Toustem

[Ptipois]

I have heard many opinions of Hélène Darroze's cooking, most of them bad. Today, at lunch, I decided to make my own (opinion). Living in the 5e arrondissement of Paris it was easy to walk to place Maubert and her auberge Toustem on rue de l'Hôtel-Colbert. Always try something once, I thought, the restaurant was one-fourth full, so we just walked in and were sat at a table for 2.

We were shown the lunch menu (24 euros) and the menu of the day. First courses 12 euros, main courses 24 euros, dessert 9 euros. Overpriced. The food has to be supremely good to justify 24 euros for a main course. I hope it is. Especially since the nearby Pré Verre serves an excellent lunch menu for 14 euros. This had better be good.

My companion's escargots en brioche de Christine Ferber, salade d'herbes were pretty good. Being particularly tired of the current name-dropping trend on French restaurant menus, I think "who gives a (bweep!) it's Christine Ferber brioche" and indeed the brioche is good but not good enough to justify writing the name of its author on a chalkboard.

My first course is foie gras confit au naturel, figue de Solliès in a red wine reduction, foie gras good but not outstanding, nice poached fig. Pleasant but nothing to write home about.

We go on with a macaronade au foie gras et shiitake which is really penne rigate tossed in a ultra-rich cream and foie gras sauce with mushrooms (identifiable as grey chanterelles, girolles, trompettes, no trace of shiitake) and pan-seared diced foie gras. The foie gras is good, the mushrooms taste and look like they have been boiled before in another dish and reused in this one, the sauce is much too rich and lacks flavor, the penne proudly hold to on their neutrality.

My main course is broiled tuna belly with cogollos and slow-roasted tomatoes. Tuna belly decent, cogollos are Little Gem romaine lettuces sliced and sautéed with the tomatoes. (Why not just call those vegetables by their French name, "sucrines"? That would save the waiters' saliva.) The vegetables are exceedingly sour and greasy, and my first impression was right: 24 euros for each one of those two main dishes is a gyp.

Dessert: these, thankfully, allow us to end the meal on a positive note. There is, at least, a good pastry chef here. Vacherin aux fraises gariguettes is almost what it claims to be, a lovely combination of good vanilla ice cream, a light strawberry-flavored chantilly, small button meringues, a discreet raspberry coulis and really good, flavorful mara-des-bois strawberries (not gariguettes, second mistake on the chalkboard). Remarkable, though you do not have to be a good cook to come up with that (it just takes a very attentive, sensible pastry chef). Nevertheless it was, without question, the high point of the meal.

With 1 half-bottle of Badoit, 1 glass of pouilly-fumé and 1 glass of jurançon sec, the bill is 120 euros.

Here's the PM:

- Product sourcing 7/10,

- Cooking 5/10,

- Decor 6/10 (nice 17-th century dining-room, but all that orange!)

- Accuracy (i.e. conformity of ingredients served to the written menu): 5/10,

- Quality-price ratio: not good. Focusing on the sheer quality of the ingredients, cooking and service: that meal wasn't worth more than 60 euros for 2 (half the bill).

- Superhero dessert intervention meant to save our lunch at the last minute: 10/10.

Go back? Send friends? Hell, no. But I'll miss that vacherin. And if you want to dine exclusively on bas-armagnac, this is the place.

Hélène Darroze - Toustem, 12 rue de l'Hôtel-Colbert, Paris 5. Tel. 01 40 51 99 87.

[John Talbott]

I have heard many opinions of Hélène Darroze's cooking, most of them bad.

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Thank you so much Pti for sacrificing your body for the rest of us. I'm one of those who thinks HD is one of the most over-rated chefs on the planet and I vowed not to go to Toustem despite the inquiries of one of my critic friends every month if I've been yet.

Great review; very helpful; better eating next place.

[Ptipois]

Great review; very helpful; better eating next place.

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Well there was worse eating before. I went to Dutournier's new yuppie joint La Sydrerie de l'Etoile and it was bad beyond description. Even worse than Toustem.

What's with all those grand chefs these days?

Thanks, indeed I hope next place will be better.

[John Talbott]

Well there was worse eating before. I went to Dutournier's new yuppie joint La Sydrerie de l'Etoile

Well I don't know whether to be sad or grateful; you're whittling down my September-October list fast. But Dutournier by my lights was never a consistently good chef anyway and as for Darroze, don't get me riled up again.

[grace3]

I really enjoyed the critique of HD!! Got some good laughs!

It has been a number of years now, but when staying at the l'Abbaye her place was around the corner..more or less...I thought everything about the place was horrible!!

My October trip is not far away now. Have just gotten all our dining reservations made. Thought we better get going with all the Rugby stuff going on. Too late for Spring for dinner. With all the write-ups..it was filled. We are going for lunch..will see how that goes. All others are taken care of. I made Taillevent upon return from Feb. trip, so didn't have to worry about that one. I had been in touch with Catherine Constant earlier and she had told me to just let her know "when". Going to have a fun get-together at Violon with the "Laidbacks" and some good French friends. That should prove to be a good evening!!

Rather strange summer weather there..but expect it to be just the way we like it by mid October! I usually luck out that way.

Look forward to more of these humorous critiques!!