I think it's genius what Alain Passard does. Not necessarily because he was the first (or one of the first) to explore salad leaves and root vegetables while other high end chefs were still heavily relying on animal products.Or that since many years his restaurants L'Arpège (84 rue de Varenne, 75007,Paris; tel. 01 47 05 09 06 ) has 3 Michelin stars and Passard's apprentices like Pascal Barbot have their 3 stars of their own.
Peas in the pod
St John (26 St John street,EC1M 4AY,London; tel. 020 7251 08048 ) got famous for it's "nose to tail eating" , returning to old British cuisine where all the parts of an animal are consumed. It has great reviews and was even awarded one Michelin star- my lunch there was very anticipated.
Luxeat blog is not dead, i've just been too busy ! To compensate my long absence from the blogosphere, i am sharing with you my favorite Parisian address of the moment.
According to The World's 50 Best Restaurants list,Noma is the best restaurant in the world in 2010. I love Noma and I am glad i went there last year as now it will be impossible to get a reservation!
Having said that i don't understand what Le Chateaubriand is doing on the list as number 11(you can see the whole list here). Le Chateaubriand has a higher position than L'Astrance.. )
Meanwhile, such extraordinary restaurants like L'Osier in Tokyo are not even in top 100.. And how Zuma London( a trendy yet banal Japanese chain who got the 66th place) is more "worth" to be on the list than Sushi Mizutani or Sushi Kanesaka in Tokyo is beyond my understanding...
One word could describe Comerç 24 (C/ Comerç, 2408003 Barcelona, Spain 933 192 102) - "overhyped".The dishes sounded better on the menu ("pizza-sashimi") than they were in reality and even if i really enjoyed some dishes like tuna tartare,some were disappointing. I don't say that the dinner at Comerç 24 was bad but it didn't live to it's avant-garde image neither.
P.S. As in Inopia and Cal Pep most of the clients that night were foreigners. It didn't bother me at all( again, i was a foreigner!), but makes me wonder why all these places are not so popular among the local people?
Inopia (C/ Tamarit, 104, 08015 Barcelona, Spain ,93 424 52 31)is run by Alberto Adria, the younger brother of Ferran Adria(no need for introductions).It's a lively, funky place with loud music (one of the songs played was Sade's "Smooth Operator" )and great energy. The extensive menu includes regional classics but also foreign products and dishes, such as "Wagyu" beef or a mini Inopia hamburger.
From all the tapas restaurants in Barcelona I've been (posts to come), Cal Pep (Plaça de les Olles 8 Barcelona, Spain,34-93-310-7961) is the most seafood oriented. Clams, shrimps,cuttlefish, tuna is masterfully prepared according to the Catalonian tradition. Like most of the good tapas places, Cal Pep is crowded during the lunch, but if you get a place you won't regret.Even if it was cloudy outside, i felt sunshine in each of the Cal Pep tapas.
What surprised me most though how touristy all these places in Barcelona are.Well, i was a tourist too, but so as maybe 80% of the clients at Cal Pep or Inopia. I guess if you are searching for "gems" where only locals go,you won't find them in Barcelona. After all, the food was very good, so who cares!
Tapas,paella on the port,jamon Iberico,more tapas... Volcano eruption..Who could have thought?
( Cal Pep,Inopia, Quimet i Quimet,Comerç 24 coming soon)
After eating in all these "alpha" sushi places in Tokyo the standards for fish and rice get pretty high.I don't want to sound snobbish- the first time i went to Japan i was so ignorant , i thought that sushis are the most basic meal to prepare, something everyone could do. When i realized that sushi making is a real know-how and it is rice with fish, not opposite, i had a whole new picture in my plate.
Anyway, Kyoto is far away from the sea and the region is not famous for sushi. Remember,the Edo-mae, sushi as the whole world knows, was born in Tokyo. Sushi Matsumoto (570-123, Gionmachi,Minamigawa,Kyoto) is the only sushi restaurant in Kyoto that has received two Michelin stars.
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