There are about 45,000 restaurants in Paris. This year 123 of them were awarded at least one Michelin star (10 received three stars, 17 received two stars, and 96 received one star). Every trip I try to visit a few more (although I don’t have any illusions of hitting all of them in my lifetime). But I also keep coming back to my top three, and one of those is the gorgeous La Dame de Pic. Anne-Sophie Pic is the most awarded female chef in the world – she has 5 restos in 5 cities and a total of 10 Michelin stars between them. Thank goodness Michelin was there to let me find her!
There’s nothing like your favorite mineral water in a heavy crystal tumbler to say “come on in, take a load off, relax and let us take care of you for a few hours!”
For my amuse bouche:
- A tender brioche-style bun flavored with turmeric (which gave it a little spiciness), hollowed out and filled with a bit of creamy corn – gentle, informal, made you feel like a member of the Pic family
- A sandy-crusted tartlet with radish cubes and tarragon cream – again, a lovely mix of tenderness with just a little kick from the radish and beautiful herbaceousness
- A pie crust ball (as my server called it!) with sardine, smoked whisky (glorious) and mint.
The scrubbed stones they sat on were great props and an eye-catching backdrop.
For my first course, a whole tomato that had been skinned by charring – they intentionally left remnants of the char, giving it a wonderful slight smokiness – enhanced with marigold, filled with sweet caraway ice cream, sitting in a tart shell, and surrounded with tomato juice (as in the fresh stuff you squeeze out of a tomato, not the bottled stuff!). Delicious and fascinating of course, but also interesting since gardeners typically plant marigolds next to tomatoes to keep the bugs away! They’re partners in growth and service!
With this course, two drinks:
- Distillerie Cazottes “Tomates” liqueur made with tomato juice, marigolds and eau-de-vie. Vegetal, with a sense of the stems as well as the tomatoes, tangy, a bit floral, slightly sweet. It comes from a winemaker who grew up on a farm and who likes to produce unusual vegetal wines every year in addition to his traditional wines. Laurent Cazottes and his father Jean grow 208 varieties of tomatoes plus flowers and aromatic plants which they combine with their own eau-de-vie and age. Poured over a giant ice cube, I can tell you that I’ve never had anything like this before. And I’d be happy to have it again!
- Pic's homemade no-alcohol tomato-strawberry juice. Yup. Another first! Sweet and tangy at the same time, cloudy, fairly heavy viscosity, slightly sparkling from macerating the tomatoes with sugar? A sense of earth/dirt. A marvel!
Cheffe Pic’s signature Berlingots came next. These are pyramidal stuffed pastas shaped like a favorite hard candy from her childhood. Each time they’re stuffed, sauced and accompanied with something different. Today it was glorious just-warm Camembert (I imagine that these take just a couple minutes to cook), Camembert chips, artichoke broth, lavender and verbena foam, and a roasted artichoke heart, sliced to mimic the shape of the Berlingot. Warming, tender, sweet, creamy, floral, romantic (an interesting description that I borrowed from my server!) with slight barnyard funk and just a touch of pungency. You can tell how excited I was to eat this dish – I dove right in and remembered to take a picture after I had eaten 2/3 of it!
So when the Berlingots arrived for my neighbor at the next table, I asked her if I could take a picture of them!
With the Berlingots a white tea from Nepal. Flowery, gentle, my server said it was chosen for the romance it created with the Camembert. Hmmm. OK. I would say that they did harmonize nicely!
Next a fish course. Very tender and mild red tuna cooked to rosé on the Japanese bbq grill. Despite the fact that it was barely cooked it flaked nicely – what a fine and fresh fish! On the side, tender green and yellow beans cooked al dente and glazed with honey, figs, salty-vinegary fir buds, juniper beurre blanc, all dusted with what I think was powdered green peppercorn. Surf, farm, dairy, beehive, forest, all working together like we all should!
With the tuna, a Spanish red “Migan” (Listán Negro grape) from Envinate in the Canary Islands. Senses of currant and dried cranberry, wild herbs, minerality, freshness. Another great pairing.
Then veal for the second time this trip! They dry-aged it in ground coffee overnight (another technique I’ve never heard of before!) then quickly grilled it to medium-rare just before serving. With it, a slice of pressed potato cake (thinly sliced potatoes stacked in a pan with butter and roasted until deep and crusted, then pressed, then sliced into small servings) with sour cream and a not-bitter-at-all coffee sauce. Oh, the creativity. The brilliance of the veal shown through (God bless that baby cow) with just enough accompaniment-reinforcement and no heaviness.
With the veal, two wines and a little quiz! My server brought two small tastings and told me that they shared one grape, and one was from France and one from another country. I had to guess the common grape and the countries. Yikes! Both had great legs. The one on the left was fresh, kind of wild, a bit salty, terrific raspberry and black currant, rosemary. The one on the right was more minerally, a bit of slate, red currant, pepper. I guessed the common grape was Cab Franc, the left one from Corsica and the right from Uruguay.
BZZZT. Wrong (except that the left one was indeed French). The common grape was Syrah. The left was a St. Joseph (northern Rhône) from Domaine Cyril Courvoisier. It was a 2021 vintage, an unusually cold year that yielded wines that tasted like those from many years earlier (per my server). The right was from Santa Barbara California, a Piedrasassi, a “modern” Syrah (for the second time this trip, and I'm still not sure what that means). Gotta say my guesses gave my server a bit of a chuckle, so y’know, a good day all around!
The dessert course celebrated peaches at the end of their season! A crumbly almond cookie base with peach slices, peach sorbet, peach purée, smoked vanilla (who wouldda thunk!) orange blossom mousse, and a lacy cookie. Yummers.
With dessert, a very cold Japanese late-harvest-tasting fruity plum wine served over ice. I didn’t catch the name of the producer.
For my mignardises, a herbal slightly peppery lollipop gel, a coffee-hazelnut tart with a dab of verjus which brought brightness, and a semisweet chocolate truffle. My espresso was made with the same coffee they used on the veal – a subtle but precise note.
As the host was helping me to my taxi after lunch he asked “will we see you again?” “Yes.” “Next week?” “Ha ha, no, in about eight months.” “Oh, we will have moved by then. We’re staying in the neighborhood but it will be a different location.” I love their current location (on rue du Louvre just north of rue de Rivoli), but hey, something to look forward to!
La Dame de Pic, 20 rue du Louvre, 75001 (for now). One Michelin star. https://anne-sophie-pic.com/paris/?lang=en
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