Lespinasse (Closed)

[voberoi]

Lespinasse – An experience in contrasts

Me and my wife went to Lespinasse for dinner on Sat – something we had meant to do for a while. We got an early seating – we called only one day before.

We were seated in the corner – that turned out to be a benefit – we were away from noisy tables that held parties of 6 or more. This way we were able to talk and enjoy our long dinner in peace. Following is the procession of food that followed. I had the chef's tasting menu and my wife ordered the vegetarian tasting menu.

First – A trio of soups for me: I missed out on the rock shrimp in lobster sabayon (allergic to shell fish) and got some mushrooms thrown together in their own juices. On the other hand, the cold pea soup with mint was cool and refreshing. It entertained my head with a variety of subtle flavors. The warm mushroom bisque soothed my soul with a reassuring quality. There was some kind of fish in it too. My wife got tomatoes simply marinated in rock salt – an eye opener on how good tomatoes can be.

Second – My wife got the same pea soup I had but in a largish bowl while I got a piece of sea bass marinated in some sort of Asian-French style (similar in style to the soy/sake marinated cod at Sugiyama) but had berries in the sauce and came with strips of tomatoes. Excellent overall.

Third – Sauteed foie gras with chestnuts and walnuts with a reduced Sauterne sauce accompanied with a glass of an excellent sauterene. Wow! The quality of the ingredients were enough to wake up this palette. My wife got an array of four types of mushrooms that were sautéed in butter and presented in their own jus. A nice medley of flavor, texture and aroma.

Fourth – From here on, I felt I was in a car that had spun off course. Seared tuna on a piece of red meat – it could have been lamb or mutton – braised in a red wine sauce. The whole combination was heavy and the smell and taste of the meat overpowered the tuna. This was obviously classic French cooking that I did not particularly like but would get over. I tried the tuna and nibbled at the meat. My wife had a ragout of asparagii and greens with hazelnut truffle sabayon dressing. Spectacular. The sabayon was perfect at pulling together the salad.

Fifth – My woes continued with a piece of braised bacon in a foamy sauce that I somehow consumed about half of. There was a nice contrast of textures with the outside being crunchy and salty with the fat inside soft and sweet. But it was bacon and did not do anything for my palette. My wife, meanwhile, was polishing off the most perfect risotto with the same excellent tomatoes. Another spectacular creation from the chef.

Sixth – Roasted squab with green beans in a now too familiar red sauce. Another preparation of meat prepared in a way to make it even heavier with nothing to counteract the dense bland flavor. The procession of innovative and eye opening dishes continues on the other side of the table with a light fluffy couscous with variety of vegetables and hints of red pepper assaulting the senses.

How can the same kitchen turn out three courses that are all heavy, bland and texture wise dense while the other three that came out succeeded in entertaining all five senses in a spectacular fashion. Amazing how innovative the vegetarian menu was compared to the chef’s tasting menu.

Seventh – Oranges in a champagne sabayon and champagne sorbet. This would have been sublime had the orange pieces been good. At least they were not sour.

Eighth – The theme of being conventional continued with me getting a all chocolate desert: mousse, ice cream, spunge cake and napoleon. Good but not very revelatory. Overdose of chocolate and not light either. My wife got a minnestrone of mangoes and other fruit with a grilled piece of not so ripe mango. Quite good.

The petit fours were generic. Overall, it was the best vegetarian food that wife has ever had – I believe her. I, otoh, had a meal that started off spectacularly and went downhill extremely fast. The service was extremely good and the wine we had them select was very nice – a Chablis, pinot noir and Pinot D’Alsace that were great but not amazing.

[Fat Guy]

Thanks very much for such a thorough report. Delouvrier's meat cookery does tend to be very heavy and classically oriented: Sauces enhanced with blood and wine, etc. I happen to love that style of cooking, but it's certainly reasonable not to like it. Good to hear the vegetarian menu was up to snuff, and that service was good. I hear Lespinasse is down to a three-day-a-week, dinner-only schedule for the time being. So only a few lucky people each week will get to dine there. Hmm. Maybe I should make a reservation . . .

[Bux]

Kind of hard for me to say if I'd like the meat preparations or not. I am still a fan of classic French cooking when well done and Delouvrier can do it very well. I'm not at all sure a dish of tuna and red meat is a French classic combination however. I assume the tuna was rare and also hardly classic in terms of French food.

[Fat Guy]

Surf-and-turf seems to be a trend in the contemporary French kitchens of New York today. I've seen it all over, most notably the combination of tuna-and-foie-gras. I think I've had a variation of the dish mentioned above, and I found it delicious.

[Bux]

I'm tempted to say there's not a #### of a lot of classical French food in the contemporary French kitchens of New York today. I would be careful to note that the food found in the fine French restaurants of NY may owe its success to the kitchen's knowledge of classical French cuisine and its ability to produce the same.

My knee jerk reaction is to dismiss all combinations that resemble truf and surf. Admittedly, in real life, I selectively turn off what may appear to be reflex reactions. If I respect the chef, I allow him to serve not only fish and meat, but fruit on the same plate. Over a decade ago, in an act I thought was perverse although supported by an exchange rate of ten francs to the dollar, I ordered a cold foie gras and langoustine terrine in Paris. It was unbelievably rich and quite excellent. It was all part of my education in foie gras. To travel in the Dordogne at 9-10 francs to the dollar is an experience of a lifetime.

[yvonne johnson]

I've only been to Lespinasse once (that is if I’m not mistaken. Maybe the St Regis has many dining rooms.) and that was for breakfast. I was being informally interviewed for a job. My two interviewers (there before I arrived) were drinking coffee but I could not tell whether they had ordered something to eat. I was given the menu and kindly told, “Please, have whatever you would like”. As I’m not a breakfast person and it's a bit awkward to chomp away and speak semi-intelligibly and I felt it might be rude to decline, I ordered only tea and toast. Presently, these arrived but without anything to put on the toast, and nothing else came soon. Was this an interview test to see if I could be assertive? After a few minutes I asked a waiter for butter. The interview went into full swing and I half-forgot about the toast. The butter never came. So the dry toast just sat there undisturbed.

It turned out that my interviewers hadn’t ordered anything to eat. (I think they may have eaten with a candidate they’d met earlier.) And on reflection I would have felt a complete idiot going for a hearty breakfast, l that I didn't even want. Me munching away all by myself while being interviewed!

What struck me about the dining room was that it looked fake-grand. Nice, big chairs, but it felt dull.

PS: I got the job. Given the dilapidated state of the building where I would work, I now understand why I was interviewed at the St Regis. (Truth: I love my janitor’s closet!)

[robert brown]

Steven, perhaps you could ask your friend Matt if Passard was the first to cook with blood. I remember having salmon in a blood sauce at Passard in the late 1970s. I also once had a delivery of cold sesame noodles with blood from Pig Heaven, but I don't think it was supposed to be part of the dish.

Yours,

Robert

[Fat Guy]

I just spoke to him quickly -- I'll see if I can convince him to post here on occasion -- but he was of the opinion that enriching a sauce with an animal's blood is an ancient or possibly even prehistoric cooking technique.

[Bux]

Robert, I assume that wasn't salmon blood in the sauce. The classic, or traditional civet, made with furred game is thickened with the blood of the animal. Hare is actually the most traditional animal. In nouvelle cuisine the term is often used in more creative ways. Someone once reported seeing civet de homard on a menu in France, with the accompanying translation "lobster stew of furred game." Blood sausages and black puddings are another use of blood in cooking. All of this predates Passard's birth by generations and probably centuries if it doesn't predate recorded history. The question might be "Was Passard the first to use animal blood in a fish dish?" Do you remember what he called his dish.

[voberoi]

Aha,

That was it all right (blood that is). I was wondering what made me turn off some of the dishes. I am never to say no to a little fat or grease.

[Fat Guy]

Delouvrier is known for his hare in sauce civet. It is wild hare -- unusual in this age of mostly farmed game -- and when it is presented at the table you're warned to watch out for buckshot. Now that's serious French cooking.

[Steve Plotnicki]

My birthday dinner was originally scheduled for the new Bouley. But on its eve the phone rang and the mother of one of the other dinner guests was having emergency heart surgery on the day so a bash for six people end up cancelled. Not wanting to go to Bouley, only to go again when the event was rescheduled, I went about finding a last minute table at one of New York’s temples of fine cuisine. I resigned myself to it being a long series of phone calls when I was surprised that my first call met with success.

I hadn’t been to Lespinasse since Gray Kunz left. That’s a long time. But I am usually predisposed to places that allow BYO and Lespinasse is a no-BYO place. And while the menu seemed like it had promise, the reports I received weren’t the greatest. But I was in the mood for a new experience and figured what the hell. The room at Lespinasse seemed unchanged since my last visit, which I found only mildly surprising. I figured since I had reserved that day that they would seat us in Siberia, which in Lespinasse means in one of the two wings on either side of the main room. But to my surprise they led my wife and I to a table at the back left of the main room where we could sit side by side and take it all in. Did they secretly know I was an Internet VIP? Or was it my flash suit? Unfortunately, neither as the room didn’t ever fill up. While we were happy with our table, the service left a little to be desired. The staff appeared somewhat distanced and they didn’t offer through either their body language or their tone the opportunity to engage them in any substantial discussion of what was to come.  More of the feel of hotel dining than I like.

They presented me with a small tome of a wine list. Now here’s an activity I could enjoy.  

It was a fairly complete list for a restaurant, including most of the important bottles of Bordeaux from the 80’s and many important ones dating even earlier. But I quickly was able to calculate that the reprehensibility of the pricing rivaled the comprehensiveness of the listings. First Growth Bordeaux from 1982 at $1900 a bottle. Sheesh. Not that long ago places of this caliber were selling those wines for $900. How high is it going to go? But as with almost every list, there are always a few wines that are either well priced, or unusual to find and you don’t mind paying the full ticket and here I zeroed in on a bottle of 1999 Meo-Camuzet Clos Vougeot, a wine I hadn’t as yet had the pleasure of having.

We started with a Tuna Tartar served with a Potato Salad. The presentation was somewhat different than the usual tuna/potato chip way of serving tuna that many restaurants in the U.S feature. There were quarter inch cubes of Grade A tuna served on top of a fancy version of potato salad that you might get in your local German deli. It was shaped into a large round with the potato salad serving as a base layer and the cubed tuna being a second layer on the top. Not quite 50/50 between the layers. Call it 60/40 in favor of the potato salad. Lovely flavor and the textural difference between the cool cubes of tuna and the starchy potato salad was nice. For me this dish was only missing the component of crunch or else it would have been perfect.

We followed with a Trio of Soupes. They brought us a long thin plate with two small soup bowls surrounding a martini glass. We started with a Crème of Asparagus with Crabmeat. An intensely thick and opulent concoction, surprisingly rich for asparagus. Not remembering what the trio was by the time they served it, it wasn’t until we glanced at a menu on our way out that we remembered it was asparagus as the soup was rich enough and dense enough to seem like spring peas. That was followed by a martini glass filled with a clear Gaspacho, and bits of chopped vegetables were suspended in the soup. The crisp acidity of the gaspacho played perfectly against the creaminess of the asparagus soup. Then back to richness with a suave and velvety Curried Mussel Soup with a breaded and fried Mussel floating on top. It completely coated the roof of your mouth and it finished the course with the sharp tang of curry. Quite an excellent dish and one of the better ones I’ve seen in this town lately.

We had ordered glasses of Champagne to start. A non-vintage Taittinger, which had a medium mousse, pretty good delineation of flavors for a NV wine, and just a touch of sweetness which made it go well with our tuna course. Then they served us the Clos Vougeot, which clearly showed the special traits of the 1999 vintage in Burgundy. Aside from a horribly over-oaked Hubert Lignier Clos de la Roche, every ’99 red Burg I have tried has been stellar with perfectly ripe fruit and great structure. Meo seems to have picked a few days earlier than some other growers as this wine wasn’t as intense as say the ones from Dujac are. But I’m splitting hairs here because the wine was terrific, with tangerine-like brightness in the acid. And as a special birthday treat, the table next to ours sent over a small glass of 1972 La Tache for me (don’t ask how I wangled that one from complete strangers .) The ’72 La Tache is the most underrated La Tache of the last 50 years. This bottle was perfect. Fully mature, amazing flavor of earthy mushrooms and cherry liquor.

For the main course my wife and I split our choices. She had the Sautéed Skate on a puree of Cauliflower, which I will (and so will she,) nominate for the best skate dish ever tasted. Dishes like these are at the pantheon of the haute cuisine style and when you run into them from time to time, you remember why we pursue this hobby.  An entire side of skate (it came out as two pieces) that were dredged in a spice mixture (possibly a light flour included like Wondra?) and sautéed very crisp on the outside and totally warm and moist on the interior, sitting on a pool of the most luscious puree of intensely flavored cauliflower imaginable. Superb. For my main I ordered the Confit of Baby Pig, a dish I’ve read about for many years and always wanted to try. It reminded me of cassoulet, but was served more in the style of a garbure with a large square of the confit, crisped chunk of skin draped atop, sitting on a bed of haricots blanc in light, tomato infused broth. The portion was copious, too much so. But it was also delicious with the meat fork tender. Luxury comfort food. Dessert, as I am experiencing more and more these days was not up to the level of the cuisine. And as I am writing this from memory 10 days after the fact, can’t even tell you what they were. That says more about them than anything else.

Lespinasse is clearly in league with other top places in NYC like Jean-Georges and Daniel. Is it as good? Hmmm, I’d say that it is a hair below those places when they are operating at their top form. But it’s very close. One level of care or refinement and the quality would be indistinguishable. I’m in a hurry to return so I can fashion a proper tasting menu of an appetizer, the trio of soups, the skate, pork and if I recalled correctly, they had a truffled poultry dish on the menu. Maybe with tasting size portions it will rank alongside the very top echelon. Plus there were a few other good bottles tucked away on that list, which are begging to be drunk. How many more reasons do you need to go back?

[Jinmyo]

Thanks, Steve.

[Blue Heron]

A belated Happy Birthday Steve.  I'm not often in the NY forum, but I could not resist reading about your birthday dinner.  Wonderful detailed descriptions, and it was the next best thing to actually being there myself.  The glass of '72 La Tache sounded amazing, too.  I can only imagine.  Thanks.

[Pan]

Steve:

I'm glad you and your wife enjoyed your birthday dinner. It sounds wonderful, and I really enjoyed your descriptions. I like reading your posts when you describe food.

[TCD]

How did you wangle a small glass of 1972 La Tache from complete strangers?

[Steve Plotnicki]

TCD - I saw them deliver the La Tache to the table next to ours. It was a couple in their 30's who were having a majot tasting menu. Up until that point, they were drinking Salon champagne (not sure of the vintage.) After they poured the La Tache and the commotion from it died down, when they were busy eating one of their courses, I summoned one of the waiters over and asked him if he knew the vintage. He didn't, but went over to a waiter who was tending that table, and he set out on a scheme of minor proportions where he went over to the table and rearranged some of the glassware, including the La Tache which was laying on its side in one of those cradles with a handle for pouring. As he rearranged the La Tache, he turned the bottle until the vintage became apparant. When he was done he visited the bus station nearby and then came by to announce the vintage to me.  Actually, this little conspiracy kind of made the waitstaff warm up to us a little. About ten minutes later, the couple with the La Tache were presented with one of the dishes on their menu before it was plated tableside. Since I'm a big yenta, I turned around to see the presentation and just as the waiter was retreating from the table I made eye contact with the guy at the table and we started chatting a bit about how good the food was and then I asked him about the La Tache. When he told me how good it was I mentioned that 1972 was a great, but highly underrated vintage blah, blah and confessed I had asked the waiter for the vintage. Turns out it was the birthyear of his dining companian who had just graduated from business school that day and earned her MBA and that fact propelled my wife into announcing it was my birthday which culminated in four raised glasses and a round of congratulations. We went back to our dinners and two minutes later the glass of La Tache appeared at my table.

Life is made up of small pleasantries isn't it?

I have to say that what I have just described isn't that unusual an occurance and has happened to me, both on the recieving and giving end a number of times. At a dinner at Beacon last year among a bunch of my wino friends, a diner at an adjoining table was ogling a botle of '78 Latour on ours and the subsequent conversation led to our pouring him a short glass. And if I bring an important bottle somewhere that a restaurant doesn't get to see everyday, I quite often send a small glass back to the chef. In fact I did it the other night at Blue Hill with a tasting glass of '54 Marquis de Murrietta Gran Reserva and it got us an invitation to the kitchen when we were leaving.

[macrosan]

Thanks for that, Steve. Is that post a record ? The first time you've ever used a smiley ?  

Happy whichever birthday. See you next week.

[cabrales]

Steve -- In the period surrounding your birthday, did you open any special bottles (including in connection with home cooking)? Also, when you have a chance, at which restaurant do you have the fondest memories of having celebrated any birthday?  

[Rail Paul]

Steve -

Happy birthday! What a wonderful story, with such a happy ending

Paul

[Steve Plotnicki]

Cabrales - I dined at Gramercy Tavern the Saturday before and we opened 1954 Cune Vina Real (my birthyear) which was terrific. Then on Monday at Annisa with Jaybee and A.H.R. we drank 1985 Roumier Clos Vougeot which was also terrific. Tuesday at home with some strip steaks from Lobel's we drank 1983 Guigal Cote Rotie La Landonne which I have to say was good, but less than stellar. I've had much greater bottles. Then the 1954 Marquis de Murrietta I drank at Blue Hill with A.H.R. and Lxt was supposed to be had at Bouley and when it was cancelled it got kicked into the next week and that was just phenomenol. Like sour cherry jam.

As for my fondest memory, none in particular as the fondest but a few come to mind. I had a fantastic birthday meal at Daniel two years ago. Can't remember what I ate, but we drank 1997 Niellon Chassagne-Montrachet Les Vergers and 1990 Domaine Pegau Chateauneuf-du-Pape Cuvee Laurence which were both great. Then, last years dinner at Troisgros with 1992 Coche-Dury Meursault Perrieres and 1990 Henri Jayer Vosne-Romanee Cros Parentoux was off the Richter Scale. And I can remember a dinner at Jean-Georges maybe five years ago where we drank 1990 Leflaive Chevalier-Montrachet, 1970 Mouton and 1970 Vega Sicilia Unico along with a 1/2 bottle of an Andre Ostertag Gewurztraminer SGN. The wine was so unusual that the sommelier brought Jean-Georges himself over to the table to taste the wine.

[Wilfrid]

Just got around to reading this, Steve.  That truffled poultry dish.  Poached truffled poularde for two people, I believe - I have a feeling it may need to be ordered in advance, but I'm not sure.  That's the dish I need to eat.  Since there is no chance of my Beloved being persuaded to eat boiled chicken for dinner, I shall have to secretly lure one of the eGullet in-crowd to taste it one of these days.  

[jordyn]

Just got around to reading this, Steve.  That truffled poultry dish.  Poached truffled poularde for two people, I believe - I have a feeling it may need to be ordered in advance, but I'm not sure.

It does.  24 hours advance notice.

Time Out did an article about this dish and various others that require advance ordering:

Click on this link to read more.

[cabrales]

Just got around to reading this, Steve.  That truffled poultry dish.  Poached truffled poularde for two people, I believe - I have a feeling it may need to be ordered in advance, but I'm not sure.  That's the dish I need to eat.  Since there is no chance of my Beloved being persuaded to eat boiled chicken for dinner, I shall have to secretly lure one of the eGullet in-crowd to taste it one of these days.  

Wilfrid -- "Lure" implies a need to persuade someone who is not otherwise inclined to sample the dish. Depending on whether I qualify as a fellow diner within your "definition" and on Lespinasse's weekend hours, efforts at persuasion might not be called for.    

Note this is not a flirtatious response, to be clear. This is predicated on my interest in poularde and poulet (as demonstrated by my numerous pre-existing postings on Bresse poulet and poularde, although they were from a few months ago).  Note that some of such references were in the A Balic thread, which is in the Member Bio forum and is currently the only 30-page thread on the board. I am not providing a page reference for the poulet and poularde posts, and may or may not have mentioned such posts in my periodic summaries of the A Balic thread (which I have been delinquent on in recent days, but which newer members will be assured of running across if they read the A Balic thread from page 1 onwards).  

[Jinmyo]

Note this is not a flirtatious response, to be clear. This is predicated on my interest in poularde and poulet (as demonstrated by my numerous pre-existing postings on Bresse poulet and poularde, although they were from a few months ago).  Note that some of such references were in the A Balic thread, which is in the Member Bio forum and is currently the only 30-page thread on the board. I am not providing a page reference for the poulet and poularde posts, and may or may not have mentioned such posts in my periodic summaries of the A Balic thread (which I have been delinquent on in recent days, but which newer members will be assured of running across if they read the A Balic thread from page 1 onwards).  

cabrales, that might just be the funniest post I have ever read on eGullet.