Brasserie Roux

[John Whiting]

At St. James, London’s new Sofitel hotel, Albert Roux has lent his name to their “brasserie”. A typical plush hotel dining room, it bears about as much resemblance to an authentic Paris brasserie as one of Watteau’s shepherdesses to a genuine peasant. But the atmosphere is congenial, the tables generously spaced out and the cocktail pianist out in the lobby is scarcely audible.

The brasserie-type dishes on the menu are listed in English, so it took an attentive reading to determine what they might be. Fish soup was straighforward enough and proved to be a perfectly respectable version with an uncompromisingly fishy flavor; but instead of a hot spicy rouille, it came with an aîoli in which the garlic had been carefully minimized. The end result lacked the kick of chili that gives a soupe de poisson its proper authority. (In all fairness, this often happens in Paris.)

For a main course I chose a pig’s trotter, which arrived accompanied by good shoestring potatoes, plain French beans and a small pitcher of sauce bearnaise which was rather bland and slightly cooler than mouth temperature. The trotter was heavily breaded and deep fried, but cooked for such a short time that the small amount of meat could hardly be cut from the bone, let alone the cartilege holding it together. Knife and fork being useless, I tore it apart with my bare hands and chewed the bones one by one; but with so little cooking they yielded very little flavor and were hardly worth the effort. When a waitress came by and asked whether things were to our satisfaction, I felt compelled to tell her in the nicest possible way that the meat was drastically undercooked. She immediately offered me another course to replace it but I declined, saying that it wasn’t worth the trouble. No unpleasant words were spoken on either side. Taking note of my grubby fingers, a waiter brought me a finger bowl, ice-cold to the touch. It’s a small matter, but a finger bowl should be somewhere close to body temperature – a splash from the hot tap would have corrected it.

For desert I requested a simple cassis sorbet. It was creamy and bland, lacking the mouth-cleansing sharp edge that I so look forward to at l’Ecurie, my favorite Paris hole-in-the-wall.

Final verdict: A harmless, inoffensive place, not outrageously expensive (my share of the bill, including coffee and a third of the bottle of wine came to thirty pounds before my main course at £8.50 was deducted). But it’s a brasserie in name only, emasculated for the anonymous international market. I was reminded of the title which Samuel Hoffenstein once gave to a collection of his poetry: “Poems of Passion, Carefully Restrained so as to Offend Nobody”.

Note: The most pleasant aspect of the evening was a long and entertaining conversation with Mr. & Mrs. Robert Buxbaum, but I mustn’t mention this fact, in case anyone might feel excluded.

Brasserie Roux, St. James [sofitel], 8 Pall Mall, London SW1Y 5NG, Tel 020 7968 2900

[cabrales]

I'd appreciate available input on the Roux brasserie from other members who have visited.

[Bux]

John's description is fairly accurate. I don't know how much more than his name, Albert Roux lends to the restaurant--I assume the menu and recipes are his--but it's certainly nothing for anyone to be ashamed of. "Brasserie" is appropriated more than it is borrowed. The high celings are the only thing that might be reminiscent of a brasserie, but what's in a restaurant name these days. It's a rather informal place. I don't think one needs either a tie or jacket. In terms of what makes for Michelin stars, I don't know how far out of my way I'd go to eat here, but it's far better than one might expect in a hotel. Then again, I don't know London. Service was good in spite of the fact that the hotel was only open for about a month and presumably the restaurant for no longer. My guess is that service would get even better as time went on.

I am not a big pig's feet on the bone sort of diner, but my wife concurred that the trotters served to John seemed to required far more effort than should be necessary to get to the meat. I should probably add that I didn't know there was any meat on a pig's foot. For all of that, and with the very gentle way in which John expressed his dissatisfaction with the dish, the fact that the dish was taken off our bill added to the feeling that the place was a class act. In general I was quite impresed with the hotel and the bar. I usually think of Sofitels as first class business hotels, but the St. James, in a recently converted classical old bank building, seemed very much a luxury boutique hotel belying its hidden conference rooms and amenities. If Brasserie Roux is not a destination restaurant, it certainly enhances the hotel.

[John Whiting]

Pig's trotters, says Theodora Fitzgibbon, are cooked in water for several hours; they may then be dipped in egg and breadcrumbs and fried in bacon fat. Mine seemed to have avoided the first stage entirely. True, there is very little meat on them, but there is a gelatinous unctiousness in the cartilage which, when subdued by long cooking, sticks to your ribs -- and also to the beans in a properly amalgamated cassoulet. As a child I loved that archetypal German snack, pickled pigs feet, in which chewy hunks of bone and cartilage were fished out of vinegar and sucked in mouth-puckering ecstasy.

[Tonyfinch]

The gourmet version of pig's trotters as "invented" by Pierre Koffman has the trotters boned before being stuffed with foie,sweetbreads and whatever and then glazed to a mahogany brown.I've also encountered this dish at L'Oranger(where Koffman was acknowledged), The Crescent and Maison Novelli.

[John Whiting]

Presumably they are boiled before being boned; otherwise one is losing a major component of the flavor, as well as making one's task virtually impossible.

[Jon Tseng]

oak room has (had?) trotters too, also attributed

I believe the PK version bones them out first, then braises in red wine/stock for a few hours, then cool, stuffed and poached to order

a modern classic - much imitated but seldom bettered. The black cod of the eighties, perhaps?

cheerio

j

[Tonyfinch]

You're right, Jon. The trotters are boned first then braised in wine,port and veal stock for three hours.They are then stuffed with sweetbreads and chicken breasts pureed with egg white and cream. They're chilled then steamed in foil until heated through.The reserved stock is reduced,enriched with butter then poured over the trotters.

The recipe and photos of PK preparing the dish are in his book La Tante Claire-a highly readable and personable account of his culinary life.

[John Whiting]

I think that boning the pigs foot before braising it is a triumph of presentation over flavor. So much of the richness is in the bone and in the cartilege which couldn't possible be removed in its entirety when the foot is raw -- much of it is connective gristle between the individual bones of the foot. The extra ingredients would serve the purpose of replacing some of the richness of flavor which has been discarded.

[tony h]

killing time last night before meeting up with friends I popped into the brassierie for pre-theatre like meal. Starter of foie gras was truly offensive. It had a bitter, musty aftertaste unlike any FG i've ever had. Is this what "off" fg taste's like? The accompanying bread was virtually impossible to eat - the crust was too hard/stale for my poor teeth.

I waited for about an hour before mains arrives - rump of lamb. It took me over 5 min to attract the waiters attention to tell them I was in a bit of a hurry - I had to wolf it down when it arrived. Tasted Ok but a bit on the cold side.

When darting out (late) I spotted Albert Roux himself occupying several chairs in a corner. If I hadn't been in such a hurry I'd have had a go.

Poor show.

[Jon Tseng]

>I spotted Albert Roux himself occupying several chairs in a corner.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

has the old boy put on that much weight since retiring?j

[Bux]

I've never seen the meat peeled off the bone in one piece in such a way as to be able to stuff it with forcemeat. Whenever I've enjoyed pit's trotters, the preparation has always involved scraping the meat off the bone. the resultant preparation may invovle adding a considerable portion of force meat or using just the meatier parts of the foot, or it may be a dish in which, although chopped--finely or not--one is very much aware that there is more cartilage than meat on the hoof. I recall a delicious tarte of sorts at the Aigle Noir in Fontainebleau. A very tasty, but crunchy layer of pig's feet sat on a thin disk of pastry. It was quite delicious and quite rich. I think I was still digesting it some 36 hours later when I sat down to a multistarred diner in Burgundy with little appetite to eat again so soon.

[John Whiting]

Bux, what you say makes perfect sense to me. I've never tried to stuff a pig's trotter, but I've handled them a lot for cassoulets, both before and after cooking. I really think I prefer them as a texture and flavor conditioner for other dishes rather than as the primary ingredient -- except for the little pickled chunks I remember from childhood, but that's another story.

[Jon Tseng]

oh bux, standard operating procedure is to slit the underside open like jacket, pull out the bone, stuff the baby out then sew up or wrap in foil

j

[Bux]

John, I can't recall using a fresh pig's foot for cooking. I know we've used calves' feet and ham knuckle and I have scraped some meat off the ham knuckle to add to split pea soup for instance.

Jon, I'll have to look out for stuffed trotters. As Pierre Koffman is getting credit for inventing this dish, am I as likely to find stuffed trotters in France as well as in the UK? I am more likely to find myself in the former country, although I must say I found the UK quite hospitable in my brief stay.

[tony h]

>I spotted Albert Roux himself occupying several chairs in a corner.

                                              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

has the old boy put on that much weight since retiring?j

he's virtually spherical with bumps for his head, arms & legs

[Andy Lynes]

You may be interested to know that whilst slaving away during my stage at the Four Seasons in London, chef Richard Guest told me that Gordon Ramsay was able to bone out a pigs trotter in 35 seconds and that he himself was no slouch at around 60 seconds.

Ramsay employed his teeth at some point in the operation to speed things up. Dont ask me why he used his teeth, but he did apparently. This was whilst at Harveys working for Marco BTW.

(I've got a million of 'em, just don't get me started).

[John Whiting]

John, I can't recall using a fresh pig's foot for cooking.

They're SOP for cassoulet, put in to slowly stew along with the stock, the beans, or one of the meat stews, depending on which method you follow. Apart from enriching the flavor, they give a cassoulet its gelatinous cohesiveness. In some recipes you pull the meat off the bones and add it in the final assembly, in others you discard the foot after the "glue" has cooked out of it. Me, I never throw anything away.