Joël Robuchon is a French
chef who has been knocking about for some time. He knows a thing to two about
cooking and has managed to pick up a few awards and accolades over the years.
During his time he has opened some pretty successful eateries. Oh yes, and the
guys from Michelin are quite keen.
I’ve been eager to try
one of his dozen or so restaurants for a while. I nearly managed it in Paris
recently but plumped instead for the neighbouring Pierre Gagnaire’s Gaya Rive Gauche (see here). We then almost went in Singapore but heard that Fat Cow had taken delivery of some A5 Omi
Wagyu (which, I’m yet to blog about). So, upon my return to England, I promised
myself a trip to London to check out the two-Michelin-starred L'Atelier de
Joël Robuchon.
Since going a few people
have asked what I thought about it and my responses have largely been negative
– perhaps unfairly so?
I’ve been telling people
that I don’t think it ‘deserve’ two stars. There are a couple of main reasons
for this – firstly, and most importantly, I didn’t feel the food was on a par with
some of the other two-star places I’ve dined at – e.g. The Ledbury, Passage 53,
Le Gavroche, Momofuko Ko and Kajitsu.
Actually, I don’t think it’s even up there with some
of the one-star places I’ve dined at: L’Enclume, Sketch and Fraiche springing
to mind. This does not mean however that I didn’t enjoy it – I loved it – the
food was great – but for me, ‘just’ one-star great.
As I’m sure you know, one star indicates "very good cuisine in its
category", whereas two-stars warrants "excellent cuisine, worth a
detour" – given the choice in London, for me, simply put, it’s not quite
worth the ‘detour’.
If this sounds like I’m being picky... I am; but as fellow two-star chef
Michel Roux Jr. always says, ‘It’s all about attention to detail.’
Food aside (that I’ll come to) other things that were not right for me
included not being served a butter knife (when others were) and a dirty fork
(naturally, not wanting to evoke the scene from Monty Python I did not mention
it at the time and buffed it myself on my napkin – I’m quite resourceful like
this).
Décor wise L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon should be right up
my street – it’s modern and has an open kitchen. Whilst I loved the open
kitchen thing at say, Momofuku Ko (see here) or Simon Rogan’s Aulis at L’Enclume (here), the L'Atelier version did not really work for
me – you couldn’t really see much ‘cooking’ going on (just assemblage) and
there was no interaction with, or ‘theatre’ from the chefs.
I was also unconvinced by the red and black theme. I so wanted to think of
the décor as sleek and sexy in the classy Folies Bergère style but part of me
was unable to shake the thoughts of ‘black ash furniture’ – it all felt ‘a bit
eighties’ and passé – like the album cover to Blondie’s Parallel Lines or the tacky red and black underwear that
men often buy their wives and/or mistresses on Valentine’s Day.
The signature, Royale de Foie Gras amuse bouche was an excellent
start to the meal - a luxuriously smooth foie gras mousse; a layer of port
reduction all topped with a frothy Parmesan espuma.
I opted for the set lunch course of one Entrée, one Plat and one dessert
but supplemented with an additional Entrée from the ‘Small Tasting Dishes Menu’.
LA SAINT-JACQUES
D’ECOSSE en carpaccio aux oursins et
huile d’olive citron
Delicious as it was, at £18 it did seem quite a lot of money for a
relatively small amount of sea urchin and scallop carpaccio. The lemony olive
oil was gauged just right and the little dill fronds added hints of anise and
beauty.
LES ASPERGES BLANCHES
en salade tiède de mendiants et jambon ‘Iberico’
On paper I was looking forward to this dish the most. Having recently got
back from Paris during asparagus season I had been lucky enough to have some wonderful
white asparagus dishes and had high hopes for another.
Sadly, this one did not hit the mark. Not quite sure of the definition of
a ‘warm’ salad – but the only part of this dish that was remotely warm was the
soft-boiled quail egg. The asparagus itself was ‘fridge cold’. Each component;
the pistachio and pecan nuts; the cheese and the Ibérico Ham were excellent
individually but they just did not come together for me.
LE FOIE DE VEAU
légèrement acidulé et pommes persillées
The calf’s liver, glazed with sherry vinegar was sublime – the dish of
the day for me. As a child I did not enjoy liver but cooked to perfection, like
this was, I now find it hard to beat.
The ‘bed of’ parsley potatoes and accompanying veg in the little cast
iron Staub cocotte were also served too tepid for my taste. They were cooked
well enough and tasted good could but could have done with either being warmed
through more or served quicker from plating up – a down side of an open kitchen
meant that I could see my dish sitting ‘on the pass’ for too long before it was
served.
LE MANGO-MANGO
onctuosité aux fruits exotiques, coulis de fruits
jaunes
You couldn’t really go wrong with a dessert made from textures of mango
and the enigmatic Joconde biscuit; and they didn’t – good tropical flavours,
wonderful textures and beautiful presentation topped with decadent gold leaf (it
even included some ribbon seemingly taken from some of that gaudy Valentine’s
lingerie).
A
hard one to win – I know if this was a one-star restaurant I’d be raving about
it but as a two-star the higher expectation has sadly left it open to closer
scrutiny from me. I want to rave about it; I want to be able to say it’s up
there with the other two-star places I’ve dined at but… what do I know?
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