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Not strictly a London.Food moment, but one that was so good that it'd be worth the 50 quid on Eurostar to go: Review: l'Atelier de Joel Robuchon, 5 rue de Montalambert, Paris. 18/04/2004 Having been fortunate enough to be sent to Paris for work, I siezed the opportunity to frantically scour the interweb for somewhere to dine. There's no shortage of truly mediocre eateries in Paris, and similarly, plenty of opulent haute cuisine dining rooms with piles of Michelin Stars and 0s at the end of the bill. Luckily, 2003 saw the opening of l'Atelier de Joel Robuchon - a French restaurant with a difference. No tables with white linen and bow-backed chairs. No reservations. No smoking. No queue-jumping for the famous. None of the usual restaurant trappings. Just fine cuisine in a simple environment. This was intriguing, and futhermore, affordable! Not only that, it was a chance to experience the cooking of a man whose place in the culinary canon is not so much assured, as already recorded, signed and sealed. Ambling up to the restaurant at about 7:30 on a Sunday evening was lovely - the location is beautiful, although the restaurant itself looks somewhat incongrous, to say the least - a rectangular black conservatory, attached to the front of the art deco Hotel Pont Royal: A bit like the 2001 monolith gone horrible wrong. No queue outside. Good. The interior is very striking: matte black everything with recessed lighting; it's almost as if Disaster Area had been asked to design an Islington gastropub, although the music is considerably more subtle. A bar surrounded a food preparation area, in which half-a-dozen garde-manger chefs/waiters busyed themselves, before gliding around to pass plates over the bar to the wide-eyed and keen patrons sitting on the other side. Unfortunately, almost as soon as we had got into the building, the head waiter shuffled us off to the hotel bar through a side door, saying that there was an hour's wait. Our names were taken and put onto a virtual queue. After a bit of a wait (which would have been shorter had we not wandered off for a bit), we were ushered into the restaurant and seated at a nice corner of the bar. Menus were delivered, as well as a very agreeable pair of Kirs. The structure of Robuchon's menu is very simple: a long list of tapas-sized dishes, costing from 10-25 Euros, and a shorter list of more substantial plates around the 30-50 Euro mark. The concept is similar to that of Wagamama, or conveyor-belt sushi places- lots of small dishes of various types are availabel, with no formal structure imposed on the diner. I like this, but then I'm the sort of person who likes their cheese after pudding. After a bit of gazing in wonder at the menus, we plumped for the Menu "Decouverte" - a tasting menu offering 10 dishes for a very agreeable 97 Euros. The couple to our left were half way through their Menu Decouverte, and recommended it highly. The wine list is a veritable dusty tome of the great and good of French viticulture - some excellent bottles, from around 30 Euros to a few thousand. (The selection of Pauillacs is jolly decent, but may involve the mortaging of several limbs.) We plumped for a bottle of Gigondas, which served us well. The sommelier at l'Atelier was excellent: his appreciation of wine was fantastic, and he handled it with due care and respect. All the wine was decanted and tasted before being served, of which I thoroughly approve. Some bottles were held back for extra air or chilling before being served. Good stuff. Cutlery arrived. Lots of cutlery. The waiters struggled to get it all over the raised portion of the bar. Later they were to bring a second set of cultery for the later courses. There's not a lot of elbow room at the bar, and on numerous occasions there were near-accidents with glasses of wine, heavy dishes made from volcanic rock, rogue bread rolls and assorted cutlery. All quite chaotic and endearing, but I think I'd be rather more concered if I had a 600 Euro glass of wine on the bar. Then the dishes started arriving. A steady procession of perfectly-presented and prepared nouvelle and haute cuisine. Thanks to the tiny size of the front-room, and the bar arrangement, service is extremely rapid and efficient. Due to the fact that the bar overlooks the garde-manger station, one can see dishes being prepared and delivered with smooth efficacy. None of the staff were in a rush, but there was practically no downtime, either. Continually busy, but never hurried: a kitchen that any chef would be proud to be running. * l'Amuse-Bouche: Palourde farcie a l'ail violet et aux champignons One spoon-sized clam, in its shell, stuffed with garlic and mushrooms. A great dish - the flavour was rich and pungent, but left no residual bitterness, as very garlicy dishes are wont to do. Perfectly cooked, and left me wanting a whole plateful. Absolutely beautifully plated, on a mound of coarse salt. Very simple and a perfect hors d'oeuvre. * Le Veau, dans un pate en croute au foie gras et pistaches de Sicile A slice of rich and smooth veal and foie gras pate, in an excellent soft pastry. The pate was beautifully seasoned: fresh and bright, with the pistachios adding a little mouth feel and extra richness. The true highlight of this dish, however, was the jelly in the pie. Normally, I'd pick out the jelly from a pork pie and leave it to one side. But this was beautiful: dark and rich and smooch, which an excellent mouth-feel. It was more like a strongly-reduced sauce Espagnole than a jelly for keeping pie crusts dry. This dish was a real highlight. * La Langoustine, en papillote croustillante au basilic. A single langoustine, peeled, wrapped in a basil leaf and a single sheet of filo pastry and deep-fryed. Another tiny, yet perfect dish. The langoustine was enormous and silky and richly flavoured. The pastry had crisped up to a wonderful even golden hue, and was an excellent texture contrast. The basil and basil oil garnish gave the dish a very bright, sharp lift. Not a spot of grease in sight, this was amazingly light and tasty. One I shall be attempting at home! * La Noix de Saint-Jacques, cuite en conquille au beurre d'algues acidule A beautiful dish - one single king scallop, in its shell, with a butter sauce with algae. Arranged on a square plate with rosemary, thyme and berries. Not just was it pretty to look at - it was cooked wonderfully. Steering clear of the "seared scallop" trend, this one was cooked through, but retained all of its flavour and light texture. The butter was a little overpowering, although the algae added a curious flavour. One that's hard to describe, but you know it's there. A bit like Bay. Some extra richness and complexity of flavour, without being overpowering. * l'Oseille, en fin bouillon au foie gras caramalise et jeunes asperges. One of Robuchon's signature dishes: A sorrel soup, with foie gras and asparagus. I found this dish to be a little overpowering: the bitterness of the sorrel and saltiness of the foie gras were very strong. Although the sweet comforting familiarity of the asparagus spears mitigated this. On the other hand, Alison thought that this was fantastic and one of her favourite courses. Very much a matter of taste, but the preparation and presentation were excellent nonetheless. * l'Oeuf, en cocotte a la creme legere de morille. Another dish that was very much a matter of taste. Normally, oeufs en cocotte have the life blazed out of them, turning into rubbery discs that would best be used as an ice hockey puck. These were at the other end of the spectrum: a martini glass containing a very delicately cooked egg, in a light frothy cream sauce, with morels. I loved this: very light, very simple and with a warm comforting flavour. Morels and egg are a truly classic pairing, and this was a fine example of that. That having been said, the texture of very runny yolk may not appeal to some. I love it! * La Caille, caramalise avec une pomme puree a la truffe. I really liked this: a delicately and evenly caramelised breast and quarter of quail, with a smooth and richly truffled mashed potato. Beautiful aroma and a smooth, consistent texture to the bird. The potato was a bit gluey - I blame using a waxy rather than a starchy potato, but otherwise very good. A pocket-sized roast dinner! * Le Ris de Veau, cloute de laurier frais a la feuille de romaine farcie. Alison ordered this dish, after I rather unfortunately mis-translated it as "Some cut of veal, with bay and a stuffed lettuce leaf". The unfortunate bit being that Ris de Veau is, in fact, the thymus gland. Or 'slice of brain', as the man on the Clapham omnibus would have it. Still, we tucked in! It was a bit disappointing, though. The texture was mushy and there was not much noticable flavour, save for the crisped-up and caramelised edges of the meat, which were much more tasty. An 'interesting' dish, rather than an absolute gastronomic pleasure. * l'Ananas et la Mangue, en fine raviole dans une infusion be menthe, sorbet a la noix de coco Another beautifully presented plate: The raviolo of pineapple and mango resembled a fried egg: the mango cut into a hemisphere and then brunoised in place, held between two paper-thin slices of pineapple. The fruit was rich and sweet, and the thin and delicate mint sauce prevented it from being cloying. The coconut sorbet was a work of genius: smooth and creamy - it would have been easy to mistake it for coconut ice-cream! * Le Souffle, a la Chartreuse a la creme glacee a la pistache. It's hard to use strong, sweet liquers in souffles. The alcohol content can denature the proteins that hold together to form a fluffy souffle, and excess sugar can become too hot and scorch. Therefore, the fact that these perfectly-formed souffles managed to rise to tower twice the height of the ramekins that they were cooked in is nothing short of a small miracle. The waiter punctured the skins, and stirred in the pistachio ice-cream, which was nice of him, but I'd liked to have done it! The souffle was fantastic - incredibly light, and the contrast of the searingly hot egg and freezing icecream was brilliant. The otherworldly flavour of Chartreuse was tempered by the comforting sweetness of the pistachio. A real winner this. * Le Fin Mocha, et ses caramels a l'arabica Coffee was good, although not the finest ever. It was certainly dark and smooth and rich and almost chocolatey, which was good. The accompanying caramel was very tasty to have a nibble from, but incredibly sticky and gooey. If you put the whole thing in your mouth, it'd shut you up for a week. A nice, mellow ending to a rollercoaster menu. Final damage was a little under 260 Euros, for 2 Menus "Decouverte", 2 Kirs, and a bottle of Gigondas (although I think that spending the extra for a Nuits St. Georges or Chateauneuf du Pape would have been worth it. The Gigondas was decent, but a bit tannic for the delicacy of the food). Service, tax and all that sort of thing was included. Which was nice, as I was wondering how one should tip a Garde-Manger chef who brings the food to you at a bar, rather than a waiter who brings it to your table. Overall, it was a fantastic gastronomic experience. The food was an exemplary marriage of nouvelle and haute cuisine. The ambiance was friendly and intimate - being all seated together seemed to mute any loudmouths present. And it was nice to be able to see what other people were having, and the preparation process. However, if you were to be a group of more than 3 or 4, if would be hard to interact with each other, and you'd probably have to wait for longer to be seated. That having been said, the experience is very food-centric - one feels like a pilgrim waiting to be dispensed a piece of wisdom from behind a monastery wall. Fantastic if you're hoping for a near-religious food experience, but not as good if you want to entertain a group of people. The wait for a table is annoying, but one can book for the first sitting at 11:30. Although it's nice to know that everyone is treated the same way, rather than celebs being able to jump the enormous waiting lists that fine restaurants seem to attract. And the hotel bar is pleasant enough. Robuchon has another Atelier in Tokyo; surely it's just a matter of time for one to appear in the City of London. I think that this franchise has a bright future. I would have no reservations (pun intended!) in returning. For the price, I can't think of anywhere where the dishes are so good, and the atmosphere so relaxed. Go there. Take one or two people who love to eat, and enjoy Robuchon's temple to fine food. -- Tom Sulston +44 77 99 89 80 44 http://www.2helix.com
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