Jeune Cuisine Francaise

[Bux]

The day was saved with three kinds of foie gras and magret from the hands of André Daguin.

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Was that in Auch?

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Yes. The end of an era, I suppose. It was his last year in the kitchen. By the next year, he was president or spokeman for some professional organization of chefs or restaurants. The Hotel de France is still in operation, but we no longer hear of Auch as a destination. Daguin gets credit for first serving breast of duck rare like a steak.

Roland Garreau is the current chef. I don't know his cooking, but it seems traditional and solidly based. A problem is that Auch itself is not much of a draw, or on the way to someplace. People travel so far in a day by car that traditional overnight stops need to be destinations to draw business.

[Carlsbad]

Reading this thread reminds me that I've been considering what I like in a restaurant, and how it differs from others I know. Obviously, we all have different priorities. I've noticed I can't eat like I once could, and I think my tastes have changed over the years. I like one thing if it's just for one night, but a variety if it's for an extended vacation. I wonder what you look for in a restaurant, for one night at home and on vacation.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

I wonder what you look for in a restaurant, for one night at home and on vacation.

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A thread on its own?

[Jonathan Day]

The wine list was huge and deep, featuring hundreds of Champagnes.  The menu, in contrast, was surprisingly short: five of us, in the course of a single meal, managed to taste almost every dish on it. 

There was a generosity about the entire meal and its presentation, and a sense of calm, pleasure and unforced experience that is rare to find nowadays in gastronomic restaurants.  Perhaps Lallement has achieved this by only cooking a few dishes. Given tough labour laws and high taxes, it's not surprising that the big brigades of old are hard to come by nowadays.

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Do you suppose you would have dined better had you had more choices? Or is is just as well that you had less array and a more controllable quality? Or to phrase it differently, were your expectations thwarted by the short menu?

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Margaret, my guess is that we won't be back to Reims for at least another year. And then it's likely that we would try Les Crayeres, the other celebrated restaurant in town. So in this case, the short menu didn't matter, and in fact it meant that my children had an easier time making their choices. On the other hand, if we lived nearer Reims, and if the dishes didn't change with the seasons and years, the short menu would become a disappointment.

The "what do you look for in a restaurant?" thread is a great idea; I will reflect on the question and try to post on it.

[MobyP]

I hadn't realised how accessible Reims was - certainly any trip from London to Paris could include a quick visit.

[Felice]

The current edition of le Nouvel Observateur has a new supplement written with the help of Omnivore and France bleu. It has a few different articles and touts France’s “jeune cuisine” and talks about the upcoming Omnivore Carnet de Route, due out this fall. If you read the first article mentioned in the first post of this thread, you won’t find very much new, but I thought I would post it as a follow up.

In addition it has a section titled “les tables de votre region”. My print copy only has Paris, however the online version has other regions as well. In addition there seem to be more chef profiles in the online version (my print copy has Inaki Aizpitarte, while the online version also has Jean-Luc Rabanel, David Zuddas and others.

CLICK HERE for the main article and then scroll down for the other pieces.

[Dave Hatfield]

I tried to find a web site for "Omnivore". Can anyone provide a link?

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There is a link but it's not very helpful as to content. No 19 just arrived in my boite aux lettres which I'll be noting end of the week. And as someone above has said, these guys see themselves as food writers not critics, they come from journalistic backgrounds/education.

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John, if I've done it right your link does lead to the list of 150 by going:

here

Haven't had time to study it or the publication yet, but will.

The whole discussion is fascinating. I may chime in if I find something worthwhile to say. In the meantime I'll leave it to the passionate hippies emeritus