Humble potatoes with Black Truffles - A comparison

[vivin]

Mao and Vivin's Happy Trip thru Paris:

Since my detailed notes about the individual meals are in my bag at the mercy of Delta (that you do not want to get me started on), I am going to post a separate thread that I thought about while on the way back. There were several dishes that were similar across restaurants and it is interesting how the chefs differed on their approach to the same basic concept.

HUMBLE POTATOES WITH BLACK TRUFFLES

Puree de Pommes de Terre a la Truffe Noir – Guy Savoy

Pureed potatoes with black truffles on top. Although this was one part of the three-item appetizer, this was the least interesting version. I might have enjoyed the textural contrast between creamy potatoes and nutty pieces of black truffles more had I not been biased (read enlightened) by previous two experiences. The truffles were of decent quality (having gained enough expertise on them in five days :-) and the combination was nice tasting.

Sliced potatoes with black truffles – Le Grand Vefour

Unlike Savoy, Guy Martin matched slices of cooked potatoes with slices of black truffles. The texture of slicing the excellent potatoes and truffles was much better than the pureed version. The smell of the black truffles hits your nose just before you bite down upon them, the nuttiness of the truffle and the yielding potato underneath providing texture and a starchy base at the same time. Extremely good.

Black truffle, potato in marmalade, top quality salt – Alain Ducasse.

You say boring, I would agree (at least from the description). Would you order it off the a la' carte menu for 100 Euros (approx 87 dollars). Are you kidding me? Eighty seven dollars! Well we had this and I can say, without reservation, it was worth every cent I paid for it. The potatoes were top quality and so were the truffles. Moreover, the potatoes were sliced a little thicker and sat in a creamy marmalade. The potatoes were completely covered with THIN slices of black truffles and you would not know what was underneath till you broke the surface. Topped with salt crystals. Ducasse's potatoes tasted yummy and the truffles were beyond comparison with other restaurants. The potato slices were thicker and the addition of the marmalade released flavor more effectively than Guy Martin's version at LGV. The truffles were paper thin and this contributed to the heightened aroma of the whole dish. The salt was a real kicker when you hit the crystals (just a few). Ducasse's made LGV's version seem a little dry in comparison. If you think I am nit picking – you bet I am. Did that make all the difference? Apart from dismissing the effect as purely a function of the quality of ingredients used, that is the only way I know of to explain why I would go back and spend 87 dollars on potatoes. In case you are wondering, it was part of the black truffle menu.

[Bux]

I enjoy your inquisitive approach to dining. I have a quick question. What exactly do you mean by "marmalade?" When the word appears alone, I assume a bitter orange preserve. Here, I'm inclined to think onion marmalade, but I really don't know what to think.

[Bux]

Leaving this thread, I decided to check Ducasse's web site for the answer to my previous question. First, it's interesting to note that I went to google and entered "ducasse" and  "paris" and the first link on the list was to eGullet.com.

The second or third link on the list led to the site with his Paris menu. I see that Black truffle, potato in marmalade, top quality salt is how the dish is listed in English and Truffe noire, pomme de terre en marmelade, fleur de sel is how they list it in French. I think "top quality salt" is a poor translation for fleur de sel (which goes by its French name here) just as "top quality goose liver" would be for foie gras . I am still curious about marmalade in French or English. This is Ducasse, not Gagnaire, I'm guessing it's not orange marmalade.

[Fat Guy]

Very resourceful, Bux, but did you overlook the page where the Maitre d' explains the dishes?  :wow:

http://www.alain-ducasse.com/adpa_explique_us.htm

Black truffle, potato in marmalade, top quality salt

A flat cake made with slivers of black truffle, seasoned with top quality salt, is placed on a preparation of Roseval potatoes thickened with black truffle puree. The dish is served warm in order to bring out its aromas.

Not entirely helpful, but you've got to give those Ducasse people credit for thinking of everything.

Bux, marmalade just happens to be a term Ducasse uses from time to time to characterize gooey things. He's got a fennel marmalade recipe in one of his books, there's a grape marmalade in another (I have to check my books, but I think it's from one of his disciples in the Atelier), and I know he has a three-tomato marmalade as well. I think the underlying marmalade concept may refer to using the whole of a fruit or vegetable (or in this case a truffle, I suppose).

[Steve Plotnicki]

Vivin-I too was on a truffle tear in France last week, but I split my time between the south of France and Paris. In fact I ate the truffle menu at Guy Savoy on Saturday night and the truffled potatoes were a side dish to the veal chop. We also remarked that while the truffles at Savoy were good, the ones we ate in Provence were far superior.

By far the single best potato and truffle dish I know of is the Truffe, Pommes et Mache Salad at Chez Dumonet. While it is not as refined at the one star level Dumonet as it is at Savoy, the execution is fantastic and the amount of truffles is copious. Far more than any of the top restaurants serve. I mean we are talking about large rounds of steamed potatoes, six or eight of them that are completeley covered with truffles. It is still the best place I know of to sample truffles.

[cabrales]

Vivin- In fact I ate the truffle menu at Guy Savoy on Saturday night and the truffled potatoes were a side dish to the veal chop.

Vivin -- On the truffled potatoes at Guy Savoy, they had an unusual, elastic-like texture that did not detract from smoothness. That texture reminded me a bit of aligot, but with much less elasticity than that typically associated with aligot.  While Steve P sampled even more generous amounts of truffles at other restaurants, I'd have to say that G Savoy was quite generous with respect to truffle shavings with our table. Also, the restaurant was generous with respect to gratuitously proffered second helpings of dishes, including the truffled artichoke soup!

The next day, I noticed a small stall featuring Provence's truffles at the International Salon of Agriculture at Porte Versailles, Paris (Hall 3).  If you are still in Paris, the Salon would be a lot of fun. Admission is 10 euros, and the event will be in place through March 3 (please verify if members are planning to attend).  The Provence truffle stall had truffles in goldfish bowls, for people to smell, and smaller glass jars with the Chinese imitations (whose smell reminded me of certain bathroom cleaning fluids), as well as Burgundy truffles. It was an interesting direct comparison of the aromas. The stall operator indicated that Chinese truffles are much more difficult to detect when marketed by unscrupulous persons, because they offer the Chinese truffles mixed in with Provence or Perigord black truffles and in a container that has been deliberately used to house the latter kinds of truffles.  

The Salon featured all sorts of animals, including 30-40+ types of beef and dairy cows. Charolais were emphasized, as the Salon is honoring Burgundy and its products this year (this may be the first year a region has been so highlighted). Charolais was available to be tasted at numerous stalls, some requiring payment. There were probably over a thousand stalls, including those featuring exhibition livestock, cheese and charcuterie vendors, smaller wine producers, and activities for children. Halls 1, 3 and 4 have the most items for sampling.  In some instances, the products were free; in other cases, a small charge was imposed.  I was at the Salon for five hours, and sampled, among other things:

(1) Different types of Societe's Roquefort, Hall 1.  The taste can be affected by which cave the cheese is aged in -- (a) Cave Baragnaudes (described in a brochure as having honey connotations and as being refined; it was my favorite of the sampled); (b) Cave des Templiers (much stronger and a little more coarse); and ( c ) Cave Abeille (more prevalent when Societe is served in France).  Papillon was also there, but in a smaller Hall and with only one tasting of its Roquefort.  At the Hotel Moderne at Saint-Affrique close to Roquefort-sur-Soulzon, sic, ten different Roqueforts can be sampled.  

(2) Brittany Pork, Hall 1. While Brittany is not famous for its pork, this stall featured a large roasting machine (taller than a person), and had different cuts of pork just waiting to be taken in. One has to view videos on farming methods in the region in order to proceed to the tasting, but the taste of the pork, dipped in mustard, was excellent.

(2) Oysters from Southern France and other regions, Hall 3.  There were a couple of oyster places sprinkled throughout the exhibition halls.  I also had raw whelk (called "clams" in French for some reason), which was my first sampling of them without preparation.

(3) Oeufs en meurette, Hall 3 (area operated by the restaurant Le Bourgogne). A specialty of Burgundy, this dish presented fully-cooked eggs in a red wine sauce (with a bit of bacon) and small onions.  I disliked this dish, even though I had been looking forward to sampling it in Burgundy.

(4) Kouign-Amann with Brittany's cider, Hall 4 (Brittany section).  This was my most memorable food item from the Salon.  Bux had recommended it to me in connection with my intention to visit Pierre Herme (see "Angelina -- Paris" thread under "France"), but I did not have time to sample there.  Imagine my glee when I saw it at the Salon! Butter and sugar flavors oozed through the warm cake, which was textured without pastry bottom and simply delicious and warming.  The Brittany cider sampled went well with the Kouign-Amann. Also available, but not sampled, were prune or plum cakes that seemed to be another regional specialty.  

(5) Cheese Raqlette (sic) with Charcuterie, Hall 4 (Savoie section). This was sampled at a restaurant's stall, but was sub-par.

(6) Violet and Verbena Ice Cream from Provence, Hall 3.  I also bought sugar-crystallized violets from a small vendor in Hall 3.

(7) Small armagnac and champagne producers, Hall 3.

(8) Milk bar, Hall 1. Different syrup flavors were added to machine-dispensed milk (honey and hazelnut syrup were separately sampled)

[vivin]

Bux,

Fat guy is right. The term marmalade was used here to describe a thick, gooey paste of potatoes - I remember it to be white (no strings of oranges involved or truffles for that matter). It bound the dish together well.

[Bux]

Fat-Guy:  I think the underlying marmalade concept may refer to using the whole of a fruit or vegetable (or in this case a truffle, I suppose).

vivin: Fat guy is right. The term marmalade was used here to describe a thick, gooey paste of potatoes - I remember it to be white (no strings of oranges involved or truffles for that matter).

I understand the concept of using marmalade to describe a concentrated product of some produce such as onion, totmato, eggplant, etc., but it was unclear what product that was from the menu and onion was the first guess on my part. I have never before seen the term to mean mashed potatoes. Certainly Ducasse is well within current usage of all culinary terms to use "maramlade" here. I'm sure his creative potato puree is worthy of artistic leeway in nomenclature. I'm not sure if you guys agree that it was potato marmelade, or not.

I'm still not convinced that "first quality salt" as translation of "fleur de sel" is the mark of communicative skills on the restaurant's part.

Cabrales, the message about the International Salon of Agriculture at Porte Versailles, Paris is terrific. I wonder if you, and others with similar message to post, wouldn't mind making new threads for them in the future. I fear they may be missed buried in another tread, as it might not occur to others to do a search precisely for the fair. Needless to say I miss not being in Paris at this time. It's been a long time since I've managed to attend that sort of fair in Paris. Although I was able to retime my last visit to include the Salon du Chocolate and Steve Klc's demonstration so I'm running on that memory and don't feel deprived.

[cabrales]

There might have been a coffee salon at the Carousel du Louvre in Paris this past weekend too. Did any members have the chance to attend?

(Bux, I know I should be starting new threads, but the coffee salon does not seem important enough and might have ended and/or be ending shortly. Also, the reason I don't always start threads is that new threads should presumably herald important topics.)

[Fat Guy]

If importance is the chief criterion for starting new threads, we're going to have to delete a lot of threads!

I think it's more a question of subject matter. There are no rules, and threads are naturally going to take twists and turns, but a newish subject probably deserves its own thread. Not every thread has to be long, either. Some don't require any replies -- they just act as announcements.

Were I a model citizen, I'd now start a new thread about when to start new threads.