Les Fines Gueules

In culinary school, we're told that not only does our cooking techniques matter, but for French food to be truly good, it should consists of the freshest available produce so that ingredients shine. I believe that Les Fines Gueules (an equally cozy wine bar and perhaps what might be the best steak tartare in Paris), right off Place des Victoires, embodies this principle. 

It serves the best quality produce in a generous serving but without overdoing it in presentation. The restaurant is not cheap, serving also vins naturels from France but serves some of the country's best oysters, cheese, meat, etc...

The daily menu that changes - apart from the steak tartare and the Rumsteak

I have read mixed reviews about the restaurant and agree that the staff, as nice as they are, were inattentive. I think it was the amount of customers kept tightly in the tiny restaurant or perhaps it was the lack of staff but by the end of the meal, it was very difficult to actually pay the bill and leave. 

Entrées

Assortiment de Charcuteries fines (12 or 24 euros), we opted for the latter as we had hungry bellies. The meat was freshly cut (I believe a vintage hand-worked machine was used)

Carpaccio de veau elevé sous la mère - sans bio - 36 mois, huile d'olive extra-vierge (Carpaccio of veal - raised by its mother for 36 months)

When I read this on the menu, I thought to myself...I have to have it. It's as fresh and clean as you can get. The meat was divine, it did not even taste (or look) like meat as it melted in your mouth. The more pinkish the meat, the better it is.

Ravioles de Boudin Noir de Christian Parra (one of the great Charcutiers of the Basque country) - Ravioli of Blood Sausage...a very familiar yet interesting take on blood sausage. 

Emiette de Tourteau, Crème de Concombre à la Menthe (Crabmeat, cream of cucumber) - it was very refreshing and cleaned your palate, would have loved to see this on the menu during the hot summer months.

Tarte fine de St. Jacques, Coulis d'Espelette -- Scallop tart with Espelette pepper coulis

Plats

Noix de Veau Desnoyer, Pieds de Moutons et Pleurotes, Coulis de Truffes Noires (Veal tenderloin, mutton's feet and pleurotes mushrooms, coulis of black truffles) 

Coeur de Rumsteak, Purée Maison, Sauce of Vin Rouge -- Rumsteak with red wine, potato purée

The pièce de resistance: Fameux Tartare de Limousine au Couteau -- Hand-cut steak tartare (17 euros). The Desnoyer meat (from Limousin) was draped with aged parmigiano reggiano and parsley with more potatoes and a light salad (provided by vegetable King, Joel Thiébault). This was probably the best steak tartare we’d ever eaten.

Desserts

Mi-Cuit au Chocolat Valrhona (Half-baked Valrhona chocolate cake)

Nage de Clémentines et de Raisins à la Menthe, Billes de Chocolat (Refreshing clementines and raisins with mint and mini Chocolate marbles)


To be honest, I could have done without this dessert. There wasn't anything unique about this dish - it was clementines, its juice with some raisins and chocolate bits. I could do this at home. A bit of a disappointment after a nice meal. 

Les Fines Gueules roughly translated as “The Fine Mouths” serves simple dishes to demonstrate the quality of the produce. It's refreshing to find someone who understands the balance between serving good quality ingredients and not pushing the extremes of your taste buds. 

Les Fines Gueules
43 Rue Croix des Petits Champs, 75001
Tel: 01 42 61 35 41
Metro: Palais Royal - Musée du Louvre (Ligne 1)

Le Grand Tasting: Bordeaux calls my name

This past Friday and Saturday, in Paris, 300 of France's top winemakers and some Italian producers gathered for Le Grand Tasting, at Le Carrousel du Louvre. More than 10,000 wine lovers came to the fair (entry fee only 20 euros at the door, 10 euros online) to enjoy a little dégustation from the best vineyards of France. 

I love this picture of the wine glasses and all the aromas one can smell when trying wine! From berries, to anis, to cinnamon, etc...

Once you enter the fair, you are given a glass that you use throughout the fair when you try the wines/champagne/cognac. You could spend the whole day here and drink from every single stand (luckily they give you a teeny bit to taste) but I went straight to what I love (a bit bias perhaps), Bordeaux wines and the Grand Cru Classé list . In each stand, the representatives of the vineyards will introduce to you the wine, the types of grapes used, the Chateau (if there is one) and then will pour you 1 of 3 bottles of wine they have laid out to taste. They also give out their cards and invite you to pay a visit to the vineyard and have wine tastings there. That's definitely on my TO-DO list. Each bottle is from a different year and go from light to the most strong in taste. The average years ranged from about 1995 - 2008.

Many people ate a piece of bread (to clean up the palate), tasted the wine and spit it out in a red container (imagine drinking all those wines and getting wasted!). I thought my approach was not that bad (just sip a bit) and pour the rest out...I think I tasted about 20 different wines (not bad since I arrived late afternoon and it was the last day and only open until 7 pm).

There were many contenders for the best wines, but the 1996 Château Palmer from Margaux (Troisième cru - 3rd growth) is a strong contender for first place. We first started with a 2007, then a 2006 and finished off with the 1996. 

There wasn't just Bordeaux wines but from all over France (Champagne, Languedoc, Alsace, Côtes du Rhone, etc...). Most of the big Champagne producers were there too (Perrier-Jouët, Mumm, Krug, Louis Roederer, etc...) and some Cognac producers as well.

There is always time for food, especially from Da Rosa, a cute wine bar in Paris in the 6th (near St-Germain). Their assiette ibérique was very flavorful and the ham was surprisingly sweet. 

Another great wine was the 1997 Château Pontensac (we had tried this wine in our own wine class so I thought it would be good to see what they had in store of the tasting). 

Another strong contender was the 2000 Château Beauregard from Pomerol 

Finally, the grand-mama of the Bordeaux wines we tasted was a pavillion just for St. Emilion Grand Crus Classés (which have their own classification and grades)

A definite cool experience to have in Paris during the fall/winter season. I  want/need to visit the Bordeaux region for a wine-tasting weekend (or two :) !