Jordi Butron @ l'épicier

[chopper]

A rather cool reception for Mr.Butron last night...

And a bit of confusion on how the whole thing was organised; clients walking out after one course, others not even sticking around for mignardises. Not to mention the ever present refrain: we're fully booked but at 9 p.m. we're trying to convince "walk-ins" that they should have dessert before their veggies....

Apart from that, an interesting evening, but not for the "lactose intolerant"....

[Bux]

Details?

[Lesley C]

lotsa unsweetened yogurt.

I enjoyed every course, except maybe the last one with chocolate, yogurt and smoked tea. I thought the rhubarb dessert was the strongest and the one with apples, spiced milk and arugula, the most interesting. Superb wine pairings, but it was a bit tough to stomach so many dessert wines. And the scotch at the end... whoa! I would have preferred a nice cup of tea.

Menu:

Cold tea soup with spices and fruit

wine: Moscato d"Asti

Spiced milk with citrus fruit, green apple and wild arugula

wine: Vouvray

Yogurt "biscuit" with mandarine and rhubarb

wine : Vidal Icewine, Inniskillin

Manchego cheese cake, frozen thyme parfait, pineapple sorbet & thyme "dust"

wine: Tokaji Aszu

Chocolate coffee ice cream with a flourless chocolate cake and smoked tea

spirit: Glendronach Single Highland Malt

Petit Fours

People who were there...please discuss.

[Michael Laiskonis]

Yogurt "biscuit" with mandarine and rhubarb

I'm interested in this dish in particular. What made it a "biscuit"... was it a sort of whipped yogurt gelatin?

The courses appear to mirror the progression of a 'savory' menu, which Butron does at Espai Sucre. I'd like to hear some specifics, such as the relative size of each course, the sweetness of each course as it went along, and the progression of textures, temperatures, etc...

[chopper]

There is one course missing from the previous list:

Manchego cheese, frozen thyme parfait, pineapple sorbet & thyme "dust"

wine : Vidal Icewine, Inniskillin

Would of thought that the palette of tastes and textures would of been broader; the petits-fours offered the only forray into spices and textural contrasts.

Agree fully wine the quality of the wine pairings, the wines sometimes overtaking the actual desserts by there flavours and complexity ( it was a joy to sample the Tokaji aszu 5 puttonyos)

As for the scotch and chocolate it reminded me of the vieux rhum Pierre Gagnaire served with his soufflée a few years ago; bold but it works...

[Michael Laiskonis]

Manchego cheese, frozen thyme parfait, pineapple sorbet & thyme "dust"

wine : Vidal Icewine, Inniskillin

Where did this one fit into the menu, before or after the yogurt "biscuit"/Tokaji?

Edited March 3, 2003 by Michael Laiskonis (log)

[chopper]

After the yogurt course; to over simplify, they both seemed to be based on the school of baked cheesecake.

I am not sure now if the matchings posted are entirely correct, but will try to verify.

BTW the manchego course also came with a "petit sablé": cheese and crackers....

[Lesley C]

Sorry. Correction made. I was typing a bit too quickly.

Chopper what do you mean by the petit sable? Do you mean the square biscuit with parfait on top?

[chopper]

That's the one; it was introduced as a sablé type cookie by the waiter, and I'm not one to argue...

Someone in our party referred to the smokiness of the "caillé de brebis" in the last course as smoked salmonish.... but seriously the scotch was an appropriate association to that slightly overpowering course.

After talking with M.Butron, he seemed neither sad or suprised by the "mixed bag" of reactions displayed last night; I am sure that initial reaction to Espai sucre was not all oooh's and aaah's...

[Lesley C]

Yes, I agree the scotch did work. But I could only handle a couple sips at that point.

If I had finished all those wines and that scotch, I wouldn't be typing this right now.

I thought the last dish was a bit of a dud. Instead of that smoked tea, just imagine if he had brought a sweet element in there -- like a swirl of smokey maple syrup. And it was just drowning in yogurt.

[chopper]

I, on the contrary, was pleased to see them topping off certain wines during dinner; on the subject of yogurt, the chef also mentionned that the quantity we received last night was considerably less then is served at Espai sucre.

This was confirmed by a member of our party that had sampled the dish in Barcelona last year. It might be of interest to know that M.Butron could not use his favorite Manchego, apparently it had decided to remain in Paris, with most of the other prepared mise-en-place he had planned to bring along....

[tan319]

It might be of interest to know that M.Butron could not use his favorite Manchego, apparently it had decided to remain in Paris, with most of the other prepared mise-en-place he had planned to bring along....

Do you think that his missing mise might have made him stumble a bit?

Had to be a bummer for him:_(