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.

Christian Etienne: A Love Affair with the Tomato

Avignon --- Tomatoes are a problem. For ten months of the year we pine away for the juicy, acidic pleasures of garden- fresh fruit, bursting with sunshine, energy, and vitality and filling us with memories of tomatoes past. Then suddenly the moment comes, and our gardens and markets are laden with all manner of heirloom varieties, with names like Tigerella and Striped Germaine, Banana Legs, and Dix Doigts de Naples. We concoct salads and gratins, sorbets and thick-crusted pizzas, devour them right off the vine, and put up batches of ruby sauce for winter’s pleasures. They come green and yellow, red and orange, miniature and gigantic. And we never get enough.

If you love tomatoes as I do, do yourself a favor and reserve a table on the sun-kissed terrace of restaurant Christian Etienne, where his famed all-tomato menu is in the fittest of forms. Sitting there, with the Palais des Papes staring you in the face, the lively sounds of street musicians below, and sipping a fine white Châteauneuf-du-Pape wine, the tomato serves to tip the scales in the best of ways.

Christian Etienne is a native son with Provence in his veins, a man whose enthusiasm, energy, and love for native products are instantly transported from the kitchen to your plate. It’s true that so many chefs who profess to specialize in an ingredient – be it truffles, fish, vegetables or roasts – never manage to convince us or to convey their mastery of the subject. But the dark-haired, square-jawed Etienne does.

In no less than seven courses, in addition to a series of side tastes, he manages to give the tomato its due. Starting with a shot glass full of an icy gazpacho (served flirtatiously with a striped straw) and ending with a superb tomato sorbet, he put our favorite fruit through its paces, offering us immense pleasure along the way.

The finest dish of the day was his tender, amazing braised lamb, paired with the creamiest of eggplant and the tastiest of beefsteak tomatoes (Coeur de Boeuf), all stuffed inside the skin of the eggplant, with its haunting, almost smoky flavor and firm, chewy texture. The traditional Greek Moussaka comes to mind, but Etienne’s version is a culinary masterpiece. With each bite, he managed to capture the pure essence of eggplant, tomato, and lamb, ethereal tastes created by a culinary gymnast.

Not just tasty but beautiful was his duo of molded tomato tartares, one red, the other green, standing like little glistening columns flanking a superb green salad. The brandade of rouget was a fine play on the classic salt cod brandade, with the intensely flavored Mediterranean fish turned into a rich and chunky purée, enveloped between stacks of crisp, dried, paper-thin slices of vibrant red Roma tomatoes. As a garnish, a full-flavored garlic cream met its match, making for a dish that was a spectacular to look at as to savor.

Nor was there anything wrong with his giant, warm tomato, peeled and stuffed with tiny Provencal snails and a soothing mint butter. The textures here were smooth, smooth, smooth, a dish just oozing with flavor and character. At that moment, we asked ourselves, “Is there possibly a better way to eat a tomato?”

The only dish that I did not get was the tiny disc of goat’s milk cheese that was enrobed in a pale orange, glue-like paste made of tomato water.

Dessert was spectacular. A thick slice of zucchini had been infused with an orange essence, topped with that gorgeous sweet and salty tomato sorbet, all teamed up with a sweet baklava-like pastry.

Service here is efficient and friendly, and the wait staff expresses an authentic enthusiasm for Etienne’s food. The only sour note of the day came from the behavior and attitude of two different sommeliers. After ordering a favorite white Châteauneuf du Pape – the stunning 100% Roussanne Grand Veneur La Fontaine – I inquired as to the grape variety. The young female sommelier rattled off a list of potential suspects but insisted that it was illegal to make a Châteauneuf from a single grape, which is not true. A request for her to “look it up’ and get back to us met with no response. Later, another sommelier offered a glass of red with the lamb, played the silly “you guess what it is game,” and got the grape varieties wrong again. A minor error? Not when you are a few moments away from one of France’s most glorious vineyards. Study up, please.

Christian Etienne
10 rue des Mons
84000 Avignon
Telephone: 04 90 86 16 50
Fax: 04 90 86 67 09
Internet: christian-etienne.fr
email : contact@christian-etienne.fr

Closed Sunday and Monday, except in July. Menus at 30 (lunch only), 50, 60, 70, and 95 euro. A la carte, 65 to 95 euro, including service but not wine.

La Table d’Augusta, Le Grand Pre and Les Abeilles: Searching for Soul in Provence

SAINT PAUL TROIS CHATEAUX --- Let me go on the record. I believe chefs as businessmen and women should be allowed to earn as a good a living as possible. But – in almost all cases – if given a choice between visiting an offshoot of the chef’s top restaurant where he or she makes no pretense of being on the premises, or visiting a restaurant where I am 100% certain the chef is at the stove and will come to my table to say hello, I’ll choose the second any day.

So here are cases in point. Just a few weeks ago, Jacques and Laurent Pourcel – with a bundle of restaurants to their name, including their Michelin three-star Jardin des Sens in  Montpellier – opened La Table d’Augusta, a modern hotel-restaurant in northern Provence.

The place is lovely – with an elegant, spacious stone terrace decked out in comfortable grey wicker chairs, lavender tabletops laid with pale pink table runners, crisp white china, and a bubbling ornamental pool nearby. It’s the backdrop of a dream setting in Provence. (Only the dying row of hydrangeas seem totally out of place in this part of the world.)

The menu, too, is full of all the things we love about the Pourcel brothers food – very Mediterranean, with plenty of pesto and raviolis, goat cheese and gazpacho, zucchini blossoms and fresh seasonal melon.  Some of the dishes we sampled had personality and pep: I loved the zesty cold gazpacho, served with a trio of goat-cheese ravioli and a drizzle of olive oil, as well as the copious portions of Spanish ham served with a melon sorbet.

But the rest of the food, alas, disappointed. Here we are in a brand new restaurant, and the flavors just fell flat, seemed stale, as though the chefs were just sick of cooking the same thing over and over again. The lettuce was unwashed and full of grit, and much of the rest of food seemed just formulaic. My zucchini blossoms were stuffed with a flavorless soufflé-mixture, and the dish looked and tasted dated. Likewise, a fillet of veal, served with a fine artichoke purée and artichoke “chips:  lacked vivacity.

Desserts, too, seemed forced. The strawberries were tasteless, and the updated attempt at a “crumble” reminded me more of dog food pellets than anything I might have grown up with. Cherries – served as a soup teamed up with citrus and a red currant jelly – were totally denatured. Here we are, top of the season, in the middle of the region that grows the best cherries and strawberries. What’s wrong here?

So for a look at chefs who are always behind the stove, one need search no further than the kitchens of  Raoul Reichrath of  Le Grand Pré  in Roaix and Johannes Sailer of Les Abeilles in  Sablet. I am a regular at both tables and love just about everything they do, since both are young, ambitious, experimental chefs in love with what they do.

It seems that Raoul almost never repeats a dish, for in recent months I’ve loved his sea bass set atop a bed of artichokes, offset by a creamy sauce of fresh peas, as well as his moist, tender rabbit served with lemon confit and seasoned with both rosemary and tarragon. His little starter of salt cod brandade flecked with lemon confit wakes up the palate and gets you ready for more to come. Along with his wife, Flora, a trained sommelier, Raoul’s little converted farmhouse by the side of the road is a fine place to spend a summer’s afternoon or evening. From Flora’s well-chosen cellar do try the white Vinsobres from Chaume-Arnoux, well priced at 20 euros, as well as the 2000 red Cotes du Rhône Villages, the Vieilles Vignes from Amphillanthes, at 34 euros.

Johannes and his wife, Marlies, have relocated from their village restaurant, Oustalet, in the center of Gigondas to their very own restaurant in nearby Sablet. With a spacious terrace shaded by ancient plane trees, and a more sober interior dining room, they’ve created a fine spot for year-round dining. A few weeks ago Johannes wooed us with his all-tomato menu, a fantasy-like meal that include a mean gazpacho, an elegant terrine of grilled tomatoes and fresh goat cheese, and a quick-cooked shoulder of lamb with a fine tomato sauce. Even dessert – a tomato crème brulée – won hearts and minds and palates. The well-priced wines to sample here are their house specials, the 2002 white Sablet from Château du Trignon (22.5 euro) and the gusty 2001 Gigondas Reserve from the same house (23 euros). Note the restaurant is also open for snacks through the day and operates as a Chambres D’Hôtes, with two rooms, starting at 90 euros a night.

La Table d’Augusta
14, rue du Serre Blanc
26130 Saint Paul Trois Châteaux
Telephone 04 75 97 29 29
Fax: 04 75 97 29 28
email: info@villaaugusta-hotel.com
web: www.villaaugusta-hotel.com

Closed Sunday evening and Monday. Lunch menus, weekdays only, from 18 to 36 euros, including service and wine. Dinner menus at 41,51, and 80 euros, including service but not wine.

Le Grand Pre
route de Vaison
(D 975)
Telephone: 04 90 46 18 12
Fax: 04 90 46 17 84
email:legrandpre@waika9.com

Closed Tuesday, Wednesday lunch, and Saturday lunch. 46 euro menu. A la carte, 45 to 70 euros, including service but not wine.

Les Abeilles
4, route de Vaison
84110 Sablet
Telephone: 04 90 12 38 98
Fax: 04 90 12 12 70
email: js@abeilles-sablet.com
web: www.Abeilles-sablet.com

Closed Monday. Menus at 45, 55, and 65 euros. Children’s menu at 19 euros.  A la carte,   55 to 75 euros, including service but not wine.

La Table du Lancaster: Best of Modern French

PARIS – Walking into the newly remodeled dining room of the Lancaster Hotel on Paris’s right bank is like approaching a gorgeous woman, a natural beauty who knows just how to emphasize all of her finest qualities.

Consulting chef Michel Troisgros – son of the legendary three-star chef Pierre Troisgros of Roanne, and now master of the kitchen there – can cook for me anytime. Just when you think you can’t be blown away by one more meal, you are. And thank goodness.

If I was asked today to describe in detail Modern French Food I would have to do no more than open the menu at La Table du Lancaster and point my fingers all across the page. Tender, juicy, pigeon paired with almonds. A veritable “paysage” of vegetables served with a tangy, iced red tomato purée. A classic Sole meuniere revisited, teamed up with wild cèpe mushrooms and salty capers. Pig’s ears escorted by anchovies and a basil sauce. And then “burnt” rack of lamb paired with yogurt.

All this in a dining room you want to wrap your arms around and stay forever. Small, discreet, warm, luxurious. The tables are black onyx, with table runners of the palest of grays. Everywhere there are touches of bright orange, while elegant Chinese prints cover the walls. A bright gold or orange Gerber daisy floats in a clear glass bowl, and your day is instantly brightened. Service is swift and discreet.

Crayfish were aloft in a sea on fresh lemon verbena broth, soft as pillows, soothing as a cool breeze on a hot day. A dish that’s light, vibrant, fun, easy to understand, and yet thoroughly original.

The rosy pigeon was stuffed with almonds and deep fried, offering a welcome contrast of textures. Alongside, a “carpaccio” of paper-thin slices of zucchini were showered with almonds. The only disappointment of the meal came in the form of a bowl of aubergine laquée, small squares of lacquered eggplant set in a pool of a shimmery lime jelly. As my table mate noted, you almost have to beat up eggplant to make it taste good, and she was right. The flavors here were pale and undefined.

But I totally flipped over chef Troisgros’s cannelloni of warm goat cheese and artichokes. A trio of the most perfect rolls of paper-thin pasta encased a light and airy filling of tangy goat cheese. The thinnest slivers of raw, violet-tipped artichokes were scattered over all, a play of white on white with flavors that were, in contrast, bold, sharp and satisfying.

As I sampled the cannelloni I had two thoughts: Run to the front desk, reserve a room, take a nap, come back for dinner, and order the pasta again. Or, recreate the cannelloni at home, for dinner, the next evening. I opted for the second. My version was a bit more rustic, but I swooned nonetheless.

The wine choice – a Montlouis, a pure Chenin Blanc from the house of Domaine Chidaine – was a perfect match for Troisgros’s modern fare. Dry, yet tasting almost like a fresh bon bon, it handled everything from crayfish to pasta to pigeon with flair.

Dessert had a fine appeal, as well. Warm orange-blushed apricots arrived on a pure white plate, filled with a touch of apricot jelly and topped with sweet, gorgeous, candied leaves of fresh lemon verbena. The accompanying cake of souffled crepes, however, held little interest.

Thank you, Michel Troisgros, for introducing us to food that is a pleasure for the eyes as well as the palate, food with elegance and sophistication that makes sense. No airs, nothing faked, unaffected.

La Table du Lancaster
7, rue de Berri
75008 Paris
Telephone: 01 40 76 40 18
Fax: 01 40 96 40 40
email: restarant@hotel-lancaster.fr
Web: www.hotel-lancaster.fr

Open daily. All major credit cards. From 60 to 85 euros per person, including service but not wine.

La Cagouille: Rekindling a Friendship with an Old Favorite

PARIS – Old restaurants often become like old friends. We don’t see them for years, and then when we are reacquainted again, we ask ourselves why we waited so long between encounters.

The popular fish restaurant La Cagouille is a lot like that. I guess I know why I stopped going about six years back. Prices seemed steep, the décor got me down, and as fresh as the fish and shellfish were, the plainness of the presentation just did not entice me to return.

A few weeks ago, looking around for a spot for Sunday lunch, I decided to give La Cagouille – which means snail in the dialect of the Charente region of France – another taste. Am I glad I did. I have been back again and again, and even though many of the old problems – mainly the lackluster décor and the service without personality – continue, I found new life and energy in the food and the wine list.

Owner Gérard Allemandou was there that day, and offered us the creamiest, most buttery baby scallops – pétoncles – from the Oléron, miniature shellfish with brilliant mahogany-toned shells and a deep, haunting flavor. The treasures were simply steamed open and served as is.

Another standard starter-teaser here is a giant bowl of perfectly steamed, buttery baby clams, tossed in a bit of salty butter just to please the palate even more.

If a restaurant can serve a cooked dish better and cheaper than I can do at home, I’ll go for it. That’s the case with the whole grilled sea bas – bar – ticketed at 35 euros and served roasted to perfection.

If your palate is looking for something a bit more complicated, try the starter salad of green beans, fava beans, pine nut and basil, a dish I quickly added to my home repertoire, making sure the pine nuts are fresh and freshly toasted, which they were not at La Cagouille.

An equally good salad starter is their salad of lamb’s lettuce (mache), warm morue (salt cod), red peppers and bacon: This is salad as a meal, copious, well-seasoned, and as meaty as can be.

I could return once a week just to sample their ample main course preparation of skate – raie – served with an enriching sauce gribiche. Here the gribiche – rather than the usual glorified mayonnaise – appeared as a main player, with cubes of carrots, potatoes, turnips, lots of cucumbers, capers, chive and chopped hard-cooked eggs, and a healthy dose of vinegar.

On the same visit, we reeled with pleasure over the well-priced (30 euros) Macon-Villages, the 100% Chardonnay Comte Lafon Macon Milly-Lamartine 2000, a stony, mineral-rich delight that one could imagine sampling each day at lunch with a different fish offering.

The season is nearly over, but if you hurry you can still sample their excellent scallop preparation, giant sea scallops seared to perfection, the quick heat enhancing and intensifying the flavor of shellfish itself. Deglazed with a touch of balsamic vinegar and showered with a garden full of minced chives, it was a dish to bring delight to the eyes as well as the palate.

On a later visit, we were no less impressed with the food and wine, but I just wish the wait staff could go to smile school. When you have such great food to serve, how can you be so blasé about it?

At any rate, the wine of the week was Dauvissat’s Chablis 1er cru La Forest 2000, a 48- euro wine that offers a touch of smoke, of flinty, is highly concentrated and well structured. Drink it when you can!


La Cagouille
10/12 Place Brancusi
Paris 14
Telephone: 01 43 22 09 01
Fax: 01 45 38 57 29
Email: la-cagouille@wanadoo.fr
Internet : www.la-cagouille.fr

Open daily. Credit card: Visa. Menus at 23 and 38 euros, including service but not wine. A la carte, 40 to 60 euros, including service but not wine.

Prune and Sea Grill: Two Fun New York Restaurants

NEW YORK -- Scrumptious is not a word I use often. But it’s the first word that came to mind reliving a superb meal at the tiny New York eatery known as Prune, a tiny, bare bones bistro headed by chef Gabrielle Hamilton in the center of the trendy East Village.

Armed with a selection of hearty, robust, energetic fare, I opted for the bar menu, loaded with creations that aimed straight for my heart. I can still taste the marvelous trio of marinated ultra-fresh anchovy fillets, lots of chopped celery hearts and celery leaves, and a mound of top-quality Marcona almonds from Spain.

Rarely have I seen a menu with such a sense of humor – why not radishes, sweet butter and Kosher salt, or perhaps a platter of buttered brown bread, Spanish goat cheese and salted red onion? The menu seems to wander all over the place, but somehow keeps you well-grounded and curious nonetheless. I was a goner for the platter of fried oysters with a can’t stop eating-it homemade tartare sauce. The oysters were mammoth the coating thick and crunchy, and I could have gone on for more if I didn’t have other treats in store.

I was less enthusiastic about the grilled homemade lamb sausages (they were just a bit too tentatively seasoned), and felt the same about the unusual combination of braised veal tongue, grilled octopus and gremolata. When you go, do save room for the fried dark meat chicken, with that same extraordinary breading, served with a fantastic cold buttermilk dressing.

Next time, I’ll be sure to try the ruby shrimp boil with sausage, potatoes and corn, and am curious as to how the buttered wide egg noodles with small curd cottage cheese might be.

The brief wine list is intriguing and I loved the almost sweet German Riesling (quite different from it more acidic French counterpart), from the estate of Dr. Burklin-Wolf in Pfalz ($8 a glass; $31 a bottle), and savored every drop of the very meaty, harmonious Oregon pinot noir, the Cristom Mt Jefferson cuvé priced at $52 a bottle.

The restaurant is beyond no frills: Diners sit elbow to elbow on tiny café tables, seated at hard wooden church-style banquets. Service is friendly, helpful and lacks attitude, hurrah!

On the face of it, the Sea Grill has all the making of an overrun tourist trap with bad food and lousy service. There it is, smack dab in the center of town, Rockefeller Center no less, with a ringside view of the amateur skaters on the Center’s fabled ice skating ring.

Oh, how wrong that all is. Instead we have a light airy, bustling, New York grill, a refreshing oasis in the center of Manhattan. The executive chef, Edward Brown, is hand’s down one of my favorites and one of the best fish chefs working today. I stopped in one sunny day for lunch and the place was alive. For starters, the grill has something for everyone. In a hurry? Take a seat at the bar, and feast on just a touch of sushi or sashimi with a glass Chilean Sauvignon blanc from the Manta vineyards. Or is it oysters that are on your mind: tiny Peconic Bay oysters from New York, briny Pepperell Cove specimens from Maine, and cold water St Anne’s from Nova Scotia where the choice the day I lunched.

We opted for a table with a million dollar view of the skating rink, where – among the happy group of skaters -- a pair of twin girls were flipping and flopping as their patient mother lead them through the paces. Sushi was on my mind, so we selected a pair of rolls from the compact menu. I’d go back tomorrow just to sample Brown’s clean, elegant, well-mannered creations. Crab and avocado are a combination made in heaven, and here, the duo did their job, offering texture, sweetness, smoothness and satisfaction. A glass of Dr Loon’s “Dr. L” (at $10 a glass) German Riesling from the Mosel district, was lush and tangy and made the quick lunch all that much more satisfying. Even better were the spicy tuna rolls – six bite-size rounds – filled with a spicy tuna tartare, encased in rice, then topped with sliver-thin slices of raw tuna and more avocado.

The wait staff was gracious, and as you watch them flow past with platter after platter of seductive fare – the world’s best crab cakes, grilled calamari with a garlic and pine nut crust, or seared Chatham cod with a butterbean ragout – all made us want to stay on, or at least race back for dinner.

Prune
54 East First Street
New York, NY 10003
Telephone: 212 677 6221

Bar selections $5 to $10. A la carte, $30 to $50, not including service or wine.

Sea Grill
19 West 49th (between 5th and 6th )
New York, New York
Telephone: 212 332 7610.

Open daily. Sushi rolls from $7 to $10; sushi platters at $27; oysters $2.50 each. A la carte, $45 to $55, not including service or wine.

The New and the Classic in Napa Valley, California

Napa, California --- The golden crop of mustard greens that symbolize the vineyards of the Napa Valley are beginning to fade, and winemakers are gearing up for another vintage. The restaurant scene here is strong, and continues to grow. The newest in the crop is Angele, open since December along the Napa River in the city of Napa.

With a clean, crisp, simple décor and a large outdoor terrace overlooking the river, Angele features a classic but updated French bistro menu, complete with mounds of crisp and golden French fries, French onion soup and macaroni gratins.

I adored the steamed Manilla clams bathed in a creamy saffron broth, teamed up with giant slices of toasted baguette; as well as the unusual and delicious salad of fresh seasonal asparagus paired with marinated anchovies and seasoned with a Nicoise olive vinaigrette. But the best bet of the evening was a moist filet of striped bass on a bed of creamy flageolet beans, the main player in a red pepper and flageolet stew. Our wine choice, alas, was a bit off the mark: the 2001 Seghesio Zinfandel was unbalanced, with too much acidity to make it a winner.

TERRA

The grand-daddy of Napa Valley restaurants has to be Terra, the wildly popular and successful restaurant begun in 1988 by Hiro Sone and Lissa Doumani, both of whom worked with California superstar chef Wolfgang Puck.

Situated in downtown St Helena in a large stone building built in 1884 as a foundry for small farm tools, the 92-seat dining room has a fine, spacious feel, with service that is friendly and a well-informed, welcoming wait staff.

Hiro was trained at the top Tokyo cooking school and wisely combines his Japanese sensibility and sensitivity with touches of classic French and country Italian. In other hands the combination could be a hodge-podge disaster, but here we warm to his soy vinaigrettes, to sake-marinated fish, and shiso broth. Yes, the menu does read a bit like a United Nations food fest, and includes a currant verjus chutney and Cabernet Sauvignon wine sauce, tapenade and basmati rice in coconut sauce, pancetta vinaigrette and tortelloni, but all is woven together with care and forethought. Hiro has a distinct personality and attitude towards food, and it comes through loud and clear.

My favorite taste of the evening was his now classic broiled sake-marinated Alaskan black cod, served with plump shrimp dumplings in a bright broth flavored with the pungent Japanese herb, shiso. Light but not lightweight, the dish packs in a lot of flavor, and the sheer quality of the cod helps make it a real winner. Equally fine was the first course lobster tortelloni in an oyster mushroom and lobster broth, offset by the color of fresh spinach and the sharpness of fresh tarragon.

In the end, Hiro’s Japanese sensibility wins out and we leave the table with the memory of clean clear crisp flavors, that feel ultimately healthy and wholesome. Our wine choice – the Alban Vineyards Roussanne from the Edna Valley – was a real success, with its exotic flavors of cloves, honeysuckle and mangoes, a fine match for Hiro’s cuisine.

Angele
540 Main Street
Napa, California
Telephone: (707) 252 8115
Fax: (707) 252 8239
Web: www.angele.us
Email info@angele.us

Open daily. All major credit cards. From $25 to $35 per person, not including service or wine.

Terra
1345 Railroad Avenue, (between Adams and Hunt Streets)
St. Helena, CA, 94574-1191
Telephone: (707) 963-8931

Open for dinner only. All major credit cards. A la carte, $40 to $60 per person, not including service or wine

Les Allobroges: Return to an Old Time Favorite

PARIS – Some chefs work as architects, creating food that is well-constructed, beautiful, pleasing to the eye. All too often that food ends up being timid, falling short of flavour and long term pleasure.

Other chefs – and it’s Olivier Pateyron of Les Allobroges that I have in mind – go for the big bang, creating food that sort of grabs us by the collar, wraps itself around us and makes us very happy.

It’s been years since I made a return visit to Pateyron’s cozy restaurant hidden in the city’s 20th arrondissement. And as soon as I stepped inside once again -- the warm welcome, the cheery fabrics all about, the big smiling face of chef Pateyron and careful service of his wife, Annette -- made me realize I’d been away too long.

It’s hard to believe that he has been behind the stove of the tiny family spot for 20 years, offering a very personal, generous cuisine that is easy for anyone to understand. Still on the menu you’ll find his ultimately delicious braised lamb shanks, cooked long and slow, until the meat falls off the bone in perfect tenderness, paired with an avalanche of sweet garlic cooked in its jackets.

His current 31 euro menu is a bargain-hunter’s dream, including a brilliant rendition of a celery remoulade, flecked with sheep’s milk cheese, granny smith and a gelatine of Espelette pepper, and an usual combination of scallops on a bed of ratatouille. For some reason I would never have paired the southern vegetable mixture with the northern coquilles saint Jacques but each have enough flavour to create a bright, dense flavor combination.

I didn’t quite get the point of the terrine of blue d’Auvergne though the idea had great appeal. The grey color, the timid flavour just didn’t make it for me, though the accompanying toasted bread and dried figs made we want to figure out a way to make the dish work.

The compote of beef cheeks was excellent, served in a small molded round and paired with a sweet potato purée. I quickly devoured the perfectly prepared duck -- cooked with spices and the sweet Banyuls wine, and served with a fine dried fruit chutney.

Desserts offer plenty of room for exploration, including a truly wonderful fromage blanc mousse, set in a soothing mango sauce and teamed up with a honey-laced crispy pastry made from the Moroccan feuilles de brique.

The wine list is brief but offers some new surprises. I could not have been more pleased with the 2001 Saint Joseph from the Becharas family. This pure syrah from the Northern Rhone was full of fruit and vibrancy, with perfect acidity and a nice, long finish and was well priced at 31.20 euro.

And bravo, Olivier, for the well priced – 26 euros – vegetarian menu. The current selection includes an artichoke soup, a dried cepe risotto, and fromage blanc mousse, and a cocoa sorbet.

Les Allobroges
71, rue des Grands-Champs
Paris 20
Telephone: 01 43 73 40 00

Menus at 18, 26 and 31 euros.

Le Villaret: A Bright Light Bistro

PARIS – The other evening, as we walked into the crisp, clean, lively bistro Le Villaret, a friend’s eyes lit up and she said in amazement ‘’This is the bistro I’ve been searching for for years.”

Located on a dreary side street in the 11th arrondissement, not far from La Republique, Le Villaret is a bright light in a sea of grey. From the cheery white lace curtains that hang in the window to the elegant, high-back 1930’s bistro chairs and on to the attitude here – friendly, charming, unpretentious, no-nonsense – the place is a gem.

And I cannot say enough good things about the food or the wine list. Several recent meals here – where Joel Homel rules the dining room and Olivier Grasalin oversees the kitchen – made me want to become an instant regular.

The food here is the best of what might be called bistro modern. While the ever- changing selections always include such classics as sole meuniere, roast chicken, salmon tartare, and leg of lamb, all are treated with a contemporary reference.

A favorite dish of several recent visits is a powerfully satisfying medley of root vegetables – turnips and salsify, artichokes and Jerusalem artichokes – arriving in a giant white bowl, bathed in a deep, dense, poultry stock, showered with chives and draped with a paper thin slice of foie gras. Delicious! Paired with the restaurant’s spectacular dense, crusty country bread, it’s a dream dish.

Other winning starters include a duo of artichokes and asparagus cooked in that same dense, intense stock, and topped with a perfect poached egg; a trio of salmon preparations (a well-seasoned tartare; a pair of brochettes; a delicately cured filet); and an Asian-inspired dish of oyster raviolis, showered with fresh, fragrant coriander.

I couldn’t get enough of the roasted country chicken, set on a bed of curly green cabbage bathed in a creamy sauce made with the sherry-like Arbois wine from the Jura. The chicken was moist, firm and well-flavored, and coated with a paper-thin potato galette, making for pure crunchy pleasure.

Order lamb shoulder and it arrives in a newly polished copper pot, perfectly roasted and set on a bed of potatoes, turnips and broad beans. Leg of lamb is served on a bed of giant white beans (marred only by an excess of salt), and a hearty veal breast comes with chanterelles and smooth broad beans.

The wine list is worth a detour all on its own. We’ve loved the wholesome and refreshing chardonnay Chablis 1er Cru Domaine Francois and Jean Raveneau les Buttaux 2000 (41 euros); the opulent, silky, state-of-the-art, pinot noir Chambolle-Musigny vieilles vignes Geantet-Pansiot 2000 (51 euros); the stunning, intense pure-syrah 2001 Cornas from Eric and Joel Durand (37 euros); and a memorable silky pinot noir Gevrey-Chambertin, Les Favorites vieilles vignes 1999 from Domaine Alain Burguet (74 euros). Everything at Le Villaret is spotless and served with a natural sense of caring. Each wine is carafed with attention: Behind the bar you’ll see the staff lovingly washing each carafe and drying it with a huge clean white towel. The contents of each bottle are not simply emptied into the carafe, but attentively, lovingly poured with a flourish. And what I love, too, is that the empty bottle and the full carafe are set on your table, and you get to serve yourself. (No waiting for an inattentive waiter to dole out the wine, drop by drop.)

Order a cheese course and soon an entire cheese house – four full shelves of cheese -- arrives at your table. This old-fashioned rectangular box include all the greats, from a full shelf of goat cheese and on to Camembert, Brie and Comté.

Desserts get as much attention as the rest of the fare: Two great bets include a gorgeous individual pear clafoutis served in a simple white porcelain bowl, and a grapefruit quartet, including grapefruit sorbet, a grapefruit financier, candied grapefruit and roasted grapefruit.

Le Villaret
19, rue Ternaux
Paris 11
Telephone: 01 43 57 75 56 and 01 43 57 89 76

Closed Saturday lunch and all day Sunday. 25 euro lunch menu, 28 euro dinner menu. A la carte, about 30 euros, including service but not wine.

The Provence Cookbook Reviews

The French World of Cheese: Of Excellence and Honor

PARIS -- Cheesemonger Marie Quatrehomme – the food trade’s very first female Meilleur Ouvrier de France – is elated. This Parisian is no longer alone. At the recent awards ceremony for the “best workers in France ‘’ in the cheese category, Marie hugged the newest female MOF, Josiane Deal of the cheese shop Lou Canestéou in the Provençal village of Vaison-la-Romaine. And this is no small matter.

In a day when the French 35-hour-work week continues to take slams, one rarely talks about the hordes of manual workers – the majority of them self-employed -- for whom that number of hours would be considered a laughable, half-time job.

The MOF story really begins at the end of the 19th century, when the French state realized that easily one third of its population – skilled manual workers in all trades – was being cheated of reaching for or attaining honors for their excellence. In a country that has always given greater credence to intellectual endeavors and thus honors, all the stone-masons and chefs, carpenters and bakers, tile experts and butchers were left to complete their careers – no matter how excellent – without a word of praise or recognition from the state.

As an attempt to correct the imbalance – and give manual workers a serious goal and official recognition – les Meilleurs Ouvriers de France was created. It is not an easy honor to attain, and is not – as many assume – a cushy rubber stamp or a pat on the back from the government for a nice job done. Today, some 180 manual trades -- from rare specialties such as glyptique (an expertise in the jewelry-making trade) and on to team efforts in the aeronautics industry -- undergo separate competitions every several years in France.

In Josiane’s case, the road to MOF began two years ago, when a application and months of study led her to her final goal. In order to be selected as a finalist – some 35 presented themselves as candidates, 12 where chosen as finalists, 6 were selected as laureates – Josiane and her fellow cheese shop owners from all corners of France were subjected to intensive written and oral examinations on the history of cheese, cheesemaking and cheese aging and presented an extensive array of no less that 30 cheeses to judges who tasted and commented on each and every cheese, examining aesthetics, aging quality, flavor. They even underwent exams in English as judges appeared as customers eager to sample a series of cheese, with advice on accompanying wines. Once chosen as a finalist, Josiane, along with her husband, Christian, spent every off hour for a year devoted to creating a “chef d’ouevre,” a complex cheese display designed to best present dozens of their very finest cheeses in their very best state. (MOF director Jean-Pierre Boisivon and his staff estimate that on the average a candidate devotes 1,700 hours to creating his work of art.) The final days also included rigorous written and oral exams.

Perhaps one of the best-know MOF in France is chef Paul Bocuse, who along with chef Joël Robuchon have supported the MOF chef category for years, tutoring and encouraging young chefs to reach for the stars. Today, the competition in the chef category is the largest in the MOF firmament, with some 500 candidates, 48 finalists and 24 winners in the latest competition. In recent years, the food trade category of MOF has expanded greatly, and now along with pastry chefs and butchers, chocolate makers and sommeliers, also includes maitre d’hotel. Except for the cheese category, there are no female MOF laureates in any of the other food trades.

As Boisivon points out, the entire program is about much more than just “giving away medals.” Along with acknowledging the excellent work of manual tradesmen, the program is there to transmit knowledge and expertise within the trade itself.

“When you have done something so very exceptional in your life, you are transformed. It is very important for a society to honor discipline and excellence. The route of the MOF is a great human adventure,” adds the MOF chief.

“There are some specialties – such as very specific styles of lace-making – that may have only five candidates. But if we kill the MOF competitions in that area, we could kill the tradition itself,” he notes.

Once the MOF award is given, laureates find their lives are changed forever. While devotion to a trade may be geographically limited to a village or a city, laureates find that requests to share their passions quickly cover the country. When I invited Marie Quatrehomme to lunch after the ceremonies, she declined, noting that she had an appearance at the French senate nearby, to give awards to young students. Meanwhile, Josiane and Christian hopped on the TGV south, arriving in Avignon to a soccer star’s welcome from friends and family.

“Her life will never be the same.” says Boisivon, who personally encouraged Josiane to go for the magic ring. Now she is preparing to take her chef d’ouevre around France, first to the Agriculture Fair in Paris, later to a major MOF event in Poitiers. As she awaits the arrival of her official white chef’s jacket with the bright red and blue MOF stripes around the collar, she’s there behind the counter at Lou Canesteou, advising, suggesting, and, yes, smiling just a little bit.

Fromagerie Quatrehomme
62, rue de Sèvres
75007 Paris
Telephone : 01 47 34 33 45
Fax : 01 43 06 06 96

Closed Sunday.

Lou Canestéou
10, rue Raspail
84110 Vaison-la-Romaine
Telephone: 04 90 36 31 30
Fax : 04 90 36 79 33

Closed Sunday and Wednesday afternoons.

Hiramatsu: How the Mightly Fall

PARIS -- One wonders if Paris is not becoming too much like New York, where trendiness and “of the moment” mean more than gastronomic quality or true fidelity to a favorite restaurant.

I have many friends who have probably never visited a restaurant more than once. Or a restaurant that’s been open more than a millisecond. They play “the first to know first to go” game in restaurant land. But no matter how much they praise the place, they never go back. Who has time if one is obsessed with only the new?

Hiramatsu is a great example. When this miniscule, 18-seat spot opened along the banks of the Seine on the Ile-Saint-Louis in October 2001, you could not beg, borrow, or steal a seat in this elegant jewel-box of a restaurant for months on end. The fact that it was awarded a Michelin star the following March (when barely no one had heard of it) only helped to fan the flame of success. Its reputation was not helped, however, by the practice of not honoring those much-coveted reservations. I heard of numerous examples of clients making reservations, confirming the table that day, and being turned away at the door like total strangers.

So when I called for reservation a few weeks ago, I was delighted to capture a table for two for lunch just two days in advance. When my companion and I arrived, we found we’d be sharing the restaurant with just four other diners, an American couple on their honeymoon, and a Japanese couple on their honeymoon. How the mighty fall.

OK, on to the food. I’d say the chef gets it right about half the time, which is not good enough for the prices charged. I DID sample one of the more memorable dishes of many months: I can close my eyes and still taste the remarkable seared fresh langoustines on a bed of macaroni stuffed with cauliflower. I know, it does not sound that remarkable, but the giant macaroni filled with the most delicious white purée was a taste of pure, soothing joy. Alongside, zucchini blossoms were stuffed with a mixture of olives and minced zucchini, a lovely pairing.

Did I say zucchini blossoms? On a stormy, cold and rainy day in January? Whatever happened to seasonality?

I could also have run into the kitchen to hug the chef for his outstanding starter of the freshest of ecrevisses – crayfish – paired with the most perfect smoked pigeon breast, all set on a bed of truffle-laced vegetables and surrounded by a luscious avocado coulis. Beautiful as well as delicious, a first rate dish if there ever was one.

Then things begin to go downhill. If I closed my eyes as I ate the roasted veal I might have guessed tuna or swordfish that was way overcooked and well over the hill. How could a kitchen offer such disparity? And that for 45 euros? No way.

The wine list is huge and if you want to drink a 1986 Cheval Blanc (600 €) a 1990 Côte-Rôtie La Ladonne (837 euro) or a 1989 La Tache (1200 €) it’s yours with a healthy credit card. But there are some finds, such as the Minervois Château Cabezac 2000 that we adored and felt just a little smug about finding it on the list, at 26 €. Other good bets include the 1996 Savigny-les-Beaune Domaine Michel Gaunoux at 45 €, a 1996 Château Montus Madiran at 48 €, and a 1998 Mercurey from Domaine Michel Juillot at 40 €.

Hiramatsu
7, quai de Bourbon
Paris 4
Telephone: 01 56 81 08 80
Fax: 01 56 81 08 81
E-mail: paris@hiramatsu.co.jp

Closed Sunday, Monday, three weeks in August and Christmas week. Menus at 50 and 70 € (lunch), and 92 euro (dinner). A la carte, 130 to 150 €.

Mon Vieil Ami: New and Modern on Ile Saint Louis

PARIS – I confess that when I saw that the famed Alsatian chef Antoine Westermann was opening a bistro on Ile-Saint-Louis, I had visions of red-checkered tablecloths, mounds of choucroute, and those old Alsatian favorites of baeckeoffe and kougelhopf. Not that any of these are bad, it just wasn’t what I thought Paris needed today.

Well, the moment I stepped foot inside his bright, airy, starkly modern new spot, my eyes lit up. The place says right out loud, Fun, Modern, Youthful. You enter into a high-ceilinged black and white dining room, with a giant black onyx table d’hôtes at one side, cozy tables for two along another. Glasses glisten in clear crystal, plates contrast in pure white, and towering white lilies flow out of a skyscraper-sized glass vase in the center.

The second you are seated, a chilled glass of Alsatian pinot blanc is set at your elbow, and you are prepared to be won over.

The menu, at first glance confused me a bit, for such unexpected and nontraditional combinations as leeks and mackerel, dorade (porgy) teamed up with shellfish in a casserole, and carrots, raisins and dates with roasted codfish.

But once the plates began coming, my fears were alleviated, my palate did handstands. What Westermann has created is a new voice, a voice that seems to say, Trust me, I know what I’m doing, and I am not simply going to drag out the 10 greatest hits one more time. Even dishes that I might not normally order – such as a moist and delicious pâté en croûte – was consumed with pleasure, both the moist pâté and the deliciously crunchy crust that encased it. I ate it all, including the nice bit of aspic and the accompanying mixed salad tossed with a welcome walnut vinaigrette. In short, the food is bright, copious and surprising, without leaving the Alsatian boundaries.

On a giant table in the center sits a loaf bread that must be a meter long, and all night long the youthful, friendly waiters slice and refill baskets and guests devour each and every crusty slice.

I adored the warm tuberous vegetable salad --- including tiny potatoes in their skins, penne-sized turnips, and Jerusalem artichokes – all bathed in a wholesomely delicious broth, topped with slivers of the thinnest, best foie gras and a showering of fresh green lamb’s lettuce, or mache. But even for me – a veritable salt lover – the dish was overly salty.

Other good starters include the salmon rillettes – you might define it as cooked carpaccio – finely ground fresh and smoked salmon shaped into three little scoops, like a sorbet. The portions looked huge but somehow, everything was devoured. Even the suspicious leeks in vinaigrette paired with the fresh, delicious pan-fried mackerel, seemed to make sense after all.

The evening was cold and rainy and the huge poitrine de veau, or veal breast braised in the giant Alsatian casserole with a bright shower of sliced carrots made the evening quite a bit more welcoming. Also cooked in an ochre Alsatian casserole were the braised fillets of fresh dorade, set on a bed of fennel, another combination that worked that night.

The dessert list includes some nice offerings, such as a good chocolate tart (that resembles but does not come close to the version made famous by Joël Robuchon), and the confit of apples paired with vanilla and pistachio ice cream, a dished designed for sugar fiends.

We drank the house pinot blanc from the house of Kenzler and talked about how underrated Alsatian wines can be, especially the whites that come from a land of little sun, but great soil.

Prices are good, with a daily menu of 38 €, lunchtime daily specials at 15 €, and a la carte offerings of entrees at 10 €, fish and meat and 20 €, and desserts at 8 €.

Even though the restaurant is brand new, it already has a nice neighborhood feel. We left wishing we lived down the block from My Old Friend.

Mon Vieil Ami
69 rue Saint Louis en l’Ile
Paris 4
Telephone: 01 40 46 01 35
Fax: 01 40 46 01 36

All major credit cards. Closed Monday, and Tuesday at lunch. A la carte, 30 to 38 €, including service but not wine.

Le Soleil: A Fine Flea Market Find

PARIS -- What is it about the thrill of a potential flea market find that puts us in such a good mood? Add to that the thought of a fine Sunday lunch, a few sips of good wine, and the companionship of friends and the stage is set for a very fine day indeed.

Take a look around you at the excellent flea market restaurant Le Soleil and everyone is smiling, laughing, looking like the well-fed lot that they are. Owner Louis-Jacques Vannucci is the ultimate host or bistrotier, back-slapping and hovering in the best of ways, making sure that each and every client is happy to be there.

Vannucci is a true gourmand himself, and loves nothing better than describing the pedigree of his fresh-caught fish, of his entrecote from Salers, or the giant block of sweet, golden butter that’s passed from table to table.

There is no printed menu, just a blackboard that travels from table to table. Choices here vary according to Vannucci’s whims, so you may not see the same dishes here time and again. But follow his lead and you’re sure to leave the bright, multi-colored 50’s-style restaurant with a feeling of satisfaction.

The food has a nice flair, with a perky celery remoulade, enhanced by a touch of acidity supplied by fresh green apple; and a nicely done foie gras mi-cuit set on a round of brioche and flanked by a touch of sweet aspic. At a recent lunch the owner offered a surprising and successful starter, a rectangle of puff pastry topped with slices of Jerusalem artichoke and thin slivers of foie gras.

Fat portions of confit of duck arrive set on a bed of sautéed potatoes, and thick, perfectly cooked lamb chops arrive with a welcoming vegetable accompaniment, a mix of fresh green beans, browned onions, and sautéed mushrooms offset by a bit of tomato and garlic.

For dessert there is always their famous, giant, baba au rhum.

The wine list offers some good choices, including the powerful 1999 Château Puech-Haut, a spicy red Coteaux du Languedoc that’s got the right balance of tannin and fruit, and is filled with intense flavors of blackberries and cassis. It is reasonably priced at 33 €. The wait staff wisely carafes the good wines, a practice normally reserved for grander restaurants.

Le Soleil
109 Avenue Michelet
93400 Saint Ouen
Telephone: 01 40 10 08 08
Fax: 01 40 10 16 85
E-mail: lesoleil@wanadoo.fr

Open daily for lunch, and Thursday through Saturday for lunch and dinner. 35 to 65 €, including service but not wine.

Parisian Dining: A Study in Contrasts

PARIS – Last week’s dining offered a supreme study in contrasts in Paris dining. First there’s Wadja, an old faithful Left Bank Montparnasse bistrot, comfortable as one’s favorite pair of shoes. Then one settles into the restaurant of the moment, Baccarat crystal’s sumptuous and other worldly Cristal Room in the private mansion in the well-bred 16th arrondissement.

I don’t think it would be possible to have a bad time at Wadja, where the welcome, the daily menu, the wine list and the jovial wait staff all make it all so easy to let down your hair, rest your elbows on the table, and dig into a good evening’s fun.

Old bistro classics – such as the heart-warming leg of lamb that’s cooked for a full seven hours --- gigot à sept heures – is almost always on the menu here, and when it is, do order this moist lamb dish, washed down with one of their bargain wines. We adored the meaty red Côtes du Rhône, the Domaine la Montagnette, from one of the region’s top wine cooperatives, Cave Estezargues, priced at 30 €. Daily specialties might include the freshest of Brittany’s scallops – coquilles saint Jacques -- simply seared, or a soothing starter of artichokes cooked à la barigoule – braised in white wine and herbs – served with shavings of Parmesan. Ask for a large bottle of water and the waiter playfully replies: water comes in half bottles, wine in full bottles.

Barracat’s Cristal Room is the kind of place about which no one can be blasé. The famed French crystal manufacturer has closed its doors on the famed Rue Paradis in the city’s 10th arrondissement and grouped together a show room, a museum and restaurant in one of the city’s grandest private homes, one might even say it’s a palace. Everything about this ultra-modern place glistens, shines, reflects, reverberates. And just about everything about this totally re-focused 1880’s mansion makes you gasp and even giggle, for everywhere your eye falls, the visual contrasts and surprises make you take notice, reflect.

It’s clear that the ubiquitous designer Philippe Starck had his hand in all of this, and the results are both good and bad. On the good side, I love that modern design can have a sense of humor, make us laugh. Most of all it makes us reflect on styles, the whys and hows. In the main dining room, the walls have been taken down to bare red brick and framed in gilt mirrors. All the while trappings of elegance, from the giant crystal chandeliers to the vast marble fireplace mantles, remind us that this house has serious bones. Crystal, of course is everywhere, in the form of chandeliers, candelabras, wine glasses, water glasses, carafes, carafes, carafes.

The dining room may glisten, but it sure lacks comfort. The banquettes are totally impossible: Posture is not even an issue, you just can’t sit comfortably or elegantly perched at the edge of a sofa. And the dainty, gilt, party-rental chairs are simply too tiny for most male bottoms. Now Baccarat will want to tar and feather me for this, but their wine glasses are simply inadequate for any wine appreciation or enjoyment. The footed, faceted crystal ware may be classic and pretty, but the bowl is too small to swirl or stick your nose into, and the thickness of the crystal gives you the impression that you’re drinking out of a jelly jar.

But on to the food and service, both of which merit at least a visit. I expected the food to be an after thought, and though it bends over backwards to be the chicest of chic – and awkwardly so – the food does have merit, despite the fact there seems to be a certain smug dismissiveness of the real pleasures of gastronomy. An amuse bouche of frothy langoustine cappuccino topped with the thinnest sliver of fresh black truffles was delicious --- redolent of the sea, warm, soothing, with a nice long finish. I can’t imagine any foie gras lover not wanting to go back for the foie gras crème brulée, truly a gratin dish filled with shimmering foie gras topped with a sugary crust. The contrast of the rich and fatty duck liver and the gentle sugar sweetness was truly brilliant. I didn’t quite get the point of what they called “ephemeral oyster ravioli” -- a single plump oyster from Prat ar Coum in Brittany – surrounded by a touch of jelly and bathed in cream. But what there was of it, was delicious. Their already famed club sandwich – a mile-high classic of chicken, bacon, mayo and plenty of toasted pain de mie – is indeed quite something, but I for one have never figured out how one is supposed to attack a club sandwich without disfiguring it as you dismantle and devour. The grilled dorade – served whole and cooked to perfection – would be hard to improve on and the thick veal chops was equally fine. A cheese course of the creamy, fragrant seasonal cow’s milk Mont d’Or from the Jura was indeed delicious but the accompanying “poire à croquer” was just that, to crunch with vigor. It was rock hard. The wine list offered some good buys but they were out of most of them that night. We loved what they did have in stock, an always reliable red Faugères from the Languedoc, well-priced at 25 € a bottle. (But do watch the prices: We were charged 25 € for a bottle of Faugeres, but then 54 € for three glasses of a less interesting Savigny les Beaune, offered by the glass!). The bread needs improvement and chocolate chip cookies at the end are simply silly. Reservations are among the most precious in town. My hairdresser told me friends paid a bribe to get in.

Wadja
10 rue de la Grand Chaumière
Paris 6 Telephone 01 46 33 02 02

Closed Sunday and Monday at lunch. Credit card: Visa. A la carte, 35 € per person, including service but not wine.

Cristal Room
11, place des États Unis
75116 Paris
Telephone : 01 40 22 11 10
Fax : 01 40 22 11 99
email: cristalroom@baccarat.fr.

Closed Sunday. All major credit cards. 25 to 86 € per person, including service but not wine.

Two New Left Bank Casuals

PARIS -- Is there a better symbol of French gastronomy than a simple, sublime, classic roast chicken? Golden, fragrant, its skin crisp and crackling, the humble poulet rotie is one of the world’s greatest dishes, one that can stand on its own or serve as a soothing escort to all manner of potatoes, crying out to be paired with a red wine of some stature.

In comes Guy Savoy, once again, to show us the way. His newest endeavor in the Parisian restaurant world is a remake of one of the city’s older restaurants – the Left Bank Atelier Maitre Albert – a warming spot with a giant fireplace at one end, a modern rotisserie at the other. Along with chef Emmanuel Monsallier and director Laurent Jacquet, Savoy has managed once again to figure out what we want today, and deliver.

Walking in after the opera late one Saturday night, the place felt as though it had been open for decades, as tables for two, for four, for ten diners filled the room with sounds of fun and good times. The brief menu includes some Savoy classics – such as my ever favorite huitre en nage, or chilled oysters in a bed of soothing oyster jelly -– and of course that golden rotisserie chicken, teamed up with a warming potato purée. Daily specials might include a perfect roasted duck and a potato gratin (with potatoes too thinly sliced for my taste).

The wine list offers some old favorites such as the fruity, lively Savigny les Beaune from Simon Bize (the 2000 priced at 47 €) or Jean Noel Gagnard’s sterling red Chassagne Montrachet (the 1999 priced at 49 €) both perfect for pairing with poultry.

Another plus is that the restaurant’s hours fit all lifestyles, open evenings only, Monday through Wednesday from 6:30 to 11:30, Thursday through Saturday, 6:30 to 1 am.

Another Left Bank newcomer worth visiting is Au Gourmand, a tiny restaurant the size of a railroad car just across from the Luxembourg Gardens. Chef Christian Courgeau and partner Hervé de Libouton offer an unpretentious, carefully conceived little spot that’s run with care and attention. There is a single, 33 € dinner menu with changing daily specials that might include a brilliant starter of two fresh Brittany langoustines dusted with coarsely chopped pistachios and served with a tiny tangle of greens (a bit too salty for my palate) or a superb main course of a thick, giant pork chop – cote de cochon – cooked rare, a delight. I also loved the pairing of filet of dorade set upon a bed of crushed potatoes. The fish and potatoes had the very same texture, yet stood out on their own in the most soothing way.

If you have a sweet tooth, don’t miss the pain perdue aux cerises, classic French toast paired with super sweet cherries and a dollop of pistachio ice cream.

Atelier Maître Albert
1, rue Maître Albert
Paris 5
Telephone 01 56 81 30 01 Fax 01 53 10 83 23

All major credit cards. Open dinner only, Monday through Saturday. A la carte, about 40 euros per person, including service but not wine.

Au Gourmand
22 rue du Vaugirard
Paris 6
Tel/Fax 0l 43 26 26 45

All major credit cards. Closed Saturday and Sunday. Lunch menus at 22 and 29 euros, dinner at 33 euros, including service but not wine.

Modern Elegance at the Meurice

PARIS --- Yannick Alléno is one Parisian chef that is more than content.

‘’Complet, Complet, c’est genial!” he says with satisfaction at the thought that, since he arrived on September 1st, the Meurice Hôtel’s dining room has been playing to a full house at lunch and dinner.

This lean, muscular, 35-year-old chef seems more than at home and at ease in this grand hotel, where he oversees no less than 72 chefs in a series of three kitchens spread side by side in the hotel’s vast underground workshops.

But it is clear that his focus and his pride shines upon the 50-seat dining room, a gracious and elegant room filled with shimmering crystal chandeliers and antique beveled mirrors that reflect large bay windows framed in rare marble. Here, the youthful staff dressed to the nines in mourning coats, with hair slicked back and with the posture of ballet stars, whirl about as if they are part of the show, and they are.

For me, the Meurice – long the hotel of the aristocratic, where you are encouraged to accept luxury as a birthright – is the jewel in the collection of the city’s grand hotels. And here, a special meal orchestrated by Alléno (who was awarded two Michelin stars in 2002 while chef at the restaurant Les Muses in the Hôtel Scribe) and his staff can appear magical.

While not known for its bargains, the Meurice dining room’s 55 € lunch menu is a good place to cut your teeth: Here, the choice is vast but not overwhelming, and offers a good look at Alleno’s fare, which I find a surprising jig saw puzzle, served with grand elegance and a distinctly modern sensibility.

As soon as Alléno arrived at the Meurice he completely overhauled the kitchens, adding state of the art ovens and a rotisserie that flatters his top quality ingredients, including a gorgeous, moist roasted duck that is paired with wild cepe mushrooms and baby turnips infused with the wintry flavors of juniper berries.

His food has style (lots of rounds upon rounds, squares upon squares), and while flavors are generally soft in texture, there is always a touch of crunch at the end, filling our natural desires for a bit of snap, crackle and pop on the palate.

Luncheon specialties may range for the purely simple – a superb mound of tiny girolles mushrooms cooked in the sherry-like vin jaune from the Jura – to a wintry fricassee of suckling pig, anointed with sage butter and a fresh artichoke mousseline.

I spent a morning with Alléno in his kitchen, and snapped up some home-style recipes that have already been incorporated into my own repertoire, including a winning gratin of Swiss chard stems: Poach match-stick sized stems in chicken stock, layer in a gratin dish with sprinklings of grated Parmesan, heat beneath a broiler, then finish it all with miniature cubes of Parmesan, tiny bits of celery leaf and bay leaf and a shower of well-toasted pine nuts.

No matter the menu, his food combinations are always out of the ordinary, but never go over the edge toward wackiness. For instance, thin slices of abalone – ormeaux – cooked in salted butter seem right at home with the earthy nature of fresh white shell beans and wild cepe mushrooms.

A favorite at a recent dinner was his rotisserie saddle of lamb from small farmers in the Languedoc paired with the classic white shell beans, here slow-roasted in the oven in stock, with a touch of garlic, sherry vinegar, parsley, tomatoes and the almost-smoky, just-right-spicy red pepper from Espelette in France’s Basque country.

The wine list can get pricy, but sommelier David Retif assures a small selection of wines priced from 34 to 49 euros, also available by the glass. Selections might include the Marsanne-grape based white Saint-Péray from the Voge vineyards, or a Loire Valley red from Château Fosse Seche.

Le Meurice
228 rue du Rivoli
Paris 1
Telephone: 01 44 58 10 10
Fax: 01 44 58 10 15
Website: www.meuricehotel.com

Closed Saturday lunch and all day Sunday. 55 € lunch menu. A la carte, 100 to 155 €, including service but not wine.

Intelligent Modern in Burgundy

Chassagne-Montrachet, France --- The idea seems so obvious, it’s amazing that more people don’t pick up on it. Take a group of winemakers without a showcase for their wines or a fine place to entertain clients. Add a young, talented and ambitious chef without deep pockets. Put them together and you have an instant success in the name of Le Chassagne, a lively, up and coming restaurant in the center of a brand name Burgundian village.

This is not the last time you will hear the name Stephane Leger, the extremely smooth, sure-footed chef at Le Chassagne. Photo of Stephane Leger at Le Chassagene restaurantThe 34-year-old native of the Jura grew up in a family that revered food and wine. But thankfully, Leger takes Burgundian cuisine beyond the strangling tradition of snails, coq au vin, and rich red wine sauces. He loves fish and shellfish and honors them beautifully. He considers his good classic French but I’d call it Intelligent Modern. With a menu that is sprinkled with sweet and meaty Brittany langoustines teamed up with crunchy touches of citrus, wild turbot cooked on the bone, a wide array of game specialties, and the irresistible plump Bresse poultry paired with fragrant morel mushrooms, this is food you want to embrace, wrap your arms around, rejoice.

I can still taste his delicious risotto, bathed in a blend of basil oil and a touch of golden, flowery saffron, and fine, fresh Saint Pierre from Brittany’s waters. Equally adept was his pairing plump and rare Belon oysters with my favored langoustines, a dish that shows up his talents: Leger ekes out brilliant, fresh, intense flavors that make us sit up and take notice. Like many other dishes on his menu, this dish makes you aware of flavors that are clean, clear, concise and close to the earth.

The food is copious and varied without being cumbersome, and our lunch included a rich pumpkin soup (just a few sips, to entice you and put you in the mood) as well as a tomato gaspacho laced with rich shellfish essence.

And the wines are, well, about as classy as they come. Chassagne-Montrachet, especially the whites, are among my favorite wines. Burgundy unquestionably produces the world’s best chardonnays, and here the expression of soil, sun, a delicate balance of fruit, acid and gentle tannins make the wines exceptionally food friendly. You almost want to curl up by the fire with their wine list, sipping as you peruse the treasures: There are more than a dozen white Chassagne-Montrachet priced from 49 to 63 euros, representing the best winemakers of the region. We feasted on Bernard Morey’s 1997 Chassagne Montrachet Les Caillerets (55 €), an exquisite, refined, intensely pleasurable wine, one that was beautifully balanced and more than at home with Leger’s carefully constructed cuisine.

We are in cheese land and Le Chassagne does not let cheese lover’s down: Try the ripe, earthy full-flavored Soumaintrain, the rare Aisy Cendre (the only cheese that is coated with true cinders from local vine clippings) and an abundance of light local goat’s cheese. Just as appealing is the warm Epoisses served with a salad of lamb’s lettuce tossed with fragrant walnut oil.

For dessert, don’t pass up the seared, grilled fresh pineapple escorted by a fragrant vanilla sorbet and a tiny glass of coconut milk.

A young, energetic staff that is well-informed and clearly dedicated to their work, and a lively clientele that clearly are having a good time makes the meal that much more pleasurable.

Energy and commitment can also be found not far away in the charming city of Beaune, in the name of the highly successful wine bar and restaurant Ma Cuisine, run by Fabienne and Pierre Escoffier and their son, Photo of the Escoffier's at Ma Cuisine restaurant Romain. You feel instantly at home in the crowded little spot off the beautiful passage in the center of town.

The food here is simple and family-like, with abundant portions of mussels in cream; a delicious version of parsleyed ham (jambon persillé) served with a green salad; meaty skate (raie) teamed up with an abundance of capers; and a fine rendition of ratatouille, served warm and topped with grilled sardines. Burgundian wines, of course, are the foundation of the wine list here, and I can still taste the smooth and elegant, long-lived red Pommard from the hands of Hubert de Montille (Les Pezerolles 1997) as well as the owner’s finely recommended, blackberry-scented Morey Saint Denis 1999 from the trusted Domaine Henri Perrot Minot.

While wandering the streets of Beaune, make sure to stop in at Jean-Luc Girard’s lovely shop offering fine kitchen antiques (everything from canning jars to baskets, old kitchen cutting boards to old work tables) as well as Michel Graglia’s poster shop, Graglia, offering an abundance of vintage posters, many focusing on food and wine.

Le Chassagne
4, impasse de Chenevottes
21190 Chassagne-Montrachet
Telephone: 03 80 21 94 94
Fax: 03 80 21 97 77

All major credit cards. Menus at 28, 39, and 59 €. A la carte, 65 to 135 €, including service but not wine.

Restaurant Cave Ma Cuisine
Cave Sainte Helene
Passage Sainte-Helene
21200 Beaune
Telephone: 03 80 22 30 22
Fax: 03 80 24 99 79

Closed Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday, August, and school holidays. A la carte, 35 to 40 euros, including service but not wine.

Quatre Faubourg
Jean-Luc Girard
4 rue du Faubourg Bretonniere
21200 Beaune
Telephone: 03 80 22 96 18.

Michel Graglia
21 rue Maufoux
21200 Beaune
Telephone/Fax: 03 80 22 23 50.

A Breath of Fresh Air in Paris

PARIS – Following Joel Robuchon’s lead into the world of the more casual any-time-of-day gastronomy with his Left Bank Atelier, respected chef Alain Dutournier has tossed his hat into the ring. Pinxo, a clean, modern, all black and white restaurant near the Place Vendôme on the Right Bank, offers a nice breath of fresh air, a new approach. Open seven days a week from noon until midnight, the restaurant will help break France’s traditional strict dining hours and customs.

With a bar open to the small, compact kitchen, and a casual atmosphere, the restaurant is designed to accommodate those who want a single quick bite as well as diners who are willing to wile away an afternoon or evening sampling Dutournier’s creations. The chef is a proud son of France’s southwest and a staunch defender of all its products, and so it is no surprise to find the region’s specialties honored here. From the marvelous beef “race blonde d’Aquitaine” to tiny chipirons (baby squid) and on to a cool piperade (eggs, red peppers, onions, tomatoes and ham), the brief menu takes us on a fine tour of the region.

The wine list, wisely, is arranged not by region or color but by price, with bottles ranging from 28 € for a Domaine de Deurre Côtes du Rhône Villages Vinsobres 2000 to 85 € for a Volnay 1er Cru Marquis d’Angerville 2000. Wines by the glass range from 5 to 7 euros.

I loved almost everything about the place and assume some of the nicks will be taken out in time. Service was hesitant and at times just wrong (bringing items we had not ordered), and some ingredients just didn’t have that ultra-fresh flavors we expect of Dutournier.

Miniature heads of lettuce the size of a Belgian endive are all the rage right now, and he kicks in with a welcoming Salades Croquantes, a generous mix of a trio of crunchy hearts of lettuce, sliced mushrooms, shallots, radish sprouts and tomatoes. So good to know that green salad is back, but too bad the tomatoes had that stale, I’ve-been-sitting-around-too-long flavor.

His soup – better than almost anyone’s mom – is brilliant, a superb mix of herbs, mushrooms, a touch of ginger, and fresh beans, all warming and energizing. And I literally devoured his tiny spring roll of fresh crab, a fine rendition of an Asian classic.

I am a huge fan of the sweet, crunchy, tiny squid known as chipirons and no one does it better than someone from France’s southwest. Here they are cooked “a la plancha,” or on a flat griddle, seasoned with a touch of ginger, mildly spicy pepper and garlic chips. Alas, the garlic chips were bitter, marring an otherwise delightful dish .

When you go, do order the beef filet, aged to perfection and cooked perfectly rare. The meat is served with an unusual combination of cubed Charlotte potatoes bathed in a healthy tapenade, or black olive purée.

With the meal, we loved the Jurancon Sec Clos Uroulat Cuvée Marie 2000, an always appealing white from the Petit Manseng grape, and priced at 35 €.. Most items – which can be mixed and matched – range from 7 to 22 €.

Dutournier came up with the restaurant’s name from the verb “pintcher,” which means to capture something with a quick gesture., and not like many have assumed, the Spanish pinchos or tapas eaten with one’s fingers.

Alain Dutournier has not been sleeping. This summer he took advantage of the holiday period to also re-decorate his Michelin two-star restaurant – Carre des Feuillants -- transforming the large space off of Place Vendôme into a sober, modern, calming spot. The food is as good as ever, with a fabulous terrine of foie gras, an updated version of the classic wild hare lievre à la royale, and an oyster starter – that included a superb “terrine” of fresh oysters and a little tartare of algae that is worth a trip all on its own.

Pinxo
9. rue d’Alger
Paris 1
Telephone: 01 4 020 72 00
Fax: 01 40 20 72 02

All major credit cards. Open daily. A la carte, from 20 to 60, including service but not wine.

 

Carre des Feuillants
14, rue de Castiglione
Paris 1
Telephone: 01 42 86 82 82
Fax: 01 42 86 07 71
Web: www.perso.wanadoo.fr/carre.des.feuillants.

All major credit cards. Closed Saturday and Sunday. 58 € lunch menu, 138 € dinner menu. A la carte, 150 to 200 € including service but not wine.