Lunch at Hélène Darozze
Gen, Sanjay and I went to the two star restaurant Hélène Darozze for lunch on Thursday. Hélène Darozze is from a family of cooks from the South West of France. This region is renown for rich, hearty food: duck, foie gras, truffles and cassoulet all come from the region. I was looking forward to seeing how these roots would blend with haute cuisine required for obtaining two or more stars.
Upon entering the main salon à manger (there are three dining rooms at the restaurant) I thought all roots may have been left behind, so chic and Parisien was the décor.
The layout was playful but more classy than Senderens, which is, I think, aiming for the same ambience. The table layout was equally pleasing, with lots of little things to catch the eye. The table cloth, impossible to capture with a photograph, was of the thickest, finest cotton. Just feeling it made me want to roll up in it and fall asleep.
I also liked the use of natural light which is some times missing in top restaurants.
There were several options when it came to order: a standard lunch menu of foie gras, pigeon and dessert for 72€; a seasonal menu of cèpes for 110€ (which we took); an exhaustive degustation menu for 195€ and à la carte. These prices are a little on the high side of average for restaurants of this class in Paris. The prices on the wine list were the most expensive I’ve seen at any restaurant, with many wines listed at five or six times their retail price. I was looking at the Vogüé Bonnes-Mares until I saw that it was 700€. I’ve seen it in Burgundy for 130€.
I decided to look elsewhere and ordered a bottle of Vieux Télégraph Blanc 2005 and a bottle of Vieux Télégraph Rouge 2004. I’d tasted both of these recently and thought it might be nice to have a better look at table.
Specialising in truffles and it being the white truffle season in Alba, we asked after these. The maître de salon said he’d spoken with Hélène Darozze and she’d add some to our second course.
The bread cart soon arrived and we had our selection of a range of home made breads:
From left to right, levain, pain de compagne, small pain de compagne rolls and at the back fig and walnut breads.
The first course soon appeared.
Cèpe tartlette with frog and pesto
The beautiful wild aroma of cèpe (porcini in Italy) filled the air. The texture of fresh cèpes of the highest quality was unmistakable: this is a mushroom for mushroom lovers. With the frog leg meat, this worked well, they have a similar texture, like rare bream I think: at once fleshy but also fiberous, muscular. The flavour of the two was also similar, like poultry, or maybe rabbit, but with a hint of the sea, and at the same time wild. The pastry underneath was a salty short crust. Personally, I found it just a little too dry and this clashed with the texture of the frog and mushroom.
With the Vieux Télégraph Blanc 2005 this was superb. This wine reminds me a lot of manzanilla sherry, it is positively salty. It is more sophisticated than sherry though, with aromas of pear, unripe peach, a hint of galangal and straw. The palate is something else, really mouth filling, all parts of your mouth are caressed by it. In this wine, alcohol takes the place of acidity and lends structure to the palate, intensifying the finish. It improved the longer I left it in the glass. A great Chateauneuf-du-Pape blanc, I think it will be a legend in time.
The next course arrived:
Sautéed cèpes, raw cèpe, rich polenta and Alba truffles
The heavenly aroma of Alba truffles filled my senses as they slowly warmed on the polenta. Taken with a little cèpe they were without peer: finer, more complex than French black truffles with an aroma which, for a food lover, approaches the sublime. The texture of the cèpe was perfect: crisp and salty on the outside, moist and fleshy inside. I cook with cèpes often and I simply do not know how you make them this good. Again, taken with the blanc, this was very good. The rouge, at such a young age, hide the delicate complexity of the truffle.
I was beginning to feel a little full and was hoping the next course would be a light one. Unfortunately, it was massive:
Poulet jaune with cèpes and roast wild vegetables
When the menu said ‘corn feed chicken’ I didn’t take it to mean that half a chicken would be presented on a plate! The thigh and breast had been stuffed with lard, cèpes and bread and the flavour was deliciously rich. This is the kind of meal you’d really expect in a restaurant from the South West. None of us really even put a dent in this dish, there was just too much food. The Vieux Télégraph Rouge 2004 was well suited to the country-style flavour: rich but restrained red berry fruit with aniseed, roses and a touch of blood. I was surprised at how well this was looking at such a young age, better than the bottle I’d tasted recently. Superbly structured, no doubt a very good wine for medium term drinking.
Seeing the huge cheese cart, I was almost hiding under the table:
All three of us resisted and we moved on to dessert:
The chocolate cake contained coriander seed and I was fascinated at how well this worked with chocolate, something to explore later. The dessert small and delicious.
Next was coffee Haitian style (which apparently means served in a wine glass) and petits-fours from a cart, no less:
The aroma of the coffee was greatly intensified by the wine glass, further proof of the importance wine glasses play in showing wine well. The petits-fours were probably the best I’ve had, made by someone with amazing skill and creativity.
Overall, an enjoyable lunch but hard coming after Pierre Gagnaire. The food was superbly made, the understanding the cooks have of the cèpe is obviously second to none, but the use of salt was a little distracting. The heaviness of the third course also sat awkwardly with the sophisticated, very Parisien surrounds. These are, though, minor problems. The restaurant is solidly two star.
I’d been told that Hélène Darozze was a strong contender for elevation to three star. I do not think that will happen until two or perhaps three things change. Firstly, the wine list is extremely overpriced, much more than any three star restaurant whose list I’ve seen, and that must raise an eye brow with reviewers. Secondly and more importantly, the food is very good but simply not three star. I think to reach three Michelin stars, a restaurant needs to not just make good food but also to make food which is intellectually challenging, exciting and shows evidence of a chef exploring the limits of their own understanding of food.
Thirdly, but most easily fixed, some of the wait staff struggled. Junior waiters were disorganised and always seeking confirmation from senior waiters. When not preoccupied, they looked obviously bored, They were uncomfortable with the food and the surrounds, it seemed. Multiple times I made requests which were unfulfilled, forgotten by the waiter. At two stars, this shouldn’t happen, at three stars… it would be unimaginable.
Luckily, these problems are for Hélène Darozze, who seems more than capable given how far she has come. Our only concern after this lunch was for the beauty that is Paris in Autumn:
