Today, an excited return to La Dame de Pic, a resto by
the great Anne-Sophie Pic, one of only four female chefs in the world to have
obtained three Michelin stars (for her resto Maison Pic in Valence in southeast
France), who was also named the "World's Best Female Chef" in 2011.
Read about my prior visits here:
https://mariellen-musing.blogspot.com/2022/04/the-glories-of-gastronomy-wednesday-20.html and here:
https://mariellen-musing.blogspot.com/2021/09/inauspicious-to-awe-inspiring-monday-27.html It is at 20, rue du Louvre, just steps north of
rue de Rivoli.
Madame Pic offers three prix fixe menus at lunchtime;
four, five or seven courses, with optional beverage pairings for each
course. I went with five courses and
beverages. Maybe one of these years I’ll
be brave and go with all seven! (Menu
photos are at the bottom of this post.)
Two little amuse-bouches: carrot purée with chives and
hazelnut in pâte brisée shell, and an herby cracker with gels of eggplant and
orange, enhanced with an anise flower cluster.
More calming than amusing or palate-awakening, nevertheless tasty and
interesting.
And I guess we all need
something calming to start a meal and take our minds off whatever stresses the
day has offered so far!
My next amuse was a plate of just-cooked juicy warm
mushrooms, topped with room-temperature mushroom purée containing just a hint
of ginger, crunchy fried cinnamon leaf, and a shower of herbs.
It was warming in multiple ways, delicate,
tender, sweet, and wonderfully digestible
With my first courses, the Chartogne-Taillet “Sainte
Anne” Champagne.
It’s made with Pinot
Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay grapes, and displays beautiful tiny bubbles
with lovely suggestions of herbs and tart fruits (kiwi, apple, unripe
strawberry).
Just terrific!
I love the moment when they bring me an individual loaf
of just-warm crusty rustic bread with the - I hardly have the words to describe
it -
sensational high-fat butter (it's the disc on the lid of the bread dish). The butter is intensely perfumed with some variety
of white pepper that I have yet to discover.
I kid you not, the sensation you get from this butter is perfume (and
just a bit of heat) and one of the purest dairy products you’ve ever
enjoyed.
I think I got a slight sense of truffle as
well today, but maybe that was my imagination!
Then my first course, a chilled large oyster with finely
diced daikon, watercress and dots of watercress puree, tucked in a taco-shaped
watercress gel wrap (y’know, sort of like jell-o poured into a large pan to
make a thin sheet, then cut into a 6-inch circle and folded around the other
elements of a dish - the imagination runs wild!). Briny, minerally, herbal, just great!
With the oyster course, a 2019 Alsatian Reisling by
Trimbach - sweet, with lovely suggestions of pear and rosemary, medium
viscosity.
It harmonized very nicely
with this course - similar notes that amplified rather than contrasted -
brought out a bit of the sea in the oyster.
My server suggested that it would also be great with cheese and
desserts.
One of Chef Pic’s specialties is the “Berlingot.” The name actually refers to a pyramidal hard
candy that she apparently loved as a child.
Her interpretation is a stuffed pasta of the same shape, filled with something
appropriate to the season! The pastas
are nice and voluminous - I’d guess they are about one inch wide and tall - so
ya get plenty of filling! Today’s were
filled with Camembert and served with seaweed “three ways” - a delicious broth
(deeply herbal and barely salty), some crunchy fried seaweed, and fresh “lettuce
of the sea” stems and fronds. The melty Camembert
was more full-flavored and earthy than most I’ve had. What a great combo!
With the Berlingots, a small iron pot of warm Japanese
tea made from fruits and vegetables.
It was
almost clear, very clean and pure tasting, maybe slightly alkaline, offsetting
the strong and very creamy Camembert.
Next, turbot roasted in butter!!!
Just explosively flavorful - I’ve never had
such a thing - even the texture of the fish seemed to concentrate with this
preparation.
With it, some gorgeously
herbal matcha & fig leaf sabayon, a fruit puree (blueberry?), a slice of
roasted plum, and a slice of another roasted fruit (maybe pear) topped with
herbs, flowers and dabs of the puree.
With the
turbot, a 2021 Stephane Ogier Condrieu La Combe de Malleval, 100%
Viognier.
Gorgeous stone fruits
(apricot, peach) and marzipan, a bit minerally, lingering, lovely mouthfeel.
Wow!
I
could drink this stuff all day!
Next, the beef, and hoo boy, what beef!
Muscular yet tender, richly flavored, sweet, the
fat completely distributed, on the rare side of medium rare yet with a gorgeous
crust.
It was like “oh, ya, that’s what
beef is supposed to taste like!”
With
it, beets three ways: sweet roasted purée, sautéed-in-butter cylinders, and blanched
ribbons that had been coiled into a disc that looked like a fat record
(remember records?!?).
Halved
blackberries.
A pool of delicious beef stock
(luckily, I had plenty of bread to soak it up!).
A crispy leaf of what tasted like caramelized
beet juice.
And a few herbs.
If you came distressed or agitated and hadn’t
settled down by this point in the meal, this dish should have done it for
you!
Who needs Xanax?!?
With the beef, a wine that almost made me cry at my first
sip, it was so beautiful.
A Bordeaux 2015 Château Le Puy Emilien - 85%
Merlot, 7% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Cabernet Franc, 1% Malbec and 1% Carmenère. It displayed the essence of every ripe
red fruit there is plus black currant, almonds, earth, pepper.
Mature and dry, a long gorgeous finish.
Holy moley, the skill of the winemakers.
God bless ‘em, every one!
I went for a cheese course as well.
It was a mound of whipped goat cheese placed over a
pool of livèche (lovage) sorbet and showered with shaved white chocolate!
Herbal, acidic and sweet, all in one!
(Sorry that it was a bit messy by the time I took a photo to show the innards!)
With the cheese, some sake!
A 2021 Kuheiji Eau du Desir (yup, you guessed
it, water of desire).
Sweet, heavy viscosity,
complex impressions of licorice, white flowers, asparagus.
Perfect!
Finally, for my dessert, apple to the n
th
degree!
A thick slice of apple roasted
in hibiscus and Calvados, on a shortbread-type base, draped with an apple gelatin dome, served with
cardamom ice cream (brilliant!) and apple puree.
It’s fall, and this couldn’t be more perfect!
With the apple, a low-alcohol cider that matched up
perfectly
- Cidrerie du Leguer Granite. I wondered if it might “water
down” the intense flavors of the apple and Calvados, but of course it didn’t - Madame
Pic and her team know what they’re doing - silly me!
For my post-meal mignardises, a little pastry saucer with
walnut bits and purée, and a yuzu caramel with shredded pine bark (at least that’s
what my server said - it wasn’t needles, but it was green and faintly piney!).
And coffee, served in gorgeous fashion.
The diner, ready for her nap!
Have a special occasion coming up? Might I recommend La Dame de Pic? Think being in Paris is a special occasion in itself? Well, same recommendation!!!
And the menus and some interior shots from my table:
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