine, attacking aromas and colors, nuances and fresh flavors. His experimentations with smoking, with slow cooking, with spices and condiments, flowers and fruits, with marvelous reduced vegetable stocks all have merit and can only open us up to an entirely new style of cooking.

Passard, who is 45, opened Arpege in 1986. He has had three Michelin stars since 1996. When he told Michelin of his plans, they suggested that is move was courageous.

“I am putting all the cards on the table. Putting myself and my entire career in question. My three stars, the public, my clients,” he says. Only time will tell.


Arpege
84 rue de Varenne
Paris 75007
Telephone : 01 45 51 47 33.
Fax : 01 44 18 98 39.
arpege.passard@wanadoo.fr
Closed Sunday and Monday. All major credit cards. A la carte, 700 to 1550 francs, including service but not wine.

Guy Savoy: An Open Letter to Michelin

Dear Michelin directors and inspectors,

Every spring I wait eagerly for your annual judgment on the restaurants of France, a territory I have covered closely and passionately for the past 21 years. For at least the past 10 years, I have waited with fingers crossed, in hopes that you would finally come to your senses and anoint chef Guy Savoy with his much deserved third star. What on earth are you waiting for?

Maybe there is something you are not getting, or have not noticed, so let me refresh your memory and perhaps fill in the blanks for you. I first met Guy Savoy in 1980, when he was part of a band of up and coming kid chefs, among them Alain Dutournier and Joel Robuchon. It was a muddled time of nouvelle cuisine, with chefs opening restaurants on the knowledge of 10 dishes, and you could pretty much predict you would eat the same food all over. But it was clear then that chefs such as Savoy, Dutournier, and Robuchon were not one-season wonders, but were here to stay.

Back then, Guy worked in a tiny kitchen in a small restaurant that bore his name, on the Rue Duret in the 16th arrondissement. He had one, maybe two assistants, and quickly became known for a style of cooking that was light, aesthetically appealing, and fashioned from the ingredients he loved the best. He quickly received his first merited Michelin star. Most of all, he was famed for his signature green color, his astute use of fresh herbs and dishes filled with an avalanche of vegetables. Today that may not sound like much, but remember, those were the days of single slices of kiwi and crazy salads of foie gras and green beans. Vegetables were still considered garnishes back then, not worthy of the star billing that Savoy was already giving them.

In 1987, when Gilbert and Maguy le Coze closed their famed Le Bernardin to devote themselves to their New York restaurant of the same name, Guy happily took over the large and spacious dining room near the Arc de Triomphe, on Rue Troyon. Here, he continued to grow and grow and grow, and astonish us with truly original and unusual modern fare. Many of his signature dishes can still be found there today: Such as his brilliant oysters en nage glacée, cooked in their own juices and turned into a soothing jelly. Or the incomparable artichoke soup, laced with fresh black truffles and perfect slim slices of Parmesan, a soup that is ever fragrant, satisfying, and memorable. And no cook has ever served lentils so well: Savoy cleverly pairs those earthy, peppery, flinty little beans with the fresh French black truffle, truly the earth tasting like the earth and giving of itself.

Besides the fact that his cooking is unquestionably three star, Savoy has many qualities that other three star chefs cannot begin to compete with. He is a true man of the soil, born in 1953 in a small village in the Isère, where his mother tended the local café and where his father was a municipal gardener. Vegetables and greens, the freshest of the fresh, were the rule. He not only searches out the best suppliers for his fish and his sausages, his meat and his game, his cheese and his wines, but he makes friends with all of them. On a recent year he filmed the regular visits to his suppliers all over the map of France and then, at the end of the year, invited them all for a knock-down drag out feast at his Paris restaurant. His generosity in unbounded, and totally real.

Not content to limit his creativity and reach to grand dining, Savoy was and is the most successful of several chefs to create a series of "baby bistros," or spin-offs of satellite restaurants that bear his signature and style but allow other chefs to shine. With incredible generosity, Savoy has set up and supported a series of young chefs - from the talented William Ledeuil at Les Bookinistes to Stéphane Perraud at Cap Vernet - and gives them free reign. The result is a series of restaurants each with its own personality, its own style of cuisine, reflecting the youthful, inventive, creative spirit of Savoy himself.

Do you also know how good he is to his staff, and what a mentor he can be, in this world that greatly lacks men and women who are true motivators? I know a young American woman who began peeling carrots in the basement of the Rue Troyon restaurant and in a few years worked her way up to fish chef! There are not many French chefs willing to give either a foreigner or a woman (much less one that is both!) such a fighting chance.

So here we have it, Michelin inspectors and directors. At age chef who excels at taking the best products France has to offer -- from its vineyards to its waters to its fields -- and presents them with majesty, pride, and skill. A chef who is a one-man cooking school, bringing up and encouraging whole generations of young French chefs. And a chef who does it all cheerfully, with great spirit, and intense pride.

Michelin men, what more could you ask of him? Give Guy Savoy his well-merited third star, I beg you. reserv@guysavoy.com


Guy Savoy
18 rue Troyon
Paris 75017
Tel: 01 43 80 40 61
Fax: 01 46 22 43 09
Email:reserve@guysavoy.com

Dreaming of Paris Classics

PARIS - It's the way we like to dream of classic Parisian restaurants. A family starts a small, casual restaurant, makes a go of it and their children and grandchildren keep the dream alive, as generations of faithful followers have one happy meal after another beneath the familial roof.

In this modern day of nonrestaurants and chain restaurants and places where the word patron, or owner, is often no longer part of the vocabulary, it is a joy to return to two old-time favorites.

More than two decades ago, one of my first bistro meals in Paris took place on a brusquely cold day in February, when four of us tucked ourselves into the banquettes at Chez Georges, a classic turn-of-the-century bistro with ruddy-faced waitresses, copious help-yourself portions of sleek, shiny herring fillets, and an abundance of Beaujolais. I remember thinking then, ''This is it, this is for me!'' and it pretty much has been ever since.

The cozy bistro is long and narrow, like a railroad car. You place your coats behind you on a shelf or leave them on a coat rack at the door. You sit elbow to elbow with families, eager to dive into the perfectly golden, crisp and flavorful fries, the finely grilled steak with a thick Bearnaise sauce, the outrageously delicious pan-fried duck breast paired with wild cepe mushrooms.

And don't forget the curly endive salad with bacon and a perfectly poached egg. Or the baskets of baguettes from the Lebon boulangerie across the street. And then there is the Beaujolais, still flowing free and easy, turning sour days into sweet ones.

None of this simple bistro charm happens by accident. In 1964, a man named Georges Constant left the family place on Place des Victoires, Le Roi Gourmet, and took over this sturdy bistro, complete with mirrored walls and gothic columns and rows of moleskin banquettes. Years later, his son, Bernard Brouillet, took charge, rarely changing the menu and keeping the quality constant. Well, Bertrand has passed the baton to his 33-year-old son, Arnaud, who is keeping everything as it was, and should be. His youth gives hope that it will remain so for many years to come.

Brasseries - those gargantuan restaurants begun by breweries - remain typically Parisian monuments. They are monuments to size, decoration, platters of fresh fish and shellfish and, often, mounds of steaming sauerkraut and sausages. If you look around Paris today, almost all these special places are part of a chain, and though they remain beautiful, lively and ever successful, the anonymity factor looms large, and one often feels as though the food has been churned out, without much love, from a central kitchen.

Marty - a lively and recently refurbished brasserie at the edge of the fifth arrondissement - is different. The Art Deco treasure was opened by Etienne and Marthe Marty in 1913. Over the years, it has remained a trustworthy family brasserie known for its fish and shellfish.

Their grandchildren, Francois and Genevieve Perricouche, have taken over the 200-seat restaurant, carrying out a major restoration that has turned it into a jewel. The pair hired Thierry Colas, a chef with experience at La Tour d'Argent and Laperouse, to head the kitchens and Guy Legay, a former chef at the Ritz, as consultant.

The marriage seems to be working. Dinner there had that great old-time brasserie flair, with two floors of dining rooms packed with eager and satisfied diners. Little details - a freshly lighted candle at each table, silver finger bowls and giant mounds of fresh butter (no tiny pats here, please) - make one smile.

The menu is classic, with modern touches. Try the perfectly moist roasted filet of bar, served with a lasagna of spinach and mushrooms, a hearty and appealing wintertime dish. But it was the grilled sole fillets - so thick and moist and firm I could hardly believe it - that will get me to come back for more. When is the last time you had a grilled fish, with those endearing black grill marks, that didn't leave you with an unpleasant aftertaste - all those burned and rancid bits? This sole was the best I have ever tasted cooked in this classic manner. So what that it came with only two naked boiled potatoes and lots of lemon.

The oyster starters were divine. I choose the smallest oysters on the menu because I believe that they have a more intense flavor. So I opted for the Claire No. 4, and was not disappointed. They are big and meaty enough to offer true mouth-filling texture, but small enough to serve as an elusive tease: You want more of that icy freshness and mineral rich flavor. The rye bread was delicious and everything went down just fine with the Cloudy Bay sauvignon blanc from New Zealand, just one of several New World wines on their list.

Chez Georges
1 Rue du Mail
Paris 75002
tel: 01-42-60-07-11.
Closed Sunday, holidays and three weeks in August. Credit cards: American Express, Visa; a la carte, 250 to 300 francs.

Restaurant Marty
20 Avenue des Gobelins
Paris 75005
tel: 01-43-31-39-51
fax: 01-43-37-63-70.
Open daily. Credit cards: American Express, Visa; 200-franc menu weekdays; 263-franc menu with a small pitcher of wine; a la carte, 300 to 400 francs.

In Paris: A Star is Born

PARIS - It has been years since an up and coming Parisian restaurant came out of the starting gate with such a bang. One-month waiting lists may be common for grand and exclusive Michelin three-star restaurants, but a tiny newcomer run by complete unknowns?

Astrance, a small, discreet, simply appointed restaurant near the Eiffel Tower in the 16th arrondissement, is just that place. With the gentle, self-assured Christophe Rohat in the dining room and the able, agile chef Pascal Barbot in the kitchen, Astrance is headed for nothing but success.

How did this happen? Both Rohat and Barbot worked together at Alain Passard's modern and audacious Arpege in the 7th arrondissement. They dreamed of someday having a place of their own. Finally, with the help and encouragement - even insistence - of their former boss, they took the plunge and opened Astrance last October. Passard also gave the young restaurateurs a client list of 500 faithful Arpege diners. In the fall, cards went out announcing the new restaurant, and the phones have not stopped ringing since.

Astrance is tiny, just six or seven tables downstairs, two or three on a mezzanine floor. That means no more than 40 diners per service. The décor here is simple, modern, comfortable, with gunmetal-gray textured walls, giant gilt-edged frames set with beveled mirrors, finely textured white linens, chairs and banquettes in solid yellows and oranges, and a collection of modern glass and porcelain plates in bright colors and uncommon shapes.

And the food is as crisp, direct, and sure-footed as the restaurant itself. While you can see Passard influences in Barbot's cooking, the combinations, presentations, and menu itself are purely original . As with most modern French menus, the ingredient stars, and so we have crab and mussels, salmon and codfish, duck, lamb, guinea hen and veal all playing a starring role. What's best is that here we find uncommon use of the most common ingredients - from Granny Smith apples to almonds - treated with a rare self-assurance.

Eating Barbot's food makes me think of something chef Joel Robuchon used to say: ""As chefs, we don't have a right to make a mushroom taste like a carrot. Our job is to make a mushroom taste as much as a mushroom as we possibly can."

At Astrance, the flavors are pure and unmasked, but always supported and assisted by a complex cast of culinary characters. My favorite dish on the entire menu is the glorious crab and avocado "ravioli." In place of pasta we have paper-thin, round slices of the ripest green avocado, flanking mounds of sweet, brilliant pink crab. All is accompanied by perfectly salty mounds of almonds and anointed with just a touch of sweet almond oil. It can't get much better, much simpler than this. Could I have this for lunch every day for a month, please?

And life does not slide downhill after that. The plumpest, most moist mussels are embellished with butter and dotted with a mixture of chervil and breadcrumbs, and set on a bed of a tangy mix of carrots and cumin, all rich and refreshing, familiar and yet born anew at the same time. Perfectly seared scallops float in a steamy, chestnut flavored broth, while giant chunks of chestnut add a touch of sweetness, of weight, and texture. A portion of guinea hen comes crisp as can be, as though it had just been sliced from a whole-roasted bird, teamed up with just a handful of sweet, moist baby clams.

But the most brilliant is one of the chef's newest dishes, a warm buckwheat blini covered with a mound of the sweetest confit of shallots you will ever find, served with a cup of frothy, alabaster, oyster cappuccino.

The array of golden, crusty, hearty hearth breads from master baker Eric Kayser on Rue Monge in the 5th arromdissement are so good that when they give you a slice you wish they would leave the entire linen-lined basket with you.

The wine list is brief but carefully chosen by Rohat, who spends weekends and vacations combing vineyards in search of good buys, particularly in the up and coming Languedoc region of southern France. Two wines definitely worth trying include the white Minervois Domaine de la Tour Boisée, a floral blend that includes both chardonnay and viognier grape; and a simple vin de table made near Montpellier, Domaine Belle Pierre, a golden, highly flattering, faintly sweet wine made from both the viognier and petite negrette grapes.

The name Astrance is a result of Parisian restaurateurs obsession with restaurants beginning with the letter A, on the assumption that the earlier you are in the alphabet, the better chance you have of diners calling you first. It works: Think of the former Archestrate, as well as Arpege and Apicius. But when Rohat and Barbot went searching for a name, they found that all the good A words had been taken. Then one day Rohat was hiking in the mountains of the Auvergne and came upon a wild flower named Grand Astrance. He called his partner to claim the name, and the rest is history.


Astrance
4 rue Beethoven
Paris 75016
Tel: 01 40 50 84 40.
Fax : 01 40 50 11 45.
Closed Sunday and Monday. All major credit cards. 180-franc lunch menu. A la carte, 250 francs, including service but not wine.

Ode to the Black Truffle: Bring It On and Don't Be Stingy

VAISON LA ROMAINE -- This time of year in Provence is time for war. The truffle wars you might call them. Wars over prices. Wars over quantity and quality. Wars over whose truffles these really are.

We have a small oak tree-framed vineyard where those strange and rare, fragrant and mysterious black truffles can be found at the edges of the vines from late November to early March. Much like the varied wild mushrooms that grow in our woods, all the locals truly believe these truffles are THEIRS. As foreigners we may own the property, but that's a mere legality. The locals have a birthright.

In the early years poachers came up when we were in residence on weekends or holidays, digging around the vineyards with playful mutts with names like Penelope or Dynamo. We would go out and join the fun, watching as the dogs would assuredly point a paw to a spot in the chalky soil, and we would begin digging. Sometimes we would unearth a treasure - anywhere from the size of an olive to one bigger than a golf ball - and there were days we gathered enough to really experiment with these precious underground wonders.

Now, as truffles get more and more rare and more and more expensive (they were selling for 4,400 francs a kilo a few weeks ago), the playful digging has stopped. Poachers are bolder. They comb the vineyard when we are there and when we are not and most often hand over "our" half as a much begrudged token.

Actually, if the truffle as it is today did not exist the French would have to find a worthy substitute. The black truffle has all the qualities of a much sought after commodity. It is rare. Man has not been able to reproduce it. It is coveted gastronomically. It can be hunted in secret. And best of all - even in declared markets such as one finds in the village of Richerenches on Saturday or Carpentras on Friday morning -- it is still sold out of trunks of cars, the treasures secreted away in old pillowcases made of thick ticking material. An under-the-counter, thumb your nose at the Feds cash business, what could be better!

But it does get better. For the same qualities that apply to finding and selling or buying a truffle apply to cooking it. Or not cooking it. In the kitchen, there are few ingredients as tricky. Or with such potential danger for disaster. Which is why so few cooks, or chefs for that matter, manage to get it right. Assuming that you have a perfect specimen - a truffle that is firm and not spongy, fragrant, and big enough to matter - you can still get yourself in a lot of trouble and turn that expensive luxury into a great big nothing.

It's hard to believe, but what is most appealing about a truffle is its texture. Crunchy, what the French call croquant, and it's in that crunch that you release in your mouth, throughout all your olfactory senses, the earthy, woodsy, magical fragrance of the truffle. Cook a truffle and you lose both crunch and aroma. Slice it and serve it raw and you still are not there. The truffle needs a companion: a touch of olive oil and a sprinkling of French fleur de sel are best, for they provide just enough moisture, just enough seasoning to help the truffle shine. Cut a truffle and leave it on a counter for a few seconds and it dries up, dying a very rapid death. I have probably seen more great truffle ruined by the heat of a kitchen than anything else.

Which brings me to how French chefs treat truffles. Considering the briefness of the season and the cost, few chefs are allowed much first hand experience with truffles, so how can one expect mastery? Second, they rarely have the luxury of using an avalanche of truffles in a dish (as Joel Robuchon did at his restaurants in the late 1980's and early 1990's) and so it is hard to bring the public (which has little experience either) to its knees.

Truffle menus abound today all over France, at justified high prices. A few evenings ago we had a lovely meal at the Chateau de Rochegude, a Relais Chateau hotel and restaurant in the heart of Provence's truffle country, only a few minutes from the famed truffle capital of Richerenches. The truffle six course truffle menu must be applauded for its simplicity. But it suffered in the same way that so many truffle menus do: There were not enough truffles, and when there were truffles they were not used to their best advantage. A single truffle slice, or maybe two, in the steaming cappuccino of chestnuts was not enough to allow your palate to even recognize the truffle was there. A room temperature poached egg on top of a bed of celery root remoulade could have been a fine base for the truffle, but the cool temperature never allowed the truffle to exude its fragrance. The most successful dish was a giant "raviole" of truffle, really two sheets of pasta the size of a salad plate, gently filled with a mixture of sautéed mushrooms and artichokes and plenty of black truffles. Now we were talking: There was texture, there was warmth, there was fragrance. And pleasure. Other dishes - a truffled chicken bouillon and quail stuffed with truffles and sautéed foie gras - were good on their own, but would have been just as good without the truffle. I loved the idea of shaving fresh black truffles over the seasonal cow's cheese from the Jura - Vacherin - but, again, the shavings were just too stingy to make a big difference.


Chateau du Rochegude
Rochegude.
Tel : 04 75 97 21 10.
Fax : 04 75 04 89 87.
Closed Tuesday lunch and Sunday dinner, and Monday off season. Credit cards: American Express, Diners Club, Visa. Menus at 250 to 550, truffle menu at 750 francs, including service but not wine.

It's the Season

Paris -- It's the season. Sea bass, lobster, sole, herring, oysters, scallops, squid, and porgy are all at their peak of winter, cold-water freshness, so now is the time to reserve a table at your favorite fish and shellfish restaurant. Paris offers a grand variety of restaurants, including a newcomer and a classic spot with a change of ownership.

The newest spot is a sixth Francois Clerc bistro, this one devoted to fish and shellfish. Clerc started his first "good value" bistro in 1994, offering a fine varied menu at good prices along with a staggering array of exceptionally priced wines.

Les Bouchons de Francois Clerc Coté Mer is located right off the Champs-Elysees, in what was most recently the Androuet cheese restaurant. Decorated in butter yellow walls with linens a tone paler and bright blue, yellow and green upholstered chairs, the place is cozy and welcoming. The varied menu offers some fine choices, such as a an excellent grilled dorade (porgy) and a fine crayfish salad. But the real stars of the show are the wines and the prices: Didier Dagueneau's famed Loire Valley Pouilly Fume cuvee Silex, vintage 1999 for 273 francs; George Vernay's 1999 Condrieu from the Rhone Valley for 161 francs; and the delicious Roederer Brut champagne for only 159 francs.

The Place de la Madeleine landmark fish restaurant, known for years as Prunier, then Prunier-Goumard and now Goumard has had a series of owners over the years. The most recent owner is Philippe Dubois, and the food is better, fresher, and less expensive than it has been in years. Too bad the restaurant has all the energy and excitement of a drab hotel dining room and the sad-faced staff all but makes you want to turn around and walk out the door.

But the new Goumard offers some stunning dishes, including a classic sole meuniere (offered both bathed in butter and "seche," and filleted tableside); an extraordinarily fresh grilled bar; a brilliant fricassee of baby clams bathed in a mix of cream and fresh thyme, anointed with a touch of cherry-flavored kirsch; and some of the freshest scallops I have tasted in years, perfectly pan fried, making for a nutty, intense crust and a smooth, sweet interior.

The wine list here offers few bargains. A decent bet is a good value wine that loves fish and shellfish, the Saint Veran, Domaine des Deux Roches, vintage 1999, priced at 180 francs.

An all-time favorite Parisian fish spot remains the pleasant, personal, and discreet restaurant run by Paul and Sonya Canal. Here, amidst a bright blue and white décor and a stunning view of the Eiffel Tower, you can be assured of dishes that are inventive without being self-conscious. A case in point is Canal's fine first-course offering of fresh Brittany langoustines: They sweet, ultra-fresh shellfish are removed from their shell, very lighted breaded, and turned into an airy tempura. Teamed up with tempuras of pepper, eggplant, and zucchini, it's a sunny dish for a dark winter's day. The best main course items here remain the grilled sole and the whole sea bass cooked in a salt crust.



Les Bouchons de Francois Clerc Coté Mer
8 rue Arsene Houssaye
Paris 75008
Telephone 01 42 89 15 51
Fax : 01 42 89 28 67.
www.bouchonsdefrancoisclerc.com
Open daily. All major credit cards. 234-franc menu.


Goumard
9 rue Duphot
Paris 75001
Telephone : 01 42 60 36 07
fax : 01 42 60 04 54.
Open daily. All major credit cards: 25-franc lunch menu. A la carte, 350 to 450 francs including service but not wine.



Port Alma
10 avenue de New York
Paris 75016
Telephone 01 47 23 75 11
Fax: 01 47 20 42 92.
Closed Sunday and Monday. All major credit cards. 200-franc weekday lunch menu. A la carte, 300 to 440 francs, including service but not wine

Alain Dutournier's Carré des Feuillants

Paris -- Passion in life can take you a long way. As the talented chef Alain Dutournier proves year after year, meal after meal. He's one of the most well rounded chefs I know, not only embracing his love of food and all the products that go into creating a magnificent style of cuisine he has the right to call his one. Beyond food, he fires his passions for bullfights and rugby, for cigars and wine. If this was America we'd call him an "all-American" guy. Why does "all French" guy just not sound the same?

At the age of 51, this native of France's fertile southwest still has the enthusiasm of someone decades younger, and he is a man full of pride. For his country, for his native Landes region, for his own accomplishments.

A recent dinner at his warm and welcoming Carre des Feuillants suggests he does not miss a beat, offering up a truly harmonious cuisine full of maturity and complexity. Fare that has the ability to surprise yet is actually quite simple in its underpinnings.

While over the years his menu has stayed true to his native foundation - there will always be foie gras and corn bread, game and wild mushrooms, Pyrénées lamb and the famed beef from Chalosse. But he lets himself stretch beyond, dipping into Italy for exquisite white truffles from Alba, to Brittany for sweet and plump scallops and regal turbot, to the coast of Bordeaux for oysters tinged green from the rich beds of algae, to England for his own rich versions of fruit crumble, and to China for Sichuan pepper- flavored sauces.

It is rare for a diner to work up the same enthusiasm for every course, from first to middle to end, but Dutournier has that rare talent - and evenness - to get us just as excited about the gingerbread crumble (our last bite) as we were about the plump Gillardeau green-tinged Marennes oysters bathed in a sea water jelly and teamed up with tiny open-face sandwiches layered with a fine slice of foie gras (our first welcome bite).

A meal at Carre des Feuillants has the ability to move along like a fine piece of music, carrying us along on a fine rhythmical ride. Following the tease of the oysters, we submerge ourselves into a wild mushroom wonderland, a trio of cèpe preparations that include gently marinated mushrooms, another version that carefully pan-fried, all teamed up with Dutournier's trademark "petit pâté chaude," a warming cool weather pâté that is a complex and finely texture mélange of fresh cèpes , dried cèpes , shallots, parsley, eggs, butter, cream and walnut oil, all punctuated with a touch of nutmeg, and gently baked in a soothing bain marie.

Soup comes in the form of triple alliance of a rich pheasant stock enriched with sweet chestnuts. As a finish the chef floats bits of smooth poached pheasant breast, chunks of chestnuts and then gilding the lily in the finest of manners, a final layer of Italian white truffles.

But I guess I hold the softest spot for his true white truffle extravaganza, a beautifully composed, deftly seasoned "galette" a rather complex mixture of sliced raw scallops, arugula, artichokes, mushrooms and Parmesan all layered and bound with a hazelnut vinaigrette, then topped with a thick layer of fragrant white truffles. Finally for a brilliant juxtaposition, Dutournier tops the galette with a crispy sweet/salty cumin wafer. Bravo!

As if it could not get better, it does, in the name of whole roasted poularde, a plump, moist fatted hen from the Chalosse region, paired with a simple and sublime mix of varied wild mushrooms.

Dutournier knows his wines and shows how he can play the food-wine marriages with bravura: The oysters were delighted to be paired with a 1997 Riesling from the house of Kientzler, while the poularde was well escorted by the 1995 Chapelle de la Mission Haut Brion. And the gingerbread crumble could not have been in finer company that that of a 1991 vin de paille, the rare sweet wine from the Jura, this one from the house of P. Botin.

Carré des Feuillants
14 rue de Castiglione
Paris 75001
Tel: 01 42 86 82 82
Fax: 01 42 86 07 71.
Credit cards: American Express, Diners Club, Visa. Closed Saturday lunch, Sunday and August. 320 franc lunch menu,750-franc tasting menu. A la carte, 550 to 700 francs including service but not wine.