paulbrussel

Almost on the same time as a very glossy and superficial magazine, called Les 3 étoiles, emerged, Jean-François Mesplède, journalist in Lyon of Progrès published an updated version of his Trois étoiles au Michelin. Une histoire de la haute gastronomie française et européenne. In 1998 he already published an earlier edition. It is a simple book in a way: no recipes at all, only history about all the restaurants that were awarded three stars by Michelin. The last are in the book too. Focus is on France of course, because it took a long time before a restaurant outside France got three stars: 1972 (in France: 1933). There are good entries, for example the chronology that learns that today there have never been so many great chefs as ever before: 49 of whom 22 are not based in France. On the contrary, the book shows that outside France, talent is getting more and more present then ever before. The book is interesting, because it gives a good overview of 71 years of culinary history, and gives many illustrations. Worthwhile buying, in my view, for every one who is interested in culinary history. Jean-François Mesplède, Trois étoiles au Michelin. Une histoire de la haute gastronomie française et européenne. Editions Gründ, avril 2004. 272 p., ill. 28,50 €. ISBN 2-7000-2468-0

(Well, I am not sure whether Drolma is amongst inventive cuisine.) Decent prices? I dont' know, it seems very personal; but I paid last year for one person the following at Jean Luc Figueras (110), Alkimia (85), Gaig (125), Abac (125), Comerç 24 (90), all in € and including at least one bottle of wine plus a glass of cava. You don't mention Hisop (110), which was one of the most interesting meals I had. Best buy, in my view, is Cata 1.81 (30) for about 5 dishes. Edit: let me add that I always took the menu with the most dishes.

This sounds very interesting! I am very curious to get your report back.

If you don't want to make it to expensive, I would give L'écume des mers a try. The atmosphere is nice too.

These are all the restaurants I have been to in Brussels the last couple of years. My notations are for the food only and on a scale of 20. The stars are Michelin stars. Those in red I can certainly recommend; those in red and bold are my favorites. Alban Chambon, L' - Hotel Métropole [14] Alain Cornelis [11,5] Aloyse Kloos * [14] (Hoeilaart) Astrid chez Pierrot [11,5] Atrium - SAS-hotel [13] Avenue - André D'haese, The [14] Balade Gourmande, La [13] Barbizon * [14] (Overijse) Belga Queen [11] Bleu de Toi [10] Bon-Bon * [14,5/20] Brasseries Georges [11,5] Brouette, La * [12] Bruneau * * * [18] Bijgaarden, De * * [15,5] (Groot-Bijgaarden) Chalet de la Forêt, Le [15,5] Chez Marie * [13] Claude Dupont * * [16] Clef des Champs, La [13] Cochon d'Or, Au [12] Colomba d'Oro, La [10,5] Comme chez moi [12] Comme chez soi * * * [16,5] Crustacés, Les [11] Dames Tartine, Les [13] Da-Kao [9] Davi [10] Deux Maisons, Les * [14,5] Diable Vauvert, Au [11] Ecole Buissonnière, L' [8] Ecuyer, L' [9] El Metteko [10] Epicerie, L' - Hotel Méridien [14] Fin de siècle [11,5] Gazebo, The [12,5] Gourmandin, Le [13,5] Herbe Rouge, L' [12/20] Idiot du Village, L' [11,5] In 't Spinnekopke [10] Intermezzo, L' [10,5] J & B [13] Kan'H [9] Katja's Kitchen [11] Larmes du Tigre, Les [11,5] Lunch Company, The [11,5] Maison du Boeuf, La - Hilton Hotel * [15] Maison de Maître, La - Conrad Hotel [14] Mamounia, La [11] Manufacture, La [10,5] Michel * [14,5] Ming Dynasty [11] Mirante, Pizzeria [10,5] Ommegang [12,5] Orangeraie Roland Debuyst, L' * [15] (Nossegem) Orphyse Chaussette [12,5] Pain et le Vin, Le * [12,5] Pain Quotidien, Le [11] Passage, Le * [15] Pathé Palace [10] Pêché Mignon, Le - Brussel [10,5] Petit Boxeur, Le [11] Petits Oignons, Les [12] Piero, Da [11] Plattesteeen [10] pré en bulle, le [14] Quatre Saisons, Les [13,5] Quincaillerie, La [13] Recherche du Temps perdu, A la [13] Roma [12] Rosa [11,5] Roue d'Or, La [12,5] Sea Grill - SAS-hotel * * [18] Sirène d'Or, La [11] Totem [11] Tour D'y Voir, La [11,5] Truffe Noire, La * [13] Vierge Noire, La [12] Vieux Boitsfort, Au * [14] Vigne… à l'Assiette, De la [13] Villa d'Este [14] Villa Lorraine * [13,5] Vismet [11] White Room, The [12] Zerda [11,5]

http://www.ecume-des-mers.com/ http://www.le-meurin.fr/ I am not sure whether L'Esplanade has a web site.

Last year I went to A l'huîtrière (one star) which disappointed me very much: it is expensive, (classic) dishes weren't well prepared, staff was arrogant and the wine list is also expensive. To me it was a old fashioned, bourgeois restaurant. In the evening I went to L'Ecume des Mers, which was interesting; a more simple restaurant. But the best should be L'Esplanade (one star) of the young and modern chef Scherpereel. Unfortunately I havan't been there yet, but it seems very interesting and gets a good press, especially by GaultMillau. And around Lille, the best restaurant is the one of course Marc Meurin (two stars).

This makes me quite curious about your meal; I suppose it is about Auberge Le Relais in Reuilly-Sauvigny. (I was there in May 2002 and I was very disappointed and I did not even found that it was worth one Michelin star.)

Well, I think you are quite right in complaining about these things in such a high level restaurant. My experience is in these sorts of restaurants that a few things can go wrong, but it gets annoying when there are a large number of mistakes. Of course it can depend on the staff that very day, but I do think that at a high level, staff should always be at a high standard. On the other hand, I have noticed several times that when the chef is not in, there is a sort of lack of perfection overall in the restaurant. As if the kitchen staff as well as serving staff are trying harder to be perfect when the chef is around. Again, I think that at this level it should not happen. When I was there, I got indeed a very good impression of the sommelier that loved his work and did speak English (or perhaps I spoke French with him, I don't remember). And since there was a girl who spoke good English as well, I didn't have any problems that I do remember about the service. Saying, this, I can admit that I was there for lunch and that the restaurant was not at all completely booked so that there was plenty of staff for few tables.

Well, you maid the best of it, I think, since Gorinchem is not the most exciting village in the Neteherlands, and not in the culinary sense either. If you get back, I would be interested whether you could visit De Gieser Wildeman in Noordeloos (about 5 km from Gorinchem), and De Fuik in Aalst (about 8 km from Gorinchem), both having very good reputations.

Congratulations! :-) I wasn't aware of Ducasse Grand Livre de Cuisine in paperback... Anyway, seems odd to me, since the book is quite heavy, and I would think it needs to be bound. Nevertheless, the info comes too late; I will get my bound copy this Saturday.

You are very lucky! I don't know any one who has a Thermomix, accept for some restaurants. More info on: http://www.thermomix.com/. But prices are not available, but I thought they are around 700 USD / €.

In September 2003 I had my first and only meal at Can Fabes, in one of my most excellent and culinary weeks I ever had in my life. (I posted about that meal in a previous thread.) Although I am very fond of inventive cuisine, and although I don't think SS can be counted as the most inventive of Spain, it was still the best meal at Can Fabes that I had that very week. It is not that he SS creates a classic cuisine, in my view. He is modern in his dishes and combinations, that are extremely well balanced, and seem to be simple but I think you can discover straight away that there is no simplicity in his dishes. His dishes are well balanced based on the different tastes, but also in the excellent choice of products which were all extremely well prepared. So for me, his cuisine was in that week the best, but not the most exciting, as I might say, because those I had at hisop and Alkimia.

Don't forget the Thermomix! (Also needed to cook from the book of Marc Veyrat, btw.) But I would go for el Bulli as well (I have both). El Bulli is really amazing, and some recipes are really doable. It is not very easy, but experimenting will lead you to great success. And you can always buy the simple Spoon Food & Wine to get an impression of Ducasse.

In Paris, it shouldn't be thta much of a problem: dining alone. I do it most of the times, but I mostly go to upscale restaurants. But in the bistrots and brasseries, as John Talbott mentions, you should be able to get dinner. As he suggested: lunching is much cheaper, and could be as interesting in Paris as dining.

In Brussels, twe two star chef Yves Mattagne of Sea Grill restaurant started a few years ago his own R&D kitchen in which he works during the week-ends. At the same time, his restaurant closed during the week-ends to have time to use it with his team.

Gavin, How very interesting! I will keep you informed, after I have come back early August (having eaten at Michel Bras, Akelare and Berasategui, who do interest me a bit more then Le Centenaire, as you may understand ). Paul

In a few weeks time, I will have lunch at twe to star restaurant Le Centenaire at Les-Eyzies-de-Tayac in the Dordogne, for 38 €. Perhaps you can keep in mind that lunch is in general much cheaper in France then dinner, and more easy to get reservations for. Do consult the Guide Michelin online, and you will see many restaurants in the neighbourhood, worthwhile going to.

It seemed very parallel to me, if not with a big overlap. The old Spoon, so to speak, is just in one language only and not bilingual, and the font is much smaller. But I thought I recognized a lot of photographs and recipes from the old Spoon book.

But the three tomes in one cassette of Marc Veyrat are quite different: one only is a real cook book, the other is more a sort of culinary autobiography, and the third is a book on herbs.

On 26/4 I posted this question on the French board: "Last week I saw a new, very big format and bilingual edition of Spoon (French and English). It is a numbered edition of 5000 copies and costs about 150 €. Since I already have the previous, normal format edition (in French, but it has been translated in several languages) of Spoon, could any one tell me whether there is much of a difference between this edition and the previous one? In other words: whether it is worthwhile to spend 150 € on this new edition? ". From your very interesting review, I still cannot judge whether this book does differ a lot from the previous, normal edition of Spoon Food and Wine.

A few weeks ago I posted a request for info on the big, numbered, bilingual edition of Spoon. But those Spoon editions are much different compared to the more encyclopedic works as the "Grand Livres de Ducasse" are. In a few weeks I will receive the original edition of his first Grand Livre de Cuisine. As the recipes of Ferran Adrià in his book are quite complex, as are those in the book of Marc Veyrat, I think these of Ducasse won't be easy either. Nevertheless I think these three books in his series "Grand Livres" are the best to get an idea of his cooking, and I will certainly try to cook a few times from his recipes. (I know these books are very expensive, but I will buy the book at the FNAC here, and they have regularly special actions, and now all cook books you can buy at the FNAC with a 20 % discount, which means that this Grand Livre costs about 160 € instead of 200 €.)

Thanks a lot for this excellent saummary! Last weekend I finished reading this book. I found it much more interesting then Rémy's book, because it covers a much wider range. (Rémy's book is very nice, but gives almost only a very worthwhile view on living as an inspector for Michelin during 16 years.) Of course it is in a way, I think, a reply to the article of Lubow in the NYT, which article is mentioned in the book, but the author isn't. If you follow a bit GaultMillau / Nouveau GaultMillau magazine, you can see many known details. The chapter on chefs and their incomes is e.g. mainly based on an article in this magazine a few years ago. Anyway, the three authors seem to be very well informed. Their ideas about the future of French cuisine is nevertheless for me heavily influenced by the ideas of Alain Ducasse.

A pity that no English translation will be published. Last weekend I read the Remy book, by the way only dealing with the French Michelin guide, not the others. I found it not very scandalous at all, and well written. Quite amusing too. Convincing too, in my view. His main messages, I think, are: 1. Not enough staff at Michelin to make a right judgement every year. 2. Too many staff not being aware of what is going on elsewhere, neither having the knowledge to judge well e.g. Asian or South-American cooking. 3. All judgements of inspectors can't otherwise but personal. 4. Too many connections between the top chefs and the top of Michelin, helping one another to market their products (restaurants or guides). 5. Strong doubts about several chefs keeping their three stars, as is the case for Bocuse. 6. Michelin is changing the last few years, but nevertheless the French love secrets, and Michelin wants to keep their secrets as well... 7. GaultMillau seems more searching for new talents, although the competition between both guides also seems to get tougher. Therefore perhaps young talents get their (first) stars / high points more easy then in the old days, in order to get more marketing before the guides are published.

The introduction in all guides is in different languages. The national guides are in the national language. Benelux guides are bilingual: French and Dutch. Only the overall guide "Main cities of Europe" is in English only.