julot-les-pinceaux

they sya they will have a replacement shortly. The story is like with MacCain: temper. It was the story even before the loss of the third star and it even seems to be the cause of the loss of the third star. I have been hearing rumors that Legendre was leaving for a while, from insiders and people who worked with him. Apparently there has long been a trade-off between hiw bad relationships with the Four Seasons people and the exceptinoal corking conditions he enjoyed there. Maybe they'll offer the job to the neighbour Chef Briffard? He sure deserves it.

seriously?

Absolutely. A three stars in his own right, the ultimate genius of cheese. Worth a trip in my opinion -- definitely requires a trip if you want to go, as Vieux Ferrette is very far away from anything, except maybe Basel, Switzerland. He keeps his best cheeses for Passard and Ducasse only, Ledoyen to a lesser extent (Senderens used to be in the list, when Lucas-Carton existed). Obviously (based on my meal there) Piège (at les Ambassadeurs) does not have access to them.

Haha, Bu Pun Su, you got me. l'Arpège or l'Ambroisie are a bit expensive, but I sure hope to go back soon. Especially l'Ambroisie. But you know I am not sure how much I really like those restaurants. I am only certain that they make the best possible food. For l'Arpège, I am pretty sure that I dislike the place, its poor setting and its atomic prices. For les Ambassadeurs and l'Astrance, they were exploratory trips with other bloggers. Also, since you mention it, after my first l'Astrance review where I said that I did not want to go back, they told me that they hoped I would -- and I fell for that. And, while this is not my cup of tea, I think that l'Astrance is even better now than last year, more focused, more efficient, and great wine pairing. For the wine-pairing issue... we should really start that topic. I thought John would have done it by ,now ;-)

You ask eGulletters. Thing is, some places do a great work with wine pairing: when that happens, the dish and the wine both take a whole new dimension from their encounter. That was the case at l'Astrance, where several dishes were transfigured by the wine. To be fair, it only rarely happens, and mostly with Senderens and Senderens' disciples (the sommelier at l'Astrance is former Lucas Carton, and of course Barbot is a Passard guy who is -was- a Senderens guy -- though wine/course pairing at l'Arpège starts with both being ridiculously expensive). It is all the more admirable at l'Astrance since dishes change very often and, unlike Senderens, the chef does not design the dishes seeking the wine pairing but lets it up to the sommelier to find out the good wine once he came up with a new dish. Actually, we could start a topic: apart from l'Astrance and Senderens, what are the places that offers really exceptional wine pairing? I'm guessing there's gonna be mention of Il Vino, though from what I read, they seem to have a very rustic approach to pairing, and mostly put wines first, rather than looking for the magical pairing. Some places have great wine, some great food, some both -- but the pairing? Also, There is a 120/190 menu at l'Astrance too, the 5 course menu. (the 190/290 is 8 course, lunch is 3 course and 70/110). My pics from that meal: http://picasaweb.google.fr/jultort/LAstrance28Mars2008

Second that. Colin and his team give a whle new meaning to the term cocktail, with the incredible fine tuning, the mastering of temperatures, the super-fresh ingredients, and the infinitely classy and personal service.

New report from Julot (c'est moi!): http://www.julotlespinceaux.com/2008/03/ex...ic-ledoyen.html It is a really nice restaurant experience. We left at 2 am thinking it was before midnight. The setting is incredible, the history so present, ingredients are top notch, and the most modern techniques are used for simple, ingredient centered recipes that are very refined. On the whole though, I did not experience any "wow" from the food (except this amuse of peas), and I had the feeling that the food impact could be seriously maximised. But this seems to be exactlty what the place is about. Food should be exceptional, but not divert your attention from the evening. An ideal proposal restaurant, I suggest.

I further voiced my diasapproval of les Ambassadeurs in a new post: http://www.julotlespinceaux.com/2008/03/le...rd-working.html The place, as I see it, is characterised by its lack of actual seriousness. Not that they don't work hard or don't demonstrate amazong skills. Obviously they do. But they don't take the fine dining, the "grand restaurant" seriously. Ingredients have grand names and bland tastes, recipes are pretty but without pleasur or emotion. In a word, the opposite of everything I value in a restaurant -- a pleasurable moment, an experience in civilisation, the expression of a sensitivity, something that makes life richer and people closer...

Service is 15%, VAT 19,6% -- see why the Republicans hate France?

And the drugstore on the Champs Elysées. On some sundays Wal-Mart like hypermarkets outside Paris are open. And of course a number of Hediards, Lenotre, Flo traiteur and Dalloyaus -- won't cost much more than Tang+Taxi. Also, in the ethnic range, there are the pakistanese shops on top of the rue du faubourg Saint Denis, but they don't have their place in a food lovers forum. Chinatown is clearly the place to go on sundays afternoon, imo.

Fair enough -- Here's the website: http://www.alain-ducasse.com/public/cest_a...langepicier.htm By the way, you see that it's not true that I dislike all that is Ducasse related...

I thought I had to share that again. At BE, bd de Courcelles, you can seat at lunch and be served a huge bowl of generously truffled coquillettes, with dices of a good ham and cheese and cream. The Ducasse truffle oil is brought on the side -- help yourself. This is 13 eur. Then for 4,10 you can have a passion fruit tart that competes with my Jamin memories. So, you know, try. I'm still tasting the well balanced, natural truffle taste in my mouth and I'm not sorry.

We need to try again. See whether it was that or us having fundamentally different tastes.

In Perl-Nennig, I thought highly of Schloss Berg, a three stars which is very joyful and surprising. Not sure if it is a meal of a lifetime thing, but it is very young, very good, feels special.

So I went to l'Acajou (www.l-acajou.com) and I found the place great. I had the 40 eur lunch menu, which includes coffee and a glass of wine. This is a cuisine based on what I'd call the real basics: hyper fresh ingredients, precise cooking and seasoning. As a results, tastes are perfectly clear and exciting. And at the same time that ingredients are at the forefront, recipes are genuinely original and apparently change constantly. The ones I tastes though served the ingredients, not the chef, first. Also everything is very light. It started with a funny celeri Perrier mousse. It had the same spark as the Perrier water indeed. But mostly it was quite good, and one (I) carefully emptied the glass with the spoon. Then a brochette of scallops, on a perfectly seasoned bed of rucola. There are zucchini skins, little "Paris" mushrooms, schallots and cherry tomato and every combination works great. This is raw hyper-fresh ingredients, and tastes are distinct, exciting, identifiable, and they all have very nice matches (you can't have of everything in a bite, so you do partial combinations of course). Then came an absolutely perfect seabass tail, boned and skinned. It had some kind of Ras El-Hanout spice mix on top, but strangely, it almost left the taste of the fish untasted. But the spice worked magic with the side of yellow carrott purée, smoother than Robuchon's potato one and with far less butter. And it was made even greater by some young leaves of beet on top, that kind of underlined the sweet-but-not-sugary character of the course. In dessert, a great financier was crispy under, rich but not fat inside, great sorbet on top, a basil juice underneath. Some peeled quarters of grapefruit, red and yellow, are nicely put around the thing. There are too many compared to the financier, but it looks good. The glass of wine has nothing noteworthy to be fair (Sauvignon), good though. The wine list rich on classic Bordeaux and Bourgogne (e.g. Leflaive), no big surprise, no great value. The setting is decorated by the same street artist who made the hôtel des Académies et des Arts in Montparnasse (which I highly recommend by the way), it is personal and quiet, not particularly warm. This falls indeniaby under the food nerd place category, in my opinion, so the point about the place is that it does not interfere with the good food. I'll take some pictures next time.

Shouldn't le Café de la Paix be in the list too?

I agree about positive comments but I don't share the enthusiasm. The whole creativity/innovation seemed to me little more than a stunt to draw attention, leading at best to make good dishes hard to eat due to design demands, and at worst to propose disgusting things like the "sandwich jambon beurre à boire" (indeniably funny though). That said, on the whole, the restaurant is quite good. But it is due to good ingredients, mastered techniques and, in the end, very classic recipes "re-looked". It is good, has great wines and a great sommelier, and comparatively good value. But I would not rate it best anything -- not innovation, not value, not quality. More detailed report with pictures here: http://www.julotlespinceaux.com/2008/03/les-magnolias.html While we're at it, I also went to l'Acajou, in the 16th, which I found very good. I would probably consider it excellent value for the price, with no unnecessary experiments or stunt but a focus on exceptional freshness, perfect cooking and seasoning, and clear tastes.

Well Michelin just took one off your list. Do you have Arpège plans? Gagnaire? etc.

Honestly, I couldn't agree more. But Julian and some others had experiences they liked, and I don't want to discount their opinion. But I wouldn't want to go back and I wouldn't advise people who share my taste to.

You got me. Did not go to Louis XV yet. Technically, Savoy's food is much less admirable than Ducasse/Piège's. And all in all, food is somewhat average at Savoy by three-stars standards. But 1-it is ingredient-based and always pleasant. Most of all, it is not pretentious. In general. And 2- Savoy is a master of party, of showtime. A dinner at Savoy, despite a definitely 2* food, is always a great moment when they make you feel special. And wines are just great (if not cheap, nothing at Savoy is). In a word, I would say that the third star of Guy Savoy lies with Eric Mancio, the sommelier/directeur du restaurant. Re truffle, I recommend Savoy and Rostang because they are among the chefs who are part of the truffle connection. They know how to get good truffles in big quantities at good prices. (This is not an ingredient with a free market). And also because they know how to prepare that particular ingredient. As far as dishes are concerned, the sweetbread is what jumps to mind for Savoy. More so than the soup, which I think is grossly overevaluated, unless it is just being made in too casula a way those days. My dislike of Ducasse has nothing to do with changing the menu often or not. It has to do with the fact that it is just not good enough. At least none of the times I went there. But at the same time, I have no plan to go again. It also has to do with the de-personalisation of cooking, which I believe is the opposite of civilisation and of what I like.

Simon says... l'Arpège does not lose its third star

I won't budge from my judgement on the meal I had, but a friend who came last year and also was there the same night, and said that it was like Piège was depressed or something, that he had an exceptional meal the time before, but he agreed with me that that night was mediocre at best. So maybe we just had reallty different experiences. Though for me, the experience at les Ambassadeurs was just as boring as it had been in the Plaza under the same Piège. That said, there is no doubt that Piège is very able, and, though that never happened to me, I am pretty sure that he can do a great meal.

It is a stupid question, Bu Pun Su White truffle flavour disppears with heat. So no one ever cooks white truffle (to be fair, Guy Savoy used some peels in his risotto, but he only adds it at the last minute). That's also why the best way to have it is to shave it on your plate, because the flavour and the smell are so volatile.

Robyn, you are right that Michelin is slow in giving and taking stars. But in the case of Passard, I haven't read a single bad review lately. As Michelin never explains the decisions, I would not change my take on l'Arpège yet, but now I need to go back and check despite the painful prices. It really sound like a strange decision. Not to mention giving the third star back to Legendre... Had some bad meals there, and the best were only good. I am a big Michelin supporter but these decisions, if confirmed, seem hard to understand.

Seriously, Passard? Sounds like a cataclysm. It's like, I don't know, demoting the third star. I haven't been in a while but has anybody been disappointed lately? I mean excepting the prices?