Luxeat

Michel Bras

2012-05-27T00:10:38+02:00

Many of the Michel Bras restaurant reviews start how it’s complicated to get there. Aubrac region is one of the most difficult to access regions in France. Once you get to Rodez,by train (a journey by train from Paris can take up to ten hours) or by plane,you need to drive to Laguiolle town direction and then drive up to the Michel Bras restaurant/ hotel built in the dramatic scenery of Aubrac mountains. When I visited the restaurant at the end of this April, the mountains were still covered with thick layer of snow and buried in white fog. White was all I could see trough the large restaurant windows!

It’s Michel Bras who has elevated vegetables and foraged herbs to the same level as meat or fish in high end gastronomy. The now retired chef ( his son Sébastien has taken over the stoves) has influenced countless chefs all around the world.

The dinner or rather aperitif at the restaurant’s lounge started with a perfect tartelette aux cèpes and eggs’ custard served in their shells.

It’s at this very moment I realized that Michel Bras is quite a classic restaurant. No live shrimps like at Noma or avant – garde shapes like at Mugaritz or the now closed El Bulli. Nonetheless, it’s kind of food I really enjoy. Creating something from the best ingredients while using cutting edge techniques is already a perfection.Michel Bras, and now his son’s signature dish is the famous le Gargouillou, a picturesque composition of dozens of herbs, flowers and vegetables.

Thanks to the perfect understanding of ingredients , each herb and vegetable tasted incredibly. This what I would call the real high end dining. You don’t need Beluga caviar or truffles from Alba to impress. Herbs foraged from the fields surrounding your house will do. The Gargouillou was followed by turbot fried in vadouvan butter and served with Lézignan onion,bouquet anisé, lassi sauce.

It was the best turbot I’ve ever had. Michel Bras philosophy is a lot about the right techniques and understanding the ingredients one works with. Just watch the documentary “Inventing Cuisine” - the chef is not only an artist in love with his terroir but also a scientist. I’ve never been at Michel Bras when the master himself was cooking so I can’t tell the difference but I also loved the pan-fried foie gras with Marcillac strawberries sauce and their salad.

The tender chirory with truffles was delicious too...

I was not that crazy about the Aubrac beef served with young shoots (the meat was too raw and chewy),although the traditional aligot was a nice homage to the region.

And now we have approached the desserts. Did you know that it’s Michel Bras who invented biscuit au chocolat coulant , chocolate cake with liquid filling ? This time it was a biscuit filled with warm mango pulp that was served.

The other desserts included white cheese cream with raisins and orange, and grapefruit; curd, milk skin, chocolate and sugar veil as well as tiny ice cream cones...

Was the dinner worth the trip? It was an honor to taste the legend but I think in order the legend continues it has to be reinvented. If you are in the region, it's a great restaurant to dine at, but now as I know I wouldn't travel there again from another country...

Le Gargouillou

2012-04-25T10:41:37+02:00

In the image - "Le Gargouillou", the most famous dish created by Michel Bras. I didn't expect that such simplicity can be that mind blowing. Each and every vegetable and herb had it's distinctive flavor and texture. A beautiful voyage in the fields and the gardens of Aubrac.. More to come soon..

Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester

2012-04-23T11:39:00+02:00

From my experience, the higher you go up North, the less spectacular are Alain Ducasse 3 Michelin restaurants. I am joking of course,but so were probably the Michelin inspectors who awarded Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester 3 Michelin stars.

I honestly doubt that the chef himself ever cooks in his restaurants kitchens. If he did,the quality of the cooking at his restaurants in Monaco,Paris or London wouldn't be that different. If I found Louis XV (3*) in Monaco extraordinary and Alain Ducasse at Plaza Athénée (3*) very good; Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester (3*) was pretty mediocre. Yes, the dining room was beautiful and the service was perfect,but the food was far from perfection. Simple toast (you eat for breakfast) with chopped tomatoes served as an amuse bouche; foie gras terrine with peppered jelly and pickled vegetables( I don't think foie gras terrine goes very well with bitter and sour flavors); or turbot with potato gnocchi and country bacon(the fish was overcooked) ... Not only the food didn't shine as it should be at a 3 Michelin star restaurant, it was not particularly interesting or even good...

4 years old Comté cheese was the only highlight of the dinner.It's a truly exceptional cheese (for me it is as special as caviar) and if you happen to find it at a cheese shop, don't hesitate to buy it...

Saturne in Paris

2012-03-30T14:37:01+02:00

It seems that the Saturne (17 Rue Notre-Dame des Victoires 75002 Paris,tel. +33142603190 ) chef focuses more on how beautiful his dishes look rather than how they taste. Raw mackerel, sea urchin and cauliflower starter sounded great but tasted bland and boring, same as the monkfish with leeks and mâche salad. I don't want to judge a restaurant by going there just once, but what I've had at Saturne was so forgettable I might as well forget to return there...

Viajante

2012-03-22T11:36:35+01:00

If there is one restaurant in London "worth a trip" from another city or even another country it is Viajante. The restaurant is located in East London, in Bethnal Green Town Hall which has been partly transformed into a hotel. The Edwardian and Neo- Classical building is grand and beautiful and when you enter the restaurant you immediately face the open kitchen where the incredibly talented Nuno Mendes and his team cook.

Viajante, which in Portuguese means "traveller", is about cooking without borders. No borders between the kitchen and the dining room ( the chef and the sous -chefs serve some of their dishes themselves), no borders among the team. Every week the sous-chefs create their own dishes that are approved or not by Nuno Mendes. Viajante is not a laboratory where food is some kind of art or experiment though. What I liked about what happens in this restaurant kitchen is that every morsel was original (and sometimes completely new to me), yet delicious. Somehow I could eat this food every day and never get tired.

Thai explosion II amuse bouche - a tasty sandwich with chicken mousse and lemon grass. (I didn't understand why it was called "explosion" though as it was not spicy or anything like that..)

Amaranth with sorrel- the amaranth grains had been smoked over hay and served with sorrel purée

Mackerel with cherry blossom milk ( I forgot to take the picture)

Potato with yeast and black olive

Bread with two butters - the hay smoked butter was surreal

Charred squid with roasted oats ,peas and broad beans

Iberico pork secretos with daikon and burnt cream- the pork was very tender

Pickled and raw cucumber with reduced milk sorbet

Salsify with chocolate and melilot ice cream

Vanilla and olive oil toffee

Chocolate and mushroom truffle

Epicure (Le Bristol)

2012-03-17T08:50:21+01:00

I've already posted about this restaurant a few times, so I won't review it again, but for me Epicure (formely Le Bristol) represents a 3 Michelin stars restaurant how it should be. Everything, from the palatial surroundings, delicious food to the impeccable and smart service was a perfection.

Images after the jump

Amuse -bouches ( Apple and foie gras "mousse" in the second image)

The famous parmesan crusted macaronis stuffed with black truffles and foie gras

The pot-au-feu. Bone marrow with celery purée croutons and black truffle

Oxtail, foie gras,truffles and pot-au-feu vegetables millefeuille

Pot-au-feu and shiitake mushrooms broth

Lemon from Menton,frosted up with limoncello,pear and thyme flavors

OAD's Top 100 US restaurants 2012 is out

2012-03-12T16:50:31+01:00

Manresa in Los Gatos is the number 1! You can see the whole list here

Red Medicine,LA

2012-03-12T12:47:26+01:00

Heirloom black carrots with guava, dulse ( red algae) and tamarind

Vietnamese inspired Red Medicine in Los Angeles rose to yellow press fame when one of it's owners Noah Ellis took a picture of The Los Angeles Times food critic S. Irene Virbila before telling her to leave the restaurant.Personally I don't think if it's the best way to treat your restaurant guests, especially that your chef(Jordan Kahn) is so brilliant and you would have probably received a positive review anyway. (Umami burgers' Adam Fleischman is one of the partners too.)

Crispy spring rolls,dungeness crab,lime, pea pods,fines herbes,chili

The food at Red Medicine is something in between Momofuku (NY ) and Noma (Copenhagen). The only "proper" Vietnamese dish I had was dungeness crab spring rolls which were fresh, crispy and as fine as spring rolls could be. "Heirloom black carrots with guava, dulse ( red algae) and tamarind" was my favorite, memorable and rich in flavors. Pork with caramelized black vinegar, goji berry, spring onions and dried almonds was so tender you could almost eat it without using a knife; and the marbled Akaushi beef went perfectly well with the freshness of crême fraîche sauce ,garlic chive, cashew,lovage and charred cucumber.

I see only one problem with this restaurant - it is 9000 km too far from where I live !

3 Michelin stars pot-au-feu

2012-03-10T17:00:36+01:00

This is the traditional French beef stew pot-au-feu, imagined by the very talented Eric Frechon (Le Bristol, Paris) . It was the ultimate decadence of tastes and textures. The rich and luxurious dish was served in three services: bone marrow with celery purée,croutons and black truffle ;oxtail, foie gras,truffles and pot-au-feu vegetables millefeuille;pot-au-feu and shiitake mushrooms broth. French high - end gastronomy at it's best!

The grand disappointment by In-N-Out

2012-03-07T19:44:57+01:00

I don't have enough words to express my disappointment by the In-N-Out burger in Los Angeles. Everybody raves about how fantastic it is and how it's" the best burger in LA" , but unfortunately even McDonalds burger tastes better as far as i remember. The meat was especially bad- tasteless, dry and not salty enough.Maybe I was unlucky that day, but for the time being I'll stick to Umami (which was as good as one year ago!)

In-N-Out

Umami