A Perfect Spring in Autumn

Spring, by Chicago-born Chef Daniel Rose, finally confirmed a reservation for lunch today, a very rare occasion at that - as it is almost impossible to get a reservation for the next 3 months! After class, a few of us took the metro up to the tiny but modern restaurant holding no more than 30 customers, tucked in a side street of the premier arrondissement behind the shadow of the Louvre. The Chef's cuisine du marché menu at 38 euros, changes daily and are different at lunch and dinner but is in the hands of Chef Rose himself. Every meal is properly thought out during the Chef's 1 hour 'break', when he isn't preparing his next meal or being sociable to customers. 
After our lunch, Rose was nice enough to stop by for a quick chit-chat with us about his life, career and we were full of questions for him (of course!). 
Surprisingly during the lunch service, as hectic as the kitchen may be, it was relatively calm, even silent (it would be theatrically entertaining to see Chefs screaming at each other) but all the staff were calm, composed and presented beautifully crafted dishes with utmost detail...the 'brunoise' radish was very brunoise to the point where all of them were the exact exact shape!!


Making a reservation for dinner (harder than lunch) is almost a daily committing activity but it is all worth it in the end. For a restaurant that was suppose to be open only for 1 year and has stayed opened since then while attracting the best food critics and the secret Michelin inspectors deserves respect and commendation.


Diners enjoy the up close and personal view of the open kitchen, stainless steel, equipped with machines and glass walls.

Amuse Bouche: Bouillon au Cèpes, Menthe (Cèpes mushroom soup, mint)

Entrée: Truite crue accompagnée de radis, girolles (Raw trout accompanied by radish, girolles mushrooms)

Amuse Bouche: L'os à moelle (Marrow bone)

Plat: Palombe, purée de céléri (Wild pigeon, puree of celery)

Dessert: Mousse de chataigne, crème fraiche, glace au chocolat et sauce caramel (Chestnut mousse, crème fraiche, chocolate ice-cream and caramel sauce)

Amuse Bouche 3: Ganache a l'huile d'olive, vanille et chocolat blanc (Olive oil ganache with vanilla bean and white chocolate)

This last dish was the weirdest thing I have tasted but it played so well on flavors and texture. It was unbelievable. It felt as if I was drinking olive oil but then it hits you with the vanilla and white chocolate flavors. 


I just wished I stayed on for dinner...


Spring
6 rue Bailleul, 75001
Tel: 01-58-62-44-30
Metro: Louvre-Rivoli (Ligne 1)


In school, we did quick recipes of fish, this time fried (one in a pan and the other in the deep fryer). My fillets were quite awful on the first one as the fish broke up when I fried and presented it, but I enjoyed the second one accompanied by a Mayonnaise tartar sauce.


1. Merlan Colbert (Fish that are open on both sides, breaded and fried in oil)

2. Goujonnettes de Merlan, sauce tartare (Fish strips breaded and deep fried, accompanied by a Mayonnaise tartare with capers, french cornichons pickles, parsley, tarragon and dill)

Before closing this blog entry today, wishing Chef Gabrielly a very Happy Birthday on Sunday! Hope he has a great day with family and friends!

A shoutout to Maniko for getting him a lovely cake!

Menu Régional: Bordeaux

Today was Menu Régional: Bordeaux which Chef wanted to be PERFECT (as always) but more so because he is emotionally attached to the region. Personally I think it is the best meal so far. It was a lot of work, with a 1 day ahead prep but it was all worth it in the end, every dish very imaginative, creative and very tasty. 
The meal was paired with great wines of the region (my favorite): White for the Amuse Bouche and the Entrée: a 2004 Pessac-Léognan, and Red for the 2 Meat dishes: A 2005 St. Emilion Grand Cru.  


Enjoy!


Amuse Bouche: Tarte fine de Cèpes, Compotée d'échalote, glace au fois gras (Cintyia and Matan)


Cèpes mushroom tarte, shallot compote and foie gras ice-cream (yes...ice-cream)

Entrée: Déclinaison de couteaux aux concombres (Natalia, Diyonisis, Joppe)


Razor clam three ways: tartar, with bacon and breaded with cucumber dip

Plats: 


1. Salmis de palombes et son coffre roti (Carolina, Yiyu, Rosella)


Wild pigeon, cooked in wine and seared accompanied by artichoke and girolles mushrooms


Yes... plucking the feathers of the wild pigeon

2. Agneau de lait rehaussée a la harissa, polenta crémeuse au parmesan (Dream team: Roberto, Sinan and Me)


Lamb: braised shoulder and roasted filet, harissa and pesto sauce, polenta and parmesan chip

Desserts: Cannelés Bordelais, Crème brulé mangue, pommes et Sorbet au Lillet


Crepe dough tumblers (Cannelés), Crème brulé 2 ways, Lillet (wine-based liquor) sorbet - this was addictive but super strong! Love it :)

Unfortunately, today was only Thursday and since we usually have the regional meal on Friday, it felt as if the weekend was coming, alas, we still have one more day to push through!

Demo: Chef Yann Plassard

Today was a special day at Ferrandi as we welcomed Chef Yann Plassard, of 2 Michelin-star "La Fleur de Sel" into our kitchen to give us a cooking (and tasting) demo of some of his creative dishes.

Chef Plassard's serves carefully prepared food from the Brittany region but keeps busy with his 3 restaurants and his sous-chef of 12 years.

Today's menu:

1. Potiron roti, croustillant et émulsion de lard fume (roasted pumpkin with emulsion and crispy smoked bacon)

2. Chair de tourteaux, crémeux de chou-fleur, cappuccino de tourteau et tartare d'herbes (Crab meat, cauliflower cream, cappuccino of crab and herb tartar)

Male and Female crab

Cream of Cauliflower 

Using the siphon filled with cappuccino of crab

Final plating

3. Bar de ligne en feuille de "carta fata", chataignes émulsionées, ble noir croquant (Seabass cooked in 'carta fata' paper, emulsified chestnuts and crispy black wheat)

The black wheat

The right consistency...

Getting ready to cook black wheat

Preparing the girolles mushrooms

Sauteed leek, girolles mushrooms and seabass

Wrapping it in transparent baking paper (served as a bonbon)

Final plating...

The Chef grilled the fish in a transparent baking paper and presented it on the dish!

4. Figues poelées, glace vanille et vin rouge (Sauteed figs with red wine and vanilla ice-cream)

                                       

In the end, we celebrated with champagne...What an awesome day!

An awesome demo by a great Chef, thanks to both Chefs (Gabrielly and De Massard) for inviting him to come but also thanks to Chef Plassard for taking time off from his busy schedule and showing us some of his lovely dishes!

R.E.S.P.E.C.T

Today is about respect, treating the food delicately and not chopping it off like crazy. It goes for many foods: mushrooms, fish, even cream and butter. I found it to be appropriate for today's menu (both in class and in the restaurant). 


More fish on today's menu, cooked in broth (briefly) and white wine, and finished off in the oven. We cooked two recipes. The most intricate task for me so far is fileing a fish. You have to be sure not to chop off the meat, make sure the filet de sole knife does not cut off the precious meat but slides against the middle bone. This was especially true, but perhaps easier, with a flat fish like the sole we had today. 



Filets de sole bonne femme, pommes vapeur

Fileting my sole

Unfortunately, I was in a rush with my own dish, so didn't have time to take a picture of my own. But here is Joppe's final presentation (thanks in advance :) for the picture) of what it should look like. It is topped with a reduction of white wine, fish stock, shallots, mushrooms and parsley, cream and butter and passed in the salamander for a little colour.

Filets de lieu dugléré

Showing us how to filet a big huge 'lieu'

The fish is presented with a reduction of white wine, fish stock, shallots, parsley, tomatoes, cream and butter

                                           

Last night, as a final meal with my mom before she headed off to the states was to the famous and popular Le Chateaubriand, a new wave French bistro tucked in the 11th arrondissement. It opened in 2006 and has been featured as one of the hottest meals in town as well as the hippest eatery in Paris. The concept, I believe, draws on older French traditions with new wave flair, perhaps a shadow of Chef Inaki Aizpitarte's upbringings. 

As the 11th best restaurant (out of the top 50 in the world), one expects a lot, especially when it beats 3 star Michelin restaurants such as Pierre Gagnaire and L'Astrance. There is only 1 menu, for 50 euros including 4 amuse-bouches (which changes daily) - therefore no choice and your fate is basically in the hands of the kitchen. The menus (both wine and food) come simply on a printed piece of white paper, very informal and kind, as are the waiters, who funny enough were all scruffy and bearded with long hair; and the decor as simple, art-deco like. I found the dishes to be imaginative and creative, and playing on a lot of flavor from simple rareness of the food; its affordable in a good neighborhood - basically the best of both worlds.

They had a huge blackboard in the restaurant which I thought was the menu. But it just had a lot of different names, one of the waiters told me that it was to pay 'homage' and say thanks to all the winemakers who sold their 'natural' wine to the restaurant.

We started with amuse-bouches:

1. Gougères au fromage (Cheese pastry)

2. Shot de concombre et ceviche (Shot of cucumber juice and red snapper ceviche)

3. Cuisse de grenouille, crumble de pain (Frog leg topped with bread crumbs)

4. Langoustines, caviar citron (Sweet langoustines with caviar lemon) with a side of miso-like soup

Entrée:

Encornets crus, accompagnement de légumes (Raw squid with vegetables - leek, pickled shallots and spinach)

At the bottom there was even a surprise...black squid ink - very yummy with the sourdough bread

Plats:

Dorade grillée et carottes assortis (grilled seabream, orange and yellow carottes).

- I found this fish to be undercooked, it was raw at the center and at the bottom, but the cooked part was well done. I understand that some fish might be served half-cooked or undercooked ie. for salmon but this was really pushing it as it was literally raw at the bottom. Chef would not be please :)

2. The highlight of the night for me. Steak bleu (i love it raw) with raw and half-cooked cèpes mushrooms (Chef would love this), topped with trompettes de la mort mushrooms (yes, they are black) and on a walnut-based paste.

Desserts:

1. Chantilly, Apple and sponge cake. The chantilly was very fluffy and the sponge cake was soaked in Calvados liquor :)

2. Glace au Sarrasin, glace de pamplemousse et salsifis (Buckwheat ice-cream (yes the one that makes sour dough ice cream, grapefruit paste and salsify (oyster plant? very Asian and familiar taste but could not put my finger on the name in cantonese)

I love the look and the feel of the place, it's affordable to many and it matches the way the Chef presents the food. As you may encounter, the food is mostly served undercooked/raw and the vegetables slice thinly or served whole - as the Chef was quoted in an interview: "I just hope people can understand what I am trying to accomplish each time, and that by having fewer and fewer flavors, the essential becomes more distinct."

I agree that the food should be rewarded as one of the best in the world but what might entice more people to come is perhaps the good looking, scruffy and long-haired (if you're into that sort of thing) all-male crew of waiters?

Le Chateaubriand

• 129, Avenue Parmentier, 75011 Paris, France
• 01 43 57 45 95
• Metro: Goncourt (Ligne 11)