degusto

It is interesting how a restaurant can give people such different impression. I had a dismal meal at Tom Aikens a week or so before Jonathan was there. The food lacked inspiration, it was badly cooked and I thought the compositions consistently lacked talent. I did taste some of the stuff Jonathan had. The cheeses were very tired and dry. The main course of a variation of parts of pig was deplorable. The meal goes in on the top twenty worst meals I have had in a starred restaurant. How it can be compared with Gordon Ramsay at RHR is to me just incomprehensible. I do not think Ramsay is close to the top ten to fifteen in France but Ramsay’s food is much cleaner, better executed and more thought through than Aikens food. Not in any detail is there anything that can be a match. I do not see any justification for him to be expecting two stars. I can safely say that had it been awarded two stars I would have thought it would have been the by far worst two star meal I had ever had. Service was ok.

Guy Sammut has quite a reputation for his behaviour that give people strong and wrong impressions about the place. I tend to subscribe to the view Robert has. The longhaired guy is not Guy Sammut but the Maitre d’. Jonathan’s experience is not surprising. I agree with vmilor that the food at la Fenière most of the time is in the upper one star region. But in terms of creativity, pristine raw material and height of the “highs”, Reine Sammut pales in comparison with Edouard Loubet at Moulin de Lourmarin. Loubet is very gifted and if he listened a bit more to his clients, found a bit more clarity in his preparations, stopped using stock powder, cut down on the use of herbs and did certain things a bit differently, he is one I would be willing to put a few euros on would get his third star within five years. He has a sense for perfection and a passion for cooking that is very rare to encounter. A lot can be said about his cooking and his taste combinations and one rarely likes everything he serves. One could try to be analytical and say that the food is challenging, as it is a la mode to describe what people call avant garde food today, but I do not think that it is the intention of Edouard Loubet to be challenging. He prepares food that he likes to eat and presents it in the way he likes to see it presented. To get three stars he would have to be more consistent and his service would have to be vastly improved. Since he is already charging three star prices it is not a bargain to go there. As vmilor says he is related to Veyrat. Exactly how remains a mystery to me. I think Veyrat is married to the sister of one of his parents but I am not sure. The big difference between the two is that Loubet has his own style, which I cannot say very many chefs have, and Sammut has no style of her own. Her food is best when she does the local dishes the way she does them. It is easy to agree with those who say that la Fenière is the nicer dining room of the two. It has a very authentic Provencal touch to it. The Moulin can give a cold impression. The wine list is clearly superior at la Fenière with many wines at reasonable prices. It is odd that so many find service at both these restaurant in the small village of Lourmarin to be so poor. But it can be taken as a proof that the stars are awarded by Michelin mostly for what is on the plates. Both places are pretty relaxed from my point of view.

What the Metro writes may be what Metro thinks is news to the French people but it is not necessarily what ordinary French people think is news. Metro is a very new newspaper in France and was launched in France only a few years ago by one of the most forceful, charismatic and “anti established rules” capitalist Europe has ever seen. Sadly, he past away a little more than a year ago. Metro is only about creating wealth to its owners and nothing else. From a journalistic point of view it is mostly a piece of rubbish in all countries it is distributed. From a business point of view, it is one hell of a business plan. Roellinger is inconsistent. When he is on, he is one of the very best chefs in the world. When he is not on, it can be boring. Then, there is every thing in between. So it can hardly be surprising that he is kept on two stars. To Robert Brown: Robert, did you see that Parcours got one star just as I predicted.

I buy most of my utensils and pastry ingredients at La Boutique du Chef in Le Cannet outside Cannes. He is very expensive but has first class products. He works with many of the top restaurants on the Riviera and really knows what he is talking about. He is also a great gourmet. He can be a bit arrogant with newcomers. I am not sure he has a lot of copper ware. I never look for it. I have tried to think which of the other professional outlets that could have it but I am not sure I have seen anyone carry it in stock. Ecotel, which is a large chain for professional does not carry it and I do not think La Bovida has it either. I cannot remember seeing a lot of it if anything in the two shops mentioned by Menton1. The safest bet would be to go to Galleries Lafayette in central Nice or at Cap 3000 close to the airport as I am pretty sure they have some sort of collection. I do not know what this stuff cost in the US but it is not very cheap here. You can get some price indication at http://www.patiwizz.com. Maybe you can order from them and have it delivered in Nice.

Will it be better if the owner chef is cooking or not? I don’t necessarily think so, but considering the prices at these places it does give a better dining experience knowing that every dish that comes out of the kitchen is looked after and approved by the person who has earned the stars and reached that mythic level. But is it necessarily better food on that type of restaurant? No I do not think so. But in the case of Ambroisie it is for several reasons. First of all one has to understand that the history of this restaurant and its owner is a very romantic tale. Pacaud has a very different background. He grew up in an orphanage and came to Mere Brazier and must have been one of the last that passed through her kitchens. He was then second at Vivarois during its glory days during the seventies. He always dreamed of opening his own restaurant and has said that all he ever wanted was to have a kitchen and a dining room. So his first restaurant venture was a very small restaurant with a 16 sqm kitchen and very small 20 seat dining room or so. I was never there but I have seen pictures of it and to put it kindly, it looked extremely modest. At this his first restaurant he gained one star the first year and the second star the second year. That is something for all those who say that Michelin is only interested in carpets and the design. He then moved on a few years later to the current premises located on place Vosges in 86/87 and gained the third star almost immediately after. He keeps a very low profile and has always been considered the least known great chef in France. His restaurant is the smallest three star with only thirteen tables or so and it seats less than 40 people most servings. The size of the place plus a fairly large sized customer base of loyal customers explain the difficulties to get a table there. As loufood correctly point out three star cooking or three-mac cooking (I suppose loufood refers to macarons) is all about details. A few minor flaws in some details will not go unnoticed by a very experienced eater or someone used to the cooking at a certain restaurant. Someone who feels the responsibility and an enormous commitment to perfection, normally the chef de cuisine, must check and cross check everything that comes in as delivery, that is cooked and that it is perfectly presented on clean plates before it leaves the kitchen. It is certainly not necessary that the owner is present at all times or the one who does all this. This has been proven by Ducasse’s restaurants and elsewhere. However, the difference is that at Ambroise it is Pacaud who is the chef de cuisine and he is that because it is his life and all that he ever dreamed of. I know of no place where the margin for error is so low as at Ambroisie. So Pacaud does the quality checks himself and if he is not happy he will call the supplier and tell him something nasty and threaten to change supplier if it happens again. Piege or Cerrutti employeed by Ducasse may do the same but their level of tolerance may for obvious reasons – at least at times - be below, if only just very very slightly, that of Pacaud – who just does what he always dreamed of doing and who owns the place - and the supplier may take them less seriously – if just very very slightly - than when Pacaud calls. Also, the motivation and margin for error within the team in the kitchen, because the owner/chef is there all the time, must obviously be different than if he is someone that shows up every two weeks or so and just walk around in the kitchen for a few minutes to get a bit of foie gras and truffles. Think about it. Who wouldn’t prefer to be able to work every day with someone like Pacaud that has an almost mythic legendary status and who can transfer his own knowledge and the knowledge from places like Brazier and Peyrot that were legends in their time instead of working for someone who the owner or the executive chef might regard as just a - with some difficulties - replaceable employee regardless how much talent and knowledge they possess. So the low margin for error at Ambroisie is a result of all those factors. This is one reason why many find this dining experience to be extra. With the royal decor you feel like a king for a few hours. I think that Ambroisie is perhaps the most consistent top notch dining experience not only in Paris. But of course dining is a very complicated issue. It always depends what one looks for. If you want to feel the adrenalin in the kitchen then one should perhaps go to Gagnaire, but there one may end up being disappointed at least over a few dishes, or if you want ingenious simple yet modern taste combinations then one should maybe go to Arpege, where one may go bankrupt at least if one needs to drink well. To Loufood: Look at the attention to details at Ambroisie. For instance, try the madeleines. As much as I like the madeleines that are served at Ducasse’s restaurants I think they are well behind those at Ambroisie. They are small, with a very crusty exterior and soft inside with a very nice subtle taste. They are just so obviously perfect. It is things like that that make Ambroisie. Also for dessert you should try the tarte sablée au chocolat. It is quite different to what it sounds to be. It is a very light, not warm, fluffy cake made with a sabayon-like filling that when cooked becomes like a soufflé but without the slightly rubber-like texture that egg whites create.

Robert, You are quite right that Cap Estel will not be for Americans, but for Italians and people from North Europe. Being a European I would prefer it to the Cap if it was made they way I wanted... By the way, it if I don't remember wrong it was sold to an Italian. The previous owners tried at first for years to sell it as a villa and there were rumours that Bill Gates of the Evil Empire had looked at it but that it didn't suit him for security reasons. vserna, I have not so high thoughts about le Chantecler under Llorca. I do however think that he is immensly talented and has an enormous spirit and that maybe, just maybe, he might blossom at the Moulin. I just hope that he will try to create his own style (which he hasn't today), and that I know is extremely difficult. As for del Burgo, well we'll see how long he stays. His track record suggests that he may be gone before the summer. Maybe I was tough on him there, but he did leave Gordes very quickly and has never stayed very long at the two previous places to that. I have mixed feelings about what I think is his style of food. Maybe he too can blossom now. Let's hope so. I wonder who will cook at la Reserve as I believe the owners of that place have very high ambitions. Another thougth I have is how will that many restaurants be able to thrive on the Riviera? Chibois is a goldmine and Le LouisXV is full for dinners and lunch most weekends (but no closed for lunch due to renovations) but others seem to be doing well only during the high season. Cannes is a proven no-place for gastronomic restaurants (Liquidation of Neat, closure of Belle Otero and rumours that Villa le Lys is doing so so). Surely the palace hotels on the Riviera are doing well but in Monaco one new luxury hotel is being built and one has been extended and two more will be extended so competition will get fierce when including the one in Nice mentioned by Robert.

The weather has been glorious for a few days. When I heard about the Robuchon/Cussac venture first time it was said it may be opened in late February or March. Now it is May. I have my doubts on that as Metropole looks like a big construction site right now. Also, one could add to the list that Cap Estel is likely to reopen this spring after two years of heavy renovation. The setting of this hotel could challenge Hotel du Cap. It was in an appaling condition. What they will do with the restaurant could be interesting. I have heard nothing as of yet.

Many people like Chibois. I do not at all. The food lacks style, finesse and definition and often the raw material served is of close appalling qualitym at least for a resturant of that reputation. But the setting is very nice. I try it every year a few times to see if it has improved. Some think it has but I have not noticed it. The best food, by miles, on the Riviera is served at Le LouisXV, but I doubt they would have a table for the night in question.

Jonathan, Ribeiro is an extremely lucrative business for everyone involved. There are few economies of scale to be found in small bakery chains. Well run bakeries that targets customers that are prepared to pay the prices you and me pay for the bread at Ribeiro are making serious cash. The big thing with bakeries like this is that the material cost is very low, no qualified labour is required, the needed space is relatively small and the technical lifetime of the equipment is longer than the financial lifetime. What I meant with a tasting was a tasting of Ribeiro bread, but surely tasting other bread could be fun to. Ribeiro bread from different outlets can vary substantially. The least good I have tasted is the one on the road between the motorway exit and Antibes. The one in Cap d'Ail is the most irregular but when they get it right... The bread outlet (the bakery is elsewhere) is just to the right in the Menton market. That is if you enter the the building from the entrance opposite the large fish monger Pêcheries de l'Océan, which by the way is a superb supplier of fish and live lobster if you can select from the stuff they have in the back.

Craig, Yes, I have changed my view a few days after that post. I now think that the evolution was late this year. The same was seen in France a few years ago. By the way I felt no desire to continue arguing whether someone buying from Paris, Stockholm or New York for that matter would be a "local" cash buyer or not.

Has anyone tried macarons flavoured with ginger and lime and with raspberry flayour in between? It is amazing.

I like Bar & Boeuf but it is closed in the winter. But the idea is good. Maybe not so good when I think about it since it is outdoors. We have had a very nice day today but it would be too cold to dine outdoors in the evenings. By the way, I hate Jimmy'z too.

I strongly disagree with this. I have had Alba truffles or tuber magnatum on several occassion this year and they have ranged from very good to nothing but exceptional. Last time they were the best I have ever had. I have asked truffle experts if the quality this year was bad but I get the same "I don't know what you mean" look from everyone. One person who is a pretty large player on the white truffle market told me the other day that in his opinion this year, although extremely small in quantity, had harvested the greatest truffles he had ever seen. I have to agree. The perfume I experienced in the last ones I had was out of this world. The said person suggested that there has been a lot of false Alba truffles on the market this year even locally in Alba. He also said that maybe the best Alba truffles this year came from Croatia and Slovenia, but nobody is prepared to say how much is actually produced there.

From what you indicate you like, I have two suggestions for you. The first one is Fuji in Monaco. It is a Japanese restaurant that is quite expensive but the food is first class. The chef and owner actually goes to the market every day to buy his produce. They have very good sushi. During the summer it is located on le Sporting Monte-Carlo but in the winter it is located in the Metropole shopping centre, where it has been newly refurbished. The other restaurant is Parcours in Falicon outside Nice. It is a newly opened restaurant (April 2003) that Robert Brown is likely to have a different opinion whether it merits recommendation or not. Parcours offers a very modern interior and an incredible view of Nice and the ocean. Food is ok and quite modern in style. It is a strange resturant as they have probably invested slightly below 2 million euros in the place but yet they seem to run it on a shoestring budget (Few choices menu, small wine list and somewhat inexperienced staff). The chef was the chef who got two stars at Chevre d'Or in Eze. It is not two star food but it was one star last time I was there. I do not think it merits a star but I suspect it may nevertheless get one in the next guide. I got an e-mail from them the other day saying that they still had seats for New Year. The price for the menu was 180 euros including wine. That is ok for the Riviera considering the setting. The menu is: - Délicate bouchée de caviar à l’artichaut - Noix de coquilles Saint Jacques crues et cuites, pomme douce, céleri, Betterave rouge à l’huile d’olive épicée - Queue de langoustine rôtie, Fenouil confit à l’orange, Jus du crustacé émulsionné - Filet et épaule de chevreuil cuit séparément aux aromates, Fruits et légumes du moment - Le fromage de brebis persillé arrosé de vin cuit, Quelques feuilles de chicorée - Palet de mandarine marron ambré au coing Nothing was said about the wine. As for night clubs, the night club on the Riviera is Jimmy'z in Monaco. It costs nothing to get in, if you get in, but the price for a Coke is the same as a glass of Champagne. If you have to ask what that costs, don't go there.

There is no restaurant in London that compares with the top three Parisian dining roms in my opinion: Arpege, Ambroisie and Pierre Gaganaire. Admittedly, I have not been to Sketch in London and not to Ledoyen in Paris. Prices at Arpege are extortionate, together with Veyrat, Passard must have the world record in wine-price mark-ups. I would go to Ambroisie. Pacaud may be the last great chef actually cooking. He serves the most perfect ingredients available, cooked to perfection, served in a royal setting on the most beautiful square in Paris. The bread sucks and the wine glasses are not what one would like to drink wine in. If you like Burgundies there are real bargains from the 90-vintage to be found at Ambroisie. Just beware, there is no lunch menu at Ambroisie. As for Gagnaire, I would like to point out what vmilor so rightly said about Gagnaire. It is not about creativity. It is about bledning different styles and tastes like they did during the baroque-era. Think about this if you go there and you may appreciate his cuisine even more.

Jonathan, Funny you think Ribeiro sometimes rivals Poilane. I think so too. Have you ever tried to buy the bread from various outlets the same day and done a bread tasting. It is quite interesting. Do it next time you are on the Riviera! Then we can match the results. Bux, You are partly but only partly rigth about how France has moved from being an agricultural nation. Louisa, I strongly agree with your point about the importance of the bread for any French person. You are so right. By the way, good luck at El Bulli. Try to learn as much as possible about the techniques there and don't bother about too much about the tastes. From a business point of view I do not agree that a small artisanal bakery cannot exist and thrive in France. Ribeiro is not particularly big and the discounts each franchise get on purchases may be negligable in relation to the franchining fees paid to the franchise holder. Indeed, this I suspect is the reason that certain Ribeiro bakeries have broken out of the chain. As far as I know every Ribeiro bakery is a quite lucrative business. The owner of the franchise is an extremely lucrative business. Bakery businesses in France in general are much more lucrative than restaurant businesses. It is surpising that there are not more chains or sort of disguised chains in France since the mark-up on bread from a value added point of view is virtually unheard of in any industry today. Ribeiro's material cost so to speak is probably in the region of 17 % or less of price. So what I am saying is that the economies of scale are not of any great importance. It is equally surpising there are so few real artisanal bread outlets. There is one on the market in Menton that sells breads such as it probably looked liked two hundred years ago. French people are crazy about it despite its extremely high price. I have only on few occasions come across a bakery such as that in France.

About Gordes: Michel Del Burgo is not at the Bastide de Gordes anymore. He left in May or June, a week or so after he publicly denied rumours that he would leave. The chef is the guy who was his second. I have not been there since. Les Bories can be ok. Avoid Mas des Herbes Blanches in Joucas which is the village close by. It correctly lost it star this year. The best resturants in that area are the two in Lourmarin: La Feniere and Moulin de Lourmarin. Loubet's Moulin is the only one open during new year. There should be posts about it on egullet but I would just like to add that, although you sometimes get very original food with very authentic tastes made of the best possible ingredients, it is far from always like that. Unfortunately the prices are now just too expensive for what it is. It seems as if Loubet is trying to get the third star by charging three star prices for his food. But without considering the prices the food is quite good, in my opinion much less creative than most say. It is a bit of a drive to go to Lourmarin from Gordes. It may not seem very far on a map but it is takes quite some time to drive over Luberon. There are few very good simple restaurants in that area. It is an area where one is bound to be dissapointed. One of my favourites in that area (in a broader sense) is Bistrot d'Eygalières in Eygalières. It may seem as far away from Gordes as Lourmarin but it is a much quicker drive. They always serve good food if rarely outstanding. The service is very professional yet relaxed and the interior is a very authentic. Prices are ok for what you get. It may be a good lunch excursion since Eygalières, together with Menerbes, in my mind, is one of the most genuine, not overly-exploited, extremely well kept and beautiful villages around Luberon and Alpilles.

I agree completely with what Robert Brown wrote. Just some additional observations: There have been rumours that the Moulin was for sale for quite some time (years). Vergé opened le Moulin in 1969 when he was 39 years of age. He gained three stars in 1974. How famous he was before 1969 I don't know. Llorca is 35 years old and I think at least he believes he can acheive the three star level and I think we will see him try to get rid of the Vergé soul that rest within the place, which he must do. It has been a (poorly managed) museum of Vergé's cooking for too long already. He is likely to cook differently than what he has done at Negresco as he has likely been a prisoner of Negresco in one way or the other and as he must realize by now that what he has done there never received the highest recognition by anyone. There is no doubt he is immensly talanted but the question is if he will resist the temptation of just trying to continue a more Adrialike cuisine that is a la mode today and instead really try to create his own style, which is very difficult. I personally think there is a great possibility to create a true style based on a remake, modernization and improvement of the "cuisine of the sun" that Vergé was the creator of and that Maximin and Ducasse moved forward, but that has changed little over the last eight years or so. The ingredients are certainly available and he has a large amount of talent, the spirit and motivation and certainly a dream setting. Time will tell what happens.

I did try the Duboeuf villages version today. If I had to say something I would maybe say that it tasted less bubble gum and maybe a little closer to a real gamay wine than normally. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to say that it 's anything close to any great gamay wine. If I normally find the BN sort of an appalling wine, then this year from the bottle I tried it's less appalling. Maybe the heat made it less bad.

Roger Vergé has sold his Moulin de Mougins to Alain Llorca, the chef of Chantecler in hotel Negresco in Nice. Llorca will reopen the Moulin de Mougins under his management in January after the annual closing.

Scott, I did not mean to infer anything. I do respect your opinion that you rate L'Atelier above or better than some great and famous dining places in Paris. I think that is a minority opinion. If everyone agreed on all restaurants there would be no egullet forum, would there? I have out of curiosity looked around what French food journalists have said and I have found no one raving about the place, although admittedly, no one dislikes it as much as I do. But, on the other hand one has to bear in mind the status of Robuchon in France and that many of the most influencial food journalists appear on Robuchon's television channel regularly. So what they really think could be subject to some speculation. Interestingly, I have found nothing written by François Simon of le Figaro, a silence I take as he does not like it. Gault Millau gave it 14 or 15 (I cannot remember what it was) out of 20 in their Magazine shortly after it opened. I have seen no one being even close to comparing it to for example Lucas Carton, where I haven't been to for years due to a real lacklustre experience there. So on a good night at L'Atelier maybe I would also compare it to Lucas Carton. But I don't plan to go again to L'Atelier. Une fois, ça va très bien. A final note. Patricia Wells wrote a very nice article after she had been there on the opening night, without saying what she really thought about the food. The article can be found on her website, www.patriciawells.com. Her close relation to Robuchon needs no further comments. In her short list of recommended restaurants in Paris there is no L'Atelier. One wonders what she really thought.

vmilor, Just to add a few more notes about lamb or any type of meat actually. The specie is certainly important. From my experience including experiments and trials the origin/specie does more for the taste and to some extent the texture than it does for the quality. I don't think that anyone can fully explain why a certain lamb is better than another. The difference of lamb from two producers that may have seemingly the same methods and the same type of lamb can be quite big. It's like Burgundy wines. For example lamb from Sisteron, which is quite famous and often preferred in Southern France can range from poor quality to the very top of what you will find. It is not always a function of the price either. There is a general rule however, the older the meat the more irregular will the quality be. Certainly, on the top level taste plays an important role. Do we want it with more fat or little fat? Do we want it larger but still white? Do we want it small but very flavourful? Do we prefer the tenderness and juicyness? Do we prefer the crispyness of the skin of an epaule d'agneau de lait that has been spit roasted? So what I am trying to say is that a suckling lamb from a certain origin can be of poor quality and of good quality. That is why, to me, the size alone have no significant importance when it comes to lamb. Anything Robuchon served came from producers or middle men he could trust. It is probably written somewhere who used to deliver lamb to him. If I had to choose a lamb I would probably go for the Allaiton that you at times will find at Michel Bras. I too admire Pacaud, mostly because he is probably the only chef that actually is in the kitchen cooking, but also because of perfection in certain details that you rarely see. It is a place where you gladly accept to wait an extra 30 minutes for a dish to arrive, because you know that the reason is not that they have forgotten it or that the kitchen is badly organized, but that Pacaud told his chefs to redo it. I also agree with your remarks on Braun and Lecerf. Braun, who was there when I went there, did not cook. He was just walking around with a big almost artifical smile. Only once or twice did he look at dishes before they went to the diners. He did not seem to care what went out from the cooking range. If these guys where actually cooking, the level of the place would probably be vastly improved. So one could say that the potential of l’Atelier is enormous as it is a real low water mark right now. I just remembered that every plate had so many fingerprints on them that I wondered if they tried to break a world record. As for the name. Well, vmilor was taken so I had to think of something else . Since I had just figured out how to make agar-based jelly shaped as large raindrops or beans I took that name.

vmilor, You make wrong assumptions. By the way, the term spring lamb that you use is hardly adequate. Agneau de printemps in French is more frequently used for dishes made of lamb in the spring, rather than agneau de lait or suckling lamb that I suppose you refers to. Very rarely, in my opinion, is agneau de printemps used for lamb that is also called agneau blanc or laiton, a slightly older lamb than agneau de lait. L'agneau blanc has also a white meat and has been fed with milk from its mother but also on milk substitute. L’agneau de lait on the other hand has been fed only with milk from the mother. By tradition l'agneau de lait is sometimes called l'agneau de Pâques. It is correct that l’agneau de lait, somewhat depending on origin, can be extremely small. In English, agneau de lait, is maybe incorrectly called spring lamb at times, but since agneau de lait is readily available most of the year or at least from early/mid fall to early summer, the term (even the term l'agneau de Pâques) is misleading unless it at this time of the year comes from the Southern Hemisphere. The lamb at Robuchon was labeled as agneau de Lozere not agneau de lait. Lozere lamb, as you may know, is known for being set of to feed it self in freedom very quickly but is slaughtered when it is still quite small at around 80-90 days or so. This means that in theory it should have the tenderness of agneau de lait but at the same time some of the charachter of a lamb that has eaten herbs. When at its best, agneau de Lozere can be astonishingly good, having exactly that, the tenderness and crispy skin of the best agneau de lait and a very fragrant lamb flavour. Pacaud serves lamb like that at times. However, the lamb at Robuchon was not at all in this league, it was just tasteless, not tender and not very juicy either. I say this despite I had the part of the back that I like most, that is the part opposite of the back part under which the filets are located. OK, maybe I was extremely disappointed with the array of poorly executed dishes and poor wines by the glass, but it was just an average lamb not vey nicely cooked. I did remark that the chops where small (not small for agneau de lait but for a lamb) since they were only two and of poor quality so the price was everything but a bargain. I am also a great admirer of agneau de lait not to speak of very small cochon de lait. I do not have to go out of my way to get it, as it is often available from various origins in butcher shops close by. That does unfortunately not include the pré-salé from the Mont-Saint-Michel bay (which may not really exist as just milk fed), but most other lamb varietes of interest. As for cooking lamb chops Basque style I don't really know what you refer to. You have to enlighten me. At Robuchon they were just sauted at high heat served with some herbes and a less than interesting sauce, a demi-glace if I remember right. Oh I almost forgot, there was a tiny portion of the famous puré, but it was served at something close to room temperature. There where some dishes on the menu that are the same or resemble what Robuchon served earlier, such as the Merlan frit Colbert, which on the other hand isn’t a Robuchon creation as some people seem to think. I have read in this thread that people have had “stellar meals” and so on at L'Atelier Joël Robuchon. My experience there leaves me wondering what they compare it with.

Go there and try it! Remember to bring a magnifying glass so you can study the food and maybe a gas mask as the smoke from the cooking range got pretty bad at one point where I sat. It is better to sit where you exit the restaurant into the hotel. Ventilation seems to be better there. I honestly think that it will close within two years. I stayed in Paris at a hotel close by so I passed by several times during lunch service and evening service for a few days. Not at anytime was the place full. And there was no queue. It is mostly crowded by English and Americans. The French voices I heard where definitely Belgian. I think that people will gradually loose interest in this place. I cannot see French people go there. I had five different dishes from the left hand side menu, containing degustation dishes at half the price of mostly the same dishes at the right hand a la carte side of the menu. I could go on in detail and criticize the food but I would just like to mention that I had a foie gras au torchon that was made from a foie gras of super-market quality. The exterior of it had taken on a taste of something else from its time in the fridge apart from being slightly too oxidized on the exterior for my taste. I had a deep fried gamba that had a rubber-like texture and two of the smallest lamb chops I have ever seen. The lamb was also of inferior quality, tasteless, just semi-tender and bleeding heavily, which they had tried to mitigate by frying the chops hard on the exterior. The tiny dessert was a jelly of mango with a strawberry sorbet, that tasted like the strawberry syrup from Carrefour, but what should you expect when it's not season for strawberries. The design of the place is laughable. It is like a mixture of French and Japanese styles with details that I just find anything but well thought out. On top of that they played European music from 17th century. We left the place at 7:45, one hour an ten minutes after entereing the place, and had a full meal at another restaurant directly after.

You are really spot on Jonathan. I think the difference between Adria and others is his relentless desire to try to innovate and challenge his own ideas and creations like no one else does. This should be rewarded. How many French or other chefs can you say that about? I think we should criticize French chefs in particular for not trying harder than they do. Over the last six years or so what has happened? Ducasse serves more or less the same food at ADPA and at Louis XV. Troisgros serves more or less the same food. It is the same with almost all the other three star restaurants in France where I have been. Even Michel Bras has undergone very minor changes in this sense. The only chefs that I know that at least to some extent have tried to renew what they are doing are Passard and Gagnaire, but it pales in comparison with Adria. Should we not demand more from these chefs at the prices some of them have started to charge? You should now expect to pay around 300 euros for just the food at certain Parisian three-stars not to mention the ridiculous prices at Veyrat for partly Adria inspired food. A recent meal at L’Ambroisie highlighted this. Although the meal was technically as perfect as you expect from Pacaud, who is probably the only chef that is actually cooking, the aftertaste of a bill that make you feel you paid by the spoon makes the meal hard to digest. Considering the lack of changes of the food over the last ten years just makes it harder. Adria may be the only top chef who truly lives for his food. Others are more interested in branding and opening up new restaurant ventures. I am sure that if Ducasse spent as much time renewing himself as he is spending on opening up new restaurants, his cuisine at his top restaurants, if he had only two, would be quite different. I think it is Adria's commitment to food, joy and enthusiasm that are the reasons why he will be remembered as one of the greatest chefs ever. If he is able to come up with 60 to 80 new dishes a year and we only find even a third or a fourth of those truly great, so what? Some chefs like Ducasse have not been able to come up with that many original dishes in ten years. Ducasse’s big cookbook that cost more than 200 euros is a great example of the lack of creativity and innovation. There are probably some 400 recipes in this complete work of Ducasse’s cuisine, although I haven’t counted. When you look at it in detail you realise that preparations are doubled. Asparagus are served with morels and morels are served with asparagus. Similar prepartions are made with just different fish species or different meat and so on. So if you take away all the doubles how much is left? 100 or 200 dishes? Maybe a few more, I don’t know. But it is hardly impressive, when you consider all the people working for Ducasse and all the restaurants he has, that he cannot produce more than that. I still think the best food is served in France and that will be the case for a very long time. The French restaurants are more consistently turning out high quality products. But I am getting fed up with the greed and the lack of innovation and spirit among French chefs and their lack of interest in the food. Although my experience from that time is limited, I think that French chefs on the top level where more interested in their food in the eighties than they are today. Adria should be hailed for being interested in the food and for his desire to challenge himself and to innovate. This thread has really taken a lot of absurd turns. But on the other hand people may have been inspired by the header.