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September 30, 2007
Relais Gourmand Olivier Roellinger –Lunch June 7th, 2007 (A Review by Atahan Tuzel, a friend of Gastroville)
I knew about a Roellinger dish where he used pineapple and grapefruit for a turbot. While not having tasted it I had quite a strong mental reservation against this association.
When I saw what I assumed to be a variation on this dish on the menu I was intrigued. Roellinger was insisting on the theme with an obvious show of confidence but had toned down, I thought, the sweetness by using kumquat this time. Bitter aspect of this fruit being much more complex than grapefruits & its aromas less overbearing than the tropical pineapple, I was rather attracted.
On the other hand, the season and the place had dictated for us a couple of dishes we absolutely wanted to try. Young European spider crabs (moussettes), local lobster and pré-salé lamb fed at the neighboring salt marshes must be at or near their peak flavor in this beautiful part of Brittany in June.
There was no reasonable way to add a heavy turbot entree to that list with all the good intentions in the world. So we had to forget about it. Not to worry too much because this sweet and bitter fish preparation might have been a Roellinger favorite but it was too risky a proposal anyhow.
But things have changed when we learned that Olivier Roellinger was not serving pré-salé lamb. Not because this was not the height of season but they had trouble assuring a steady, high quality supply. Instead they were proposing Aubrac lamb. There is of course nothing wrong with the fine Aubrac lamb but it didn’t take us long to decide on Turbot instead.
But first a few words on the ambiance:
This is a place where an edge a little rough or an articulation a little clunky or a flow a little bit too much in staccato are not disturbing because they are permeated with a certain justified pride and joyful sincerity.
You may be somewhat startled but don’t really mind much to see a kitchen staff nonchalantly kicking something out of his way while traversing the picturesque garden with a basket of seafood in his hands, in full view of the patrons.
Despite the initial feeling of a well established, refined but effortlessly run seaside cottage, there is a strictly defined and at times too visible hierarchy and protocol in the dining room. A glimpse: My wine glass has been empty for about minute. The Chief of Rank on our side of the restaurant notices it and, while we are looking away, touches so slightly the napkin that covers the wine chiller on the service table behind us, before walking away towards the next table. Upon this signal a Commis Waiter promptly traverses our dining room, almost in diagonal, and disappears into the adjacent one. Some 30 seconds after the magic napkin touch, the Sommelier (not his Second who has been serving us wine) appears pouring our carafe. Half way into it, he stops to ask ”but maybe we wanted to keep some more for the turbot” with such polished civility that I wholeheartedly smile and say ”but of course!”
Far from being disturbed by such glitches, you only think you are well taken care of when someone is concerned that you may feel warm and proposes and proceeds, not without some difficulty, to open a floor to ceiling window for you.
The attendant to the cheese trolley displays the same enthusiasm and respect in answering fairly technical questions about her cheeses at one table as when replying to uninitiated, even out of place questions which can easily earn one the disdain of the staff at other highly starred establishments. Both tables are happy and, more importantly, both tables know the other has been treated extremely well.
Amuses-Bouche:
The meal starts rather low-key with a couple of unpromising amuses-bouche (garlic tortellini, lightly smoked mackerel, and some tomato-turnip chutney). This is followed by a trio of much more interesting and mostly refined seaside offering. If one makes abstraction of the little morsel of bar completely overwhelmed by black sesame and pineapple (which rings all sorts of unpleasant alarm bells about the turbot to come), the bigorneaux in a very loose jelly of parsley-jus and little shrimps with Espelette peppers, fennels and mint are tantalizing. Homemade seaweed bread is equally delicious with Bordier butter.
Spider Crab & Avocado:
Moussettes are so fresh and tasty their minimal treatment is absolutely praiseworthy. The vinaigrette sauce thickened by crab roe is not all that smooth in texture or complicated in preparation but it is not artificially elegant either. It is very seducing with its immediacy, sincerity and the humble role it plays in elevating and underlying the delicacy of the moussettes. Remember “little rough but permeated with pride and joy”? This sauce is like the embodiment of the atmosphere around us.
The cumin scented avocado puree also works quite well with the rest. The only distraction is the tomato chutney with its oniony taste. Of course it is an obvious visual link to the roe placed under the miniscule watercress leaves on top of the moussette cylinders, but otherwise dissonant with respect to the dish.
Lobster:
The lobster comes in two services. First the tail, sitting atop a lightly emulsified cocoa-Xeres sauce brought together with natural sweet juices of the lobster, is served with a julienne of vegetables, a spring onion and a delicious white asparagus.
The sauce is simply perfect and harmonious. The cocoa is concealed at first. Its taste is distant in the sauce, its aroma seas away. Obviously not overpowering, it forces one to pay closer attention, to concentrate more, to listen more carefully. Being the paranoiac that I am, I even doubt if I really taste it or if I just imagine it. So I take just a tiny touch of cocoa powder from the border of the plate with the tip of my fork, taste, wait 10 seconds or so, clear my palate with a small amount of water and taste the sauce again. There! I never dare to relinquish it after that. It is sublime. So much so that a small bowl of cloves that was sitting at more than an arms length on the table is an annoyance. I push it farther to the edge.
The beguiling aromas of an extraordinary Hermitage Blanc 1999 from JL Chave, selected from a wine list that is of an improbable generosity for an establishment of this stature, makes it impossible not to break the smooth movement of the glass towards your lips and freeze a while before each sip. It is a wonderful match with this lobster dish.
It will not work as splendidly with the turbot later. But since this exceptional wine has an exuberant life of its own, we will try to introduce some distance between the two so that we can keep savoring it though not in symbiosis with the turbot.
I find the tail just so slightly cottony. Not in a way that would result from an extended period of stress or due to lesser quality lobster but rather because of being a tad overcooked.
I recognize I was being too picky but probably because the sauce was so refined and I am forever biased towards minimal heat for a lobster served with a delicate sauce, since I learned what a treat that can turn into in the right hands at the delightful Pont de Brent of Gerard Rabaey.
The definitely no fuss Maitre d’Hotel, who was one of the most pleasantly and elegantly direct ones I have ever met, listens with genuine concern to my regret that we didn’t go for a larger lobster than this one, little under 700 gr. so as to allow extra tolerance for inaccuracies in cooking time. He rightfully suggests that it should be up to the kitchen to worry about getting it right and that he would convey the message.
Just as soon as he leaves the second lobster service arrives. The grilled head covered with lobster roe and double cream was served with a wedge of lime, and, the claws presented in a light but somewhat spiced up armoricain sauce in a ramequin with a single young Malouine potato.
(Potatoes: another mystery of life and weakness of many! Within a period of 10 days we have tasted spring’s wonderful potatoes from St Malo County, Channel Island of Guernesey, and Southwestern island of Noirmoutier from the kitchens of three of the most respectable chefs of France. I find there is no comparison to the ones Bernard Pacaud prepares in cooking juices of lobster. The result almost outshines the lobster they accompany as was the case the evening of June 16, 2007 where the Spring Menu featured a significant milestone for l’Ambroisie: The name of Mathieu Pacaud printed, for the first time, next to his father’s.
I can’t help mentioning what an evening that was! Our senses were wide open all along. Still, it was only at the end that it hit me how what we have been through was so deeply exceptional, even when judged by the standards of this unique House. Our dinner at L’Ambroisie that evening was a stupendous river. We have been moved from summit to summit at each dish, but only at the end, while enjoying my delicious eau-de-vie de prune, that I realized how the simple, light and airy appetizer we were offered to start our dinner, the pea velouté specially made for us with mustard crème fraîche on top and a tiny young flower tip of thyme was gingerly acting as the unassuming but precious source of that awesome river. How considerate of them, how grateful I am.)
Enough with the distraction I guess, so back to the dish:
What a deception. The head had suffered the heat so much that the sauce that covered it was almost burnt at spots and the roe in it hopelessly shriveled and stiffened. It was, and still is, unimaginable for me that Olivier Roellinger or anyone familiar with his cuisine saw and let these plates leave his kitchen. (So much for all my anticipations heightened by a pair of female lobsters grilled to effortless perfection by wood-fire the night before at le Coquillage, the marine bistro of the Maisons de Bricourt at le Chateau Richeux)
Turbot:
Ode to Turbot. This dish goes beyond what we would often call “respect for the ingredients”. The turbot is not treated as a mere main ingredient. It is rather worshiped. Presented with burnt offerings. It is almost alive (a strategically placed crisp green leaf makes it seem more so), and mighty and wild and bewildering.
It grows in your plate. It grows, for days and weeks, in your imagination, challenging your mind. The Chef is not reining over this creation. He is rather riding a deep undercurrent of the ocean along with it. Never have I tasted a dish that captured the turbot’s primal nature so majestically.
It was cooked by a heat source from top only. This cooking approach possibly yields even more satisfactory results with a larger turbot. But it is unconceivable that it would work with much smaller ones, not to mention with a turbotin.
This method and excellent precision applied to it gave the flesh layer upon layer of gradual of textures. That, in addition to leading to a luscious tasting experience, naturally contributes to the overall feeling that an extraordinary phenomenon is taking place.
Seeds of sesame, flax, and poppy create a rough, dark gray crust on top of this good size filet and counter-filet cut into the bone, and, nearly call out the urge to forget all and to bite into it in a manner humans are not known to do. Provocative. Endangering.
Even the shades of pale green, bright orange and yellow on the plate accentuates the emulation of a life altering adventure with a fervent strength and a secret language.
As anyone who has ever experienced a true encounter with Sea would believe; Anyone who has ever come close to her in a manner impossible to fathom by staying at her fringes would know (No matter where and how those fringes are “enjoyed”: be it at the careless idyllic beaches of her South or by observing the powerful, deafening waves crushing upon the rugged coastline of her Brittany during a winter storm, they are no match to her true self); She can at times be anything one could have never seen and would never forget.
And yes there was curcuma and kumquat confit and even pineapple! And lemon syrup and young zucchini and soybean sprouts. And the sauce was too sour and it was too sweet and it was in a way I would have never approved of before. And this and that and so what is it that matters? This is a dish I wish I could go back to, over and over and over.
Cheese:
A perfect Rocamadour, some good Epoisses and St Nectaire Fermier, along with average Brin d’Amour and Stilton made up the cheese plate. Each cheese was paired with a balancing agent: two different kinds of chutneys, a fig spread, “vinaigre celtique” (an apple based spiced and concentrated vinegar), Breton crème-double. Pleasant.
Desert:
“After the rain: Rhubarb and Gooseberries” is a loose translation for this poetically named cheerful desert that let the natural acidity and simple flavor of both fruits burst with an unfeigned audacity that could only be traced to one’s childhood. Reinforcing that tender nostalgia was the Maingau: an all white, nicely chilled, thick but slightly foamy preparation based on sweet cream and fromage blanc with origins deep in local traditions.
A spiced, soft pâte de fruit of rhubarb, a couple of wafer tin dried rhubarb sandwiches with rhubarb confit holding a single berry inside, and a couple of citronella leaves were the only “adult” touches allowed.
At the end:
At the end of a meal you may be offered a cool cream touched by avocado and served with lime along with a glass of grog. The warm grog is a mix of apple cider, rum, spices and exotic fruits. My recommendation would be to not touch it much unless you are so disappointed with the whole experience that you need to burry it all at once, thanks to a spice overload.
Following this, you may be tempted to a selection of coffees. Even if it is Ethiopian and its description seems to have interesting ties with the flavors you have been through during your lunch, you might be apprehensive of the sheer view of a huge French coffee press on your table (“cafetière à piston“ for a better emphasis) alongside an esthetically pleasing presentation of not so interesting mignardises consisting of guimauves, raspberry, citron and chocolate/caramel cubes.
This ending that left us in an uncomfortable state of suspension was not befitting the stirring journey we have had despite an unfortunate accident on the way.
September 17, 2007
Arnolfo – a snapshot of the state of Tuscan dining?
I have over the years been rather dismissive of the gastronomic restaurants of inland Tuscany. I have been to almost every Michelin starred restaurant in that area and I cannot say I have had a particularly interesting meal anywhere. Meals have been tainted by average ingredients prepared with an execution level that leaves a lot left to wish for. The wine lists of these restaurants are almost always a treat to browse with their vast selections of wines often priced just above retail prices or below for older vintages stored by each respective restaurant.
When commenting on the state of affairs in Tuscany I have often been told with withhold any final judgment before visiting Arnolfo, the reputed 2-star Michelin in Colle di val d’Elsa, a town famous for glassworks.
The exterior of Arnolfo on a narrow street in the old town belies its fantastic exposition on the other side of a picturesque Tuscan landscape. Well, that is to say you benefits from that if seated in the rooms facing the windows. For anyone going to Arnolfo it is good advice to avoid the small square room with no windows containing four tables, each seating two people, set up in such a way that guests are all starring at each other.
The menu is not huge, which is a good thing if quality is high. The two set-menus offered only choices from the a la carte menu and it seemed wiser to for each of the two of us to order one antipasti, one pasta dish, one meat course and a dessert, which meant that we would sample almost half of what was being offered.
The taste of the food throughout the meal was good in that there were no off flavours. On the other hand, the food does not taste Tuscan. It tastes "international" and as such it is a bit boring. It is the typical restaurant that wants to impress with presentations on multiple plates. The gazpacho served as a starter was ok as a gazpacho but the oyster with basil sorbet served á part was there it seemed only to make the dish more complex without a reason. However, the gazpacho was probably the best dish of the meal.
The ravioli with rabbit were good but the sauce lacked dimensions. It was served with a side dish of cubes of cold jelly of white beans and cold rabbit meat. I find it hard to see any justification of cold jelly of beans with its resulting rubbery and starchy texture. Why?
The lamb main course was prepared with average quality lamb that on top of it all was severely undercooked. I complained about the lamb and explained why I felt it was below par quality. The response was that it was as good as it gets in Italy and that you cannot find lamb in Italy on par with the best French lamb. Indeed true, I have never had great Italian lamb in an Italian restaurant. The guinea fowl breast filled with prunes and served with plums tasted of prunes and nothing else. It actually had such a cloying sweetness to it that made me wonder if it had not been more suitable as a dessert.
The wine list is fantastic and packed with reasonably priced great wines. We opted for a 1990 Barbaresco Giacosa S. Stefano Riserva that was magnificent and made the meal quite enjoyable despite food much too average for the price charged.
It seems that the state of gastronomic dining in inland Tuscany continues to be a sad story.
Gastroville rating of the food: 12/20.
Arnolfo also has a couple of hotel rooms. They are clean nice but the airconditioning was not really working on our visit. The breakfast is fantastic.
/Mikael J.
A trip to Spain
In late spring I partly traveled in Vedat’s footsteps in Spain having meals at El Poblet, Can Roca, l’Esguard, Abac and Joan Gatell. I will already say that El Poblet was the restaurant that made the trip well worth.
Joan Gatell
It is a treat to eat on the second floor terrace of Joan Gatell on a sunny day overlooking the harbour in Cambrils. As expected, Joan Gatell provided some excellent dishes prepared with fantastic seafood such as the salt baked red gambas.
A fantastic spiny lobster and some other dishes including sea dates made up an excellent meal. The Catalan cream on the other hand was more ordinary in its execution.
Can Roca
Vedat wrote a negative report from his meal at Can Roca a couple of months ago. I can only agree with him. My meal at Can Roca, featuring many of the courses that Vedat had, was simply not an acceptable performance of such a highly regarded restaurant. I would even say that very little showed real culinary interest. Flavors were throughout the meal not very good expressions of the used raw material and many dishes had flavour profiles that came across as artificial or “industrial”. A smoked asparagus soufflé had asparagus flavors masked by a fire smoke-like taste that lacked the complex flavors of properly done smoking when the complex smoky flavors enhances the produce rather than kills it. The lingering flavor of fire smoke went on for much too long giving the impression of having licked an ashtray. I failed to see any culinary point with the mussels prepared on the Riesling theme. Except for maybe the final dessert, there was not even one single dish that offered interest beyond the first bit and not one single item served is something that I would desire to eat again.
Indeed this is often the problem with many of the Spanish “modernistas”. Beyond a first bite, the food is rarely particularly appealing and personally I rarely want to eat something more than one time. It comes down to different reasons such as the rare use of truly exceptional ingredients, flavors come across as muted or artificial and very often there is a lingering after taste that effectively kills the next dish or in some of the most worse cases the next couple of dishes. There is rarely any clarity or definition in the tastes at these places. On top of this, the multi-course menus offers many dishes based on inexpensive and pedestrian ingredients of not particularly good quality morphed beyond recognition and beyond culinary interest. The portion sizes of more noble produce are often too tiny to offer any gustatory highlights. At Can Roca, as meat course a rack of kid was served but only two ribs!! It was okay I suppose since the kid was of good rather than exceptional quality but was ruined by long sous vide cooking.
Can Roca is often cited as an example of an inexpensive 2-star Michelin restaurant and while it is true that prices are low in absolute terms, people thinking it offers more value for money than others will be fooled. Food costs – in relative terms - are likely on par with other restaurants. You get what you pay for. For food that is. With respect to wines, Can Roca remains one of the great bargains.
The bread at Can Roca does not even get my vote as being mediocre.
I would say that Vedat’s 14/20 rating was a quite a bit generous.
L’Esguard
I really looked forward to trying l’Esguard. It is easy to be intrigued by a restaurant whose owner is a part time neurosurgeon and who devotes much of his free time to his big passion.
The restaurant space is fantastic with a unique ambiance and there are many details that other gastronomic restaurants should take after such as the innovative lighting of tables.
The food was on the one hand visually very impressive and beautiful, in fact I would go so far and say that it was some of the most beautiful food I have ever seen. On the other hand the preparations where mainly unpalatable and those that were not, lacked with literally no exceptions any gustatory interest. A few dishes were so awful as a result from using unacceptable ingredients (old scallops, shellfish and shrimps e t c) that they have to be tasted to be believed. Ingredients that were not “off” were with only few exceptions of good quality. The scallop dish and the plate of “mixed cuts” were two examples of unpalatable preparations with the shrimps having actively nasty off-flavors.
Then there was a salmon wrapped in microfilm which must count as one of the poorest pieces of salmon I have had in a gastronomic restaurant. There was also a pigeon that was of little interest as far as produce quality and dish-conception was concerned.
The micri-film-crepe with chocolate mousse somewhat illustrated many dishes. A beautiful preparation but one cannot help thinking if the dish would not have tasted better with a normal crepe rather than the tasteless rubbery micri-film as a wrapping. Anyway, I suppose that it illustrates why micri-film has not become a great success with gastronomic restaurants.
Perhaps the meal at l’Esguard was partly tainted by abnormally poor ingredients, but even so, many of the items served were on such level that they should have never left the kitchen. It is difficult to rate a restaurant performing like this. Any rating in Gastroville terms of l’Esguard would fall well below 9/20.
Abac
Abac was perhaps a pleasant meal from some points of view but several courses were tainted by many too long lingering tastes that masked subsequent dishes. Some preparations were simply bizarre. Only the salted cod belly with peas pil-pil sauce was really enjoyable.
Paying high prices for food on this level always leaves me with a lingering sour after taste. Gastroville rating 9/20.
El Poblet
As already stated, it was El Poblet that delivered cooking on the highest level. Indeed, El Poblet delivered two exceptional meals that are possibly the best meals I have had in Spain. The first night we had the tasting menu mostly focusing on modern dishes and it was so good we had to go back a second time to sample more “traditional dishes” and it was perhaps an even better meal.
I have not been particularly impressed by the food served in the restaurants of the Spanish modernistas. On the contrary, I have often found the quality of the produce served in these restaurants to be well below what is acceptable and coupled with the often complicated technique stunts used by these restaurants a result is achieved that has a gustatory interest that is at best only a pale shadow of the produce in its original form and shape. At El Poblet, Quique Dacosta managed to pull off something exceptional because in many instances he was pairing extraordinary produce with intelligent use of modern techniques and the achieved results were interesting and sometimes new expressions of the used raw material. For instance his preparations with cephalopods such as The Other Moon of Valencia, a soufflé-like concoction served the first night was a stunning masterpiece that, while extremely rich, perfectly captured the essence of sepia in different layers of textures. It is a dish that just has to be tried.
The second night we had a another dish, this time with squids, prepared with sperification technique and it is one of the best renditions I have had of this technique that when used often makes you wonder what the point is. Dacosta's "squid's eggs" with a squid bouillon was a masterpiece.
An interesting dish was his The Living Forest, a plate with various items on that when eating gives the impression of being in a damp forest perfectly capturing the true flavors and smells. Perhaps a bit too sweet for the point at which it was served in the meal but a very impressive dish although admittedly nothing I longing to experience again.
Dishes that I on the other hand long to try again included his lobster salad, featuring top-notch lobster and a perfectly balanced salad with crisp, clear and refreshing flavours.
The raw material used was with almost no exception of highest quality such as fantastic red mullets and hake.
There were weak spots such as a lamb dish that was not on the same level as the rest and IMO prepared with lamb of only average quality.
Also Dacosta’s desserts fall below the standards of the rest he is serving. However all in all, Dacosta’s cooking often shows master class techniques and craftsmanship on the highest level and I was mostly impressed with the high clarity and flavors of most dishes especially during the second meal. I would rate the two meals, inparticular the second meal, the best I have had in Spain. The second meal at El Poblet would rank among the dozen best restaurant meals I have had so far this year.
Gastroville rating of El Poblet: 18/20
/Mikael J.
