Alain Ducasse is French haute cuisine, French haute cuisine is Alain Ducasse. Well, maybe not, but without doubt, he is one of the famous French chef in the world and his name has become a synonym of the French gastronomy.It was my third time at Alain Ducasse's Parisian location and like previous two times, the food was far away from "wow" level, but good enough to come back again and again.
Dining in Aida was like travelling to Japan. The sober and discrete exterior and interior, warm but reserved (in a good way) service and delicious cooking with ingredients of the highest quality. It is also the only Japanese (teppanyaki) restaurant in Paris to have a Michelin star which makes reserving a table there quite difficult. (Well, as I've mentioned before, because of my constant travelling i rarely book restaurants even one week in advance). So this time i called at 8 pm and to my surprise, they had a two places at the counter. There was a small problem though. It was the first working day after Easter holidays and the Aida's fish supplier was closed, so the restaurant had a limited amount of fish. But i didn't worry for that too much as what i wanted to try there was the chateaubriand teppanyaki for which Aida is famous for.
The most luxurious bistro? I know, it is crazy to call this two Michelin stars restaurant located in the sumptuous hotel particulier in the center of Paris, " a bistro". But since the post by Food Snob, i couldn't but be more and more convinced that many creations of Jean-Pierre Vigato is the haute cuisine version of Parisian bistro classics.And what can be better than the high end interpretation of comfort food?
Some pictures of my last week's dinner...
Continue reading "Apicius- the most luxurious bistro in Paris ?" »
This is not an "Opera" cake - it is an amuse bouche of foie gras, eel and soy sauce jelly at Benkay.A nice dedication to French and Japanese cuisines. Speaking of Japanese ingredients and toro in particular (see my previous post), Benkay located in Novotel hotel in the 15th arrondissement in Paris has some of the finest fatty tuna i have ever tasted in Paris. It is buttery and melting in you mouth, but also firm and fresh.
Update 19/05/09. The menu has been totally changed in Ozu and now they serve "small plates". So when you order shrimp tempura , you have two small and quite pathetic shrimps , when you order fish, the size of the portion is maybe three bites. The quality of the products was very disappointing as well. (for example, old edamame) I don't understand why they changed the menu, as before it was not perfect, but at least enjoyable. Now, there is no creativity, no quality, nothing.Just a sad place with mediocre food.
Different than in London, New York or other world economic capitals, you will not find many "fashion/fusion" Japanese restaurants in Paris. Let's take Manhattan , for example. You have three Nobus,two Megus,Morimoto,Koi and many other places where you can eat fresh and as the same time creative Japanese food, have a martini or two and just enjoy the ambiance. While Paris has none. I remember when Nobu opened close to Champs Elysees 5 or 6 years ago(it was long time ago, so i can't tell when exactly), it was not as popular as Nobus in London, New York or even Milan. In fact it closed pretty fast and my guess is that the Parisians simply didn't "adopt" it.
The most famous pastry chef in the world did it again. This time Pierre Herme married potatoes with lemon confit,saffron jelly, sweetcorns and pieces of potatoes cooked with saffron juice for one of his "émotion extravagante".(available since last December). I liked the lemony taste with saffron twist, but cubes of al dente potatoes seemed weird to me. The lemon and saffron taste was so stong that the boiled potatoes didn't give anything to the dessert. Maybe just a feeling that you are eating a dessert with potatoes!
Konnichiwa! I have been eating a lot in rue Saint Anne and its surroundings lately. Lunches, dinners, but mainly lunches as my Japanese courses are not far away.In fact, the main reason why i started learning Japanese is the Japanese food and in the little Japan of Paris you can find anything- teppanyaki,sukiyaki,tempura, sushi, yakitori,tonkatsu etc, etc.
Continue reading "The treasures and pleasures of rue Saint-Anne" »
Despite of the ancienty of the dining room -18th century ballroom with cold marble floors and walls, heavy curtains and crystal chandeliers, Jean - François Piège, the chef of Les Ambassadeurs,is the 21st century man.
Jean - François Piège's menu that night didn't contain any sashimis or other exotic dishes interpretations nowadays so popular among the chefs "étoilés" (and not really "étoilés" ).In fact it seemed to me that Piège cooking is quite "bourgeois",let's call it " bourgeois revisited" . How can you call "Noix de Saint-Jacques en casse croûte potiron,tartufi di Alba" or "Vollaile de Bresse comme une poule a riz,tartufi di Alba" otherwise? The dishes were hearty but so fine that next day I was still thinking of the beautiful, almost poetic marriage of tastes. (Unfortunately the pictures i took were not as good as the food.You can see some beautiful pictures at "A LIfe Worth Eating" blog).
I've been eating out in Le Duc a lot lately and wanted to praise one dish especially. The lobster sauted with orange, served with fried onions is a pure perfection. The bitterness of fried onions and the sourness of orange sauce give the lobster a whole new dimension...
For those who love sushis, Paris is not the best place to be. Its not that there are no Japanese restaurants - there are, but most of them are so way behind their counterparts in NY or London that you can't but notice the inferior quality of fish or the smaller fish and menu choices....
So i was quite excited to go Hanawa (26 rue Bayard, 75008, tel.: 01 56 62 70 71 ) ,the new restaurant by Kinugawa owners , steps away from avenue Montaigne.
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