Hangin' Out with Stars (Both Culinary and Musical!) - Saturday, 25 May

So, my friend Leslie Shank (a professional violinist, former Associate Concertmaster of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra) and her husband Joseph Hagedorn (a professional classical guitarist, teacher, and founding member of the Minneapolis Guitar Quartet) are in Paris this week.  Today they joined me for a 5-course (plus extras) lunch at La Dame de Pic (perhaps my current favorite resto)!  It took 4 hours, which kind of obliterated their other plans for the afternoon, but we sure did have fun eating and drinking and gabbing!  

We had a few choices: 5 or 7 courses; “regular” food-drink pairings (which can include wine, spirits, teas, juices, etc.) or non-alcoholic pairings; and one of three desserts.  We went for the 5 courses, Leslie and Joe went for non-alcohol pairings, I went for booze!

First, for my aperitif with the pre-first-course nibbles, I had a wonderful cocktail called “The First Word” – green Chartreuse (a spectacular herbal/botanical liqueur of some 130 ingredients, made by Carthusian monks, only three of whom know the recipe and each of whom knows only 2/3 of it, initially concocted in 1605!), gin, Marasquin (a cherry liqueur), yuzu juice, and tonic – on the rocks.  Very refreshing and appetite-stimulating.  Chartreuse has been growing in popularity across the world, but the monks decided last year to not increase production, so it’s getting harder to find.  I might just have to scour the duty-free liquor store at the airport on my way home!  

With our aperitifs, two beautiful and explosively flavored nibbles: a crisp pastry tube with goat cheese and rhubarb jam, and a beetroot pastry cup with some Indonesian berry (I didn’t catch the name), yuzu purée, and peppery pastry cream.  We’re off to the races!  

Also their spectacular individual loaf of warm bread with the best butter anywhere (enhanced with tonka bean and lots of perfumy black pepper).  I would come here for the bread and butter alone!

Our next appetizer was white asparagus three ways.  It’s hard to see from this all-whites scene, but there was an asparagus purée under a mound of lactic foam (made with milk and ??? to give it a bit of bite), topped with a few shavings of roasted asparagus (imparting just a wonderful hint of smokiness), thin crispy shavings of dried asparagus, all enhanced with very finely chopped mint.  Whoo boy.  More amazing creativity that just “works!”

Then to the first course:  more asparagus, this time the green variety from Provence!  The two plump roasted spears were served with smoked egg yolk (the smoking also cooked it to a perfect runny consistency), lardo (uncured bacon) from Gascony, a thin square veil of egg white, orange blossom syrup, cooked fir bud (yup, from a fir tree), another type of lactic sauce, and herbs.  I mean, y’know, eggs, bacon and asparagus – how hard could it be?  Oh, ya, THAT hard!  Brava, Cheffe Pic!

With my first course, a 2022 Condrieu by Julien Prilon from southeastern France, near Lyon.   Minerally, slightly citrusy, refreshing.  With the asparagus and the acidic lactic sauce, the wine became sweeter and nuttier.  It also enhanced the smokiness of the egg yolk.  Yum!

Next, Cheffe Pic’s “Berlingot”TM!  These are pasta parcels, sort of like ravioli, but shaped into triangular pyramids and filled to the brim with something (they’re always on the menu and the filling/presentation is always different).  They’re named after Cheffe Pic’s favorite childhood candy, which came in this shape!  Today they were filled with nice stinky Livarot cheese, girolle mushrooms (mild, delicious, toothsome), ground ivy, eucalyptus, marigold, and a wonderful deeply flavored vegetable broth.  

With my Berlingots, an Italian Arcato orange wine (75% Arneis and 25% Moscato) – stone fruity and just enough citrus to cut through the richness of the cheese.  As I mentioned, Leslie and Joe chose the non-alcoholic pairings, which were all fascinating and complex and house-made and perfectly enhancing of the dish.   I got to sample some of them as well!  With this course it was a slightly chilled green tea with waters made by slightly macerating apple, celery and spinach.  Wow!  One of these times I might just have to break down and order the non-alcoholic pairings!

And then some absolutely wonderful grilled mackerel.  This fish is so pretty with its iridescent skin, but can be so hard to prepare well.  Hers was moist, the skin was crispy, and its fat was just funky enough to remind you that you were eating mackerel!  It was served with a pistachio-pesto-filled pomme dauphine (make choux pastry, add mashed potatoes, form into a ball or quenelle, fill with something if you wish and reseal, then deep fry), peas three ways (blanched, pureed, and sauced with lovage and geranium) and herbs.     

With the mackerel, a white Corsican wine “Faustine” made with the Vermentino grape.  Subtle smokiness, slightly salty, white fruits and flowers, just a bit of citrus.   

And for our meat course: lamb!  And I mean, very tender very young lamb!  It was marinated with lupin bean miso (gotta research what that is!), then prepared three ways (notice a pattern here?!?) – the chop roasted to a beautiful pink, leg meat shaped into a cylinder which seems to have been grilled at a very high temperature and then sliced because the exterior was very crispy-smoky while the interior was melt-in-your-mouth tender and only slightly warm, and salty-deep-sweet confit of the shoulder muscle served in a little pastry cup and mounded with herbs, wakame (kelp) and wild garlic.  Oh, ya, and some perfect lamb jus.  I’m running out of adjectives, but let me just say that it would take many lifetimes for me to concoct a dish like this.  So I’m happy to pay Cheffe Pic to do so for me, and then shower her with applause!

With my lamb I was given a test, which I didn’t quite fail, but on which I didn’t get 100% either!  Our server poured me two small servings of wine and charged me with determining which one was French and which one was not, and what the grape varieties were in each!  Oh, the pressure!!!  The one I guessed was French was actually from Australia (a 2019 Vasse Felix), but I got the variety right (I guessed mostly Cabernet Sauvignon, but it was 100% Cab), very full bodied and complex and delicious.  I should have been able to guess that the other one was French, a 2019 Saint-Estéphe (Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot), given its dryness and elegant style, but nope!  I did guess that it was mostly Merlot and Cab Franc, which was correct!  So I’ll give myself a bronze trophy!

  

My dessert, described as a White Millefeuille, looked like some modern art monolith when it came to the table!  

But crack its meringue shell open and you see the deeeeelicious layers of crispy pastry, jasmine gel, and Madagascar vanilla pastry cream.  All sprinkled with wild Madagascar voatsiperifery pepper (gosh, I might just have to visit Madagascar some day!).  Oh, and some puffs of milky foam on the side.  What an ending!

I managed to snap a shot of Leslie’s gorgeous strawberry tartlet.  Apparently it tasted every bit as good as it looked!  Sorry that I failed to snap Joe’s rhubarb tartlet as well.  

With our desserts we each got a beautiful jasmine and lemon drink – just right – we had eaten a lot of food over four hours, but it was paced so beautifully and the portions weren’t large and there were enough acids (and alcohols in my case!) to help us digest everything, that we weren’t feeling at all uncomfortable.

Oh, ya, can't forget the post-dessert mignardises with coffee!  A tiny cardamom cookie with a black raspberry gel, yuzu, and a fresh raspberry.  And a Chartreuse encore in the form of a jellied sphere.  

Three happy campers at La Dame de Pic, 20 rue du Louvre, 1st arrondissement.  https://anne-sophie-pic.com/paris/#damedepic

Anne-Sophie Pic is the most decorated Michelin starred female chef in the world, currently holding 11 Michelin stars across her restaurants.

One final  photo, compliments of Leslie - Cheffe Pic with her favorite customer (not that she actually knows me, but the sommelier did recognize me from a previous visit)!