Les papilles means tastebuds and is the name of a combination between a wine store and a restaurant that I discovered last year thanks to and together with Katia. They apply a very in-fahion menu method for dinner : no choice, fixed price one tasting menu only, three to four courses, for a VERY reasonnable price (about 30 Euros). Something that seems to work well in Paris. A couple of restaurants are quite successful with that formula. We enjoyed it very much, and liked everything, despite the fact that we couldn't choose. And I especially love their bistro atmosphere with the beautiful zinc (bar counter)...
Les Papilles, www.lespapillesparis.fr
30 rue Gay Lussac
75005 Paris
December 16, 2008
December 06, 2008
door #5 - my favourite crêperie in Paris
France's best crêpes are made in Brittany, but in the Paris Montparnasse neighbourhood, you almost feel like in little Britanny, in my street there are for example 11 creperies ! Apparently all the Bretons who got off the train from Brittany at the Gare du Montparnasse train station didn't get much further beyond the area.
While in all Paris restaurant reviews the official best crêperie is the Breizh Café (organic ingredients) in the Marais, my personal favourite crêperie is the Plougastel in my neighbourghood, and not only because of the Crêpes. The welcome and service is outstanding, and the chef Crêpier is quite handsome... I always get a special treat and when I told him that I work as a cook, he invited me to come over to practice making Crêpes the following Saturday. I had a lot of fun with the guys, but completely failed, and they couldn't sell any of those I made. Making good Crêpes is not as easy as I thought... Going there and eat them however is a definite source of happiness.
My favourite Crepe in Le Plougastel : Le Plouescat : cream, bacon, egg, cheese
My favourite Crepe in the Breizh Cafe : Carrément Caramel, Salty Butter Caramel, with Caramel Ice Cream and Creme Chantilly
My Saturday "stage" in Le Plougastel...
Breizh Café
109 rue du Vieille Temple
75003 Paris
Creperie de Plougastel
47 rue du Montparnasse
75014 Paris
July 31, 2008
Chez Olivier Roellinger
Before I leave on vacation this afternoon I need to "get rid of" last week's experience in Cancale. For my readers who are not as much into cooking as I am, let me try to compare it : Imagine you are a confirmed Catholic, go to Rome, attend the mass, and then the pope himself shows you the Vatican, or you love the Rolling Stones, attend their concert and Mick and Keith meet you behind the scene to show you some tunes on the guitar. Get the idea ?
Olivier Roellinger has a reputation of being a unique chef, and I was intrigued by all I had heard, seen and read about him and his cuisine. His story is amazing. A son of a doctors' family in Cancale, he wanted to become an engineer and studied mathematics and chemistry. This path was stopped by a tragic event when he was in his early twenties and agressed in the streets of St. Malo at night, with severe consequences. A couple of days of coma, then 2 years in a wheelchair, not knowing whether he could ever walk again. During the time in hospital and then at his home in Cancale he decided to turn his home into a B&B with table d'hote and started a small kitchen without any gastronomic aspirations at that time. He only did three small internships, not longer than 6 months with other chefs. That was about 25 years ago...
So obviously this story and the descriptions of his cuisine have made me want to go there since a while, and when I got reservations I thought why not try your chance and I wrote him a letter, telling him the story of my life and asking whether I could meet him during my stay in Cancale.
I had reservations for last Friday evening, and in the morning I already went to the restaurant in order to take some pictures of the house. Just when I entered the garden, Monsieur Rollinger came out of the kitchen by accident to get some spices from his epicerie next door, said Bonjour, and asked whether he should open the house, so that I could take pictures from the other side as well. I nodded, and after overcoming my speechlessness I replied "in fact I will come to dine tonight and I wrote you a letter last week, I don't know whether you received it". Then he said : "Oh you must be Ulla. I didn't know it was you. You will come into the kitchen tonight during service.!" I was overwhelmed and the prospect of the evening events made me jump up and down all day.
The food was exceptional of course, not at all what I expected though. I was ready for complicated 3-star cuisine, and some kind of fusion in the lines of Ze Kitchen Galerie as Roellinger's kitchen is characterized by using seafood and spices. But it was not at all that. Products perfectly cooked, unusual but delicate seasoning, beautiful plates, and nothing complicated. The pure product.
I was already in heaven after all the amuse-bouches and the first starters, when the waiter asked me to follow him into the kitchen. There Monsieur Roellinger showed me everything, explained the organization, and the history of the house. What surprised me most, was the total silence and the smoothless flow among the brigade of fourteen. Mentioning my observation to him, he explained that he hates noise and yelling in the kitchen, and only chefs with a lack of authority think they can get it by raising their voices. This mad me smile and think about all the yelling chefs I have met already. What a wise man ! ;) I also mentioned his unusually short experience with other chefs, and he said "mais je suis toujours apprenti !" (I am still apprentice).
Then I asked whether I can stay to observe, and I stayed about 30 minutes, almost forgetting my meal, I was so fascinated. Monsieur Roellinger wished me good luck and bon courage for my project and was satisfied that he had been able to show me a "different" kitchen, being very well aware about how unique his approach is.
What a wonderful and motivating experience !
I leave you with those wonderful impressions from Olivier Roellinger's table for a couple of days, because now I am off to my home country, touring Germany from North to South for two weeks...
July 21, 2008
The cheese course
Cheese is another one of many reason why I cannot live in another country anymore. Now as a future restaurant owner (yeah, I am still dreaming ;) I will also have to think about what type of cheese course I offer. I believe I need to add value as a chef, and "do something" to or with the cheese, otherwise, why would you order it in the restaurant and pay more for it than at the market. On the other hand I must admit that as a customer quite often I am very happy to order the assortimment, or just one cheese variety in a restaurant. Maybe the added value of a chef can sometimes simply be in the selection of a very good product ?
That is the way I discovered this year for example Stilton, an English (!) blue cheese, which I now prefer to many French blue cheeses. (So does it mean eventually I should live in England ???). Something I would have never been inspired to buy, if chef Chris Wright (from Manchester) of the restaurant "Le Timbre" (http://www.restaurantletimbre.com/) in my neighbourhood wouldn't have it on his menu as only option for a cheese course.
Chef Juline Duboué of the currently much talked about bistrot Afaria in the 15th arrondissment (15, rue Desnouettes) has added a "little something" to his cheese course : instead of offering just a slice of Roquefort, he presents it on pain d'epice (Gingerbread) and covered with a red port jelly. A very nice idea, because port is a very good wine to be paired with blue cheese. I didn't have my camera that day with me (was I sick ?!?), so I reproduced this idea at home.
Immediately this inspires ideas for variatons. Combine in this way any kind of key product with its garniture and topped by the wine you would drink with it as jelly. The first variation that comes obviously to my mind would be foie gras on pain d'epice topped by Sauternes jelly....
June 19, 2008
Me and the sexiest chef alive
Morale has been going up again. I realise how much progress I made in the last months, and how much I keep learning in the restaurant. No major hick-up in the last two weeks. By the weekend, most negative thoughts are blown away, and I know that I can do the world's best Bearnaise Sauce. Usually I go out on Thursday night to start my weekend, and change ideas, either have a glass of champagne on the Champs-Elysees, go to the movies, or to a theater or opera/ballet in Paris, to make the most of my time in this city.
I need to report an incident that will make all my female readers very jealous. Last weekend I went to a wine tasting in the bar of the famous and fabulous Meurice hotel, about which I will write a seperate post later. The one thing that I did not expect to happen, is that the 3 star chef Yannick Alleno left his kitchen to greet in person the attendees of this wine tasting. My heart started to race, after all he was elected the sexiest chef this year in France, and is probably one of the coolest and most talented chefs worldwide, and besides being an idol for many chefs, he is really sexy, but I am repeating myself. He appeared in the bar after I had already tasted my 4th glass of red wine (it was a tasting without spitting), so all mental inhibitors that would usually prevent me from behaving like a silly tourist were gone by that time and I threw my camera at the person sitting next to me and then directly into his arms, without even asking whether he would agree. It was a very happy moment, for me at least, and while I do not want to work for him ever, I will eat from his plate any time....
Jamie Oliver : grow up ! Gordon Ramsay : stay in the UK ! George Clooney : learn to cook and do real espresso first ! Brad who ?
May 26, 2008
Foie Gras lollipops
I spent Friday and Saturday in Grenoble (life #1 location), which is always creating very mixed feelings. I am happy to see former friends and colleagues, stop by my favourite shops, restaurants, cafés. But each time it is hurting a little bit, because I cannot help asking myself why I gave up living and working in that town, while I am there. Especially when the Alps are still snow covered, contrasting with a pure blue sky. It is too beautiful.
Friday night I was very lucky to be invited to dine in one of the best restaurants in Grenoble. L'Escalier. The owner, Alain Girod, was one of my "consultants" that I contacted in 2006 before leaving HP to get more feedback on my plans to become a cook. Among several cooks and restaurant owners, Monsieur Girod was the only one, who warned me that my biggest issue would be my future coworkers. A comment that I didn't really take too serious at that time, but now I know how true his prediction was.
He joined our table for the aperitif, and supported his point again, underlined by some funny examples from his own experience.
My favourite course that evening, the foie gras lollipops, that were part of his very original "Menu baroque".
Full official title of this starter :
"Trois sucettes (chupa-chups) de foie gras enrobé de chocolat :
- chocolat blanc gingembre confit
- chocolat au lait poivre rose
- chocolat noir poivre de Séchuan"
Besides the original presentation, a very creative and surprising combination, you bite into chocolate and you find foie gras. I think I will do some experimenting at home, to reproduce this...
L'Escalier
6 place Lavalette
Grenoble
(+33) 4.76.63.01.58
April 04, 2007
Pascal Barbot
We are so lucky !
Part of our program at Ferrandi was a "chef demo". We are lucky that our chef Sebastien has great connections to chefs in Paris, one of the reasons I chose the program, by the way. So for our chef demo, he had contacted a while ago a guy that he had worked with about 10 years ago in the 3 star restaurant Arpege under Alain Passard. This "guy" was nobody less, than Pascal Barbot, chef of l'Astrance in Paris, one of the year 2007 additions to the few chefs in France, that can be proud to have three stars in the Michelin Guide Rouge.
We were completely excited about this happening to us. A three star chef, just coming exclusively to give a demo to our class !
This Monday was eventually the big day. We discovered quickly that Pascal Barbot is not how you would imagine a typical three star chef. He and his concept of cuisine are quite different from what is common in the haute-gastronomie.
He arrived in a small Peugeot, with sneakers on, and just "Pascal" on his simple chef's jacket, not even his last name. He was easy to approach, very humble, loved to share his knowledge with us, lots of energy, very young looking (he's only 34), passionate about everything he did and very inspiring to us.
In the morning he had prepared everything for our demo and here are a couple of things that he brought with him that we usually don't get to see in the classic French cusine curriculum : cédrat (the yellow fruit in the middle), pate de sesame, bergamotes, fleur de bourrache, gingembre nouveau, soja noir fermenté, pulpe de tamarin, reglisse concentré, café concentré, etc., etc....
Pascal Barbot likes to travel and his experiences and impressions from time spent in New Caledonia, Australia (where he worked 2 years), India, Japan, Scandinavia, etc. inspire his way of cooking. He surprised us with quite some statements, that we hadn't expected to hear from a French top chef. One of them was his opinion about, salt, pepper and sauces. Three elements that are key to the recipies we are working on in our program. Salt and pepper : "ridiculous". Sauces : "no need". Basically he replaces salt and pepper by other spices or flavours and sauces with "condiments", often combining classic French ingredients with Asian products.
Of course we asked him a lot of questions to learn more about him, his work and philosophy. He started his career at the age of 14, already knowing then that this was what he wanted to do, without any history of a cook or restaurant owner in the family. His kitchen in l'Astrance is half as big as our class kitchen, and he has a small team of six cooks only (I guess that is a record for 3-star restaurant). Three days per week closed, working hours from 9 to midnight everyday, with a break between the two services. L'Astrance accepts only 25 reservation per service. And he confirmed that his 3rd star will not change anything to the way he runs his restaurant. Another specifics about l'Astrance is, that customers do not get to chose the plates of their menu, and there is no a-la-carte option. You only chose the menu category (normal or big), then Pascal Barbot and his team will decide what to cook, depending on the customer habits, preferences (many regulars), and the wine chosen. I find this an amazing concept.
I asked him what he had found most difficult when moving from an employed chef to running his own restaurant. He had to think a moment and thought it was a difficult question. I would have expected something like responsibility for people, financial pressure or similar. His reply was, that he found it difficult after having always done other chef's cuisine, to find his own cuisine style. However I believe he managed that quite fast and successfully, as he got his first star only a couple of months after opening l'Astrance.
On Monday he cooked three different dishes for us :
Asperges à la poêlé, coulis cédrat et amandes caramélisés
Unbelievable, what you can make out of just a couple of green aspargus, by having a top product (Pascal Barbot works with 80 different suppliers, "the best for every product"), cooking it to perfection, and adding unusual but matching flavours and spice combinations. And then look at the colors....
Coquilles Saint Jacques dorées et condiment bergamote-sésame
This dish as well, it was done so quickly, looked so easy, but of course with the perfect cooking and a creative, but not complicated way of presentation and flavouring. Isn't it beautiful !
Selle d'agneau grillé, curry noir et poivrons rouges marinés
The preparation of this dish was so interesting, because he used the time while the meat started to cook to explain us a little bit about the right meat cooking technique. While one of his first statements was, that "it is impossible to explain how to cook a steak, as you must feel it, and this comes with experience" was a bit discouraging for me (so I will know in 10 years how to cook meat correctly ?), he demonstrated to us with the lamb saddle his key principles of good meat cooking. Most important things : "meat needs to rest", "cooking needs to go slowly", and he said "nothing, nothing has 2 sides". What he meant with this was demonstrated with the lamb saddle that during 10 minutes he kept moving and turning continuously, to make sure at the end all the sides, edges and corners of it had been in contact with the same amount of heat from the grill. It was amazing to watch. Below on the picture you can see how he used a small sauce container, to lean the meat against it. In the second phase, the lamb saddle was continued at only 85 C in the oven for 25 minutes. The result was overwhelming. I can't remember that I have ever tasted so tender lamb meat in my life. Meat that was melting in my mouth...
All in all it was an extraordinary afternoon. This will remain as one of the highlights at Ferrandi in my memory. Merci chef pour cette opportunité !
And of course it created a big desire, not only for me, to go to l'Astrance one day and enjoy more of his cooking as a customer....
L'Astrance
4 rue Beethoven
75016 Paris
+33 (0)1 4050 8440
(for lunch reservations call about 1 month in advance, for dinner about two months)
March 17, 2007
2nd stage - conclusion
I have to catch up with you a bit. The reason I didn't post beginning of March between the middle of the stage and my birthday was simply that the only thing I wanted to do when at home was sleep. The week in school right after the stage was a nightmare. I was so incredibly tired, I felt like a Zombie all the time. Seems the impact of the unusual working hours hit me with a week delay, because during the second week of the stage I felt fine. All this makes me wonder if I was insane when I choose to give up a life sitting in front of a computer 8 hours a day for a life of 12+ hours standing and sweating in the heat.
However to come back to the 2 weeks stage in La Bastide Odeon, it was great. The chef did not yell or smash plates, the atmosphere was nice, it felt like a family, and I kept cooking the fish for the whole second week for both services. This is the view I had during that time, on the left the gambas on the plancha as I cooked them, to the right the dish that the chef de partie finalized, once he got my gambas.
And here we have the view from the meat station on an insane but happy stagiaire in front of her plancha...
Note that I got to wear a toque, this was very exciting as in school, only the sup (as in superieur) classes get to were the toque to make sure they can be distinguished from us, the "inferior" students. I would have liked to continued working this time, as opposed to my last stage,, and so I was not very motivated when school started again. Still I have not found back the same motivation for school as I had before. Maybe it is linked to the exams that are approaching, and the studying I have to do. I know I have to skip some of the fun in Paris and get studying if I want my certificate and my state diploma... Sigh.
One of the teachers of the sup classes has asked me recently whether I didn't want to do the 2 years superior curriculum of the ESCF. I was very flattered, because it is not easy to get into the classe superieur. I took it as a compliment, but I really cannot imagine at this point in time to continue much more of going to school and studying. I really think what I need and what I will enjoy now is working in a kitchen. That said, I need to find a friendly environment like in La Bastide Odeon...
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February 28, 2007
Sizzling News
I can't believe how my day changed from as-low-as-can-be motivation in the morning to extasy during dinner service. This morning on the way to my stage's restaurant, I was thinking about how useless the second week would be, where I would peel and cut vegetables during 3 hours in the morning, then be put aside during service, just to watch the others and maybe plate a couple of desserts. I had no motivation left to do this for another week, and thought my time would be better spent, starting to learn for the end of the year exams at home. I even wondered if I should ask the chef whether I should stop coming for dinner service.
You can see, as I have nothing to do, I have obviously even time during service to take photos of the kitchen crew (with a starter au passe in the foreground) ...
But then everything changed unexpectedly. I still did my 3 hours of vegetable peeling and cutting in the morning, and when the service started I went as usual to the patisserie area to watch the others and wait for a millefeuille or a moelleux au chocolat to plate. I was alone in the patisserie, because the patissier had moved to help out at the fish station. The apprentice who should normally be working there today, was still on sick leave as he had burnt his hand seriously last week during work.
In the middle of the service I heard the chef say "Mais elle est ou ?" ("but where is she ?") He could only talk about me, as I am the only "she" in the kitchen. So I was getting out of my boring corner in the patisserie and started to say something like : "ok what do you want me to get from the basement ?" (as I am being sent frequently downstairs to get missing ingredients from the storage area). But I was interrupted by the chef, saying : "you are going to work on the fish station today !" (of course he said it in French ;) and sent the patissier back to the patisserie. This time I must have looked like a child that found everything it wanted and more under the Christmas tree (to continue a previous analogy). A minute later I found myself cooking the fish during the service, with the help of the chef de partie de poisson of course, but he "only" plated, I did all the cooking !
I couldn't believe that happened. In addition the chef de partie was so nice and patient and explained me every detail, on how to season, how to know when to take off the fish from la plancha, when to reheat it in the oven, how to know when it is cooked just right to be served, etc., all for 6 different fish main courses that are on the menu this week. I was in heaven. It was a good move from the chef to make me start at lunch service, that gave me and the chef de partie enough time for explanations and training, as we had only a couple of covers.
Then before returning for dinner service tonight I got really nervous about whether I could manage the dinner quantity without messing up everything. But it was no problem, on the contrary, the more orders came in simultaneously, and the busier we got, the more excited I was and the more fun I had sizzling. I think I was really in some exstatic state of mind. I cooked ALL the fish of tonight's dinner service. I still can't believe it.
Now I do love my second stage...
February 25, 2007
La Bastide Odeon in the press
Sunday morning, 11.30 am, I just got up... I have never been longing so much to have a weekend break. After 5 days I start to get used a bit to the work rythm of two shifts but it is still quite tough. So in order to get a good rest I made no plans at all for today. I'll probably end up having lunch in a restaurant then going to the movies to honor Oscar night and then for a Pina Colada with Acras in my favourite bar for that matter La Rhumerie before I'll go to sleep again.
During the staff meals I learnt that last week we had many "Anglo" clients de passage (walk in without reservation), that had come following an article in the Sunday Times. I just found the article on the web, and wanted to share it here: The extract for La Bastide Odeon :
"PROVENCE
La Bastide Odéon I almost left as soon as I arrived. The place seemed full of Americans, the décor straight out of 1993. But then I saw the chef, Gilles Ajuelos, in an open kitchen, pausing to inspect a plate of food. One glance at his intense concentration persuaded me to stay.
Bingo. The flavours of Provence have become a bit of a cliché over the years, but Ajuelos has thrown away the straitjacket of drizzled oil, too many herbs and olives with everything, and is busy reinventing the genre. His treatment of tuna was superb — served with a purée of yellow tomatoes, flavoured with a hint of chilli, fennel, fresh saffron stamens and lemon: sweet, sour and piquant all in one moment.
7 Rue Corneille, 6ème; 01 43 26 03 65, www.bastide-odeon.com; three-course lunch menu £17.30"
The author cought the essence of the restaurant and the chef perfectly in just a few sentences. I couldn't agree more with him after having observed the chef during a complete week. While the disappointment about my low involment in the cooking tasks remains, I am more and more convinced that it is nevertheless a great place to stage for me, as seeing the chef at work gives me so much inspiration and motivation for my own future.
Click here to read the full Sunday Times article about "the small restaurants and bistros, run by serious-minded chefs, that are devoted to French regional cuisine".
