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I was ever so thankful that I didn't wake with a hangover this morning. Last night got pretty tough for me at the end... and apparently for Ricardo Chaneton, too... Thankfully we were both of us were fine today, because I was paying him a visit at
Petrus during lunch. If memory serves, he's been trying to get The Great One to visit him for the last 2 years or so... and now that she's finally going, she very kindly asked me to join her.
Rooftop bouquet, raspberry vinaigrette, Colonnata lard - the greens came from the rooftop hydroponic garden, wrapped with
lardo di Colonnata. The
vinaigrette came with dehydrated raspberries.
Crab roll, Parmesan, lime
Crispy merengue, smoke eel, foie gras - there were tiny cubes of
foie plus some smoky eel with anchovy sauce. The
meringue wasn't very sweet because it was made with some
dashi (出汁).
We were next served some
sourdough bread, where the dough included some
longan honey from Tai Po Tin Tsuen (大埔田村) as well as some
longan-fermented water.
Mediterranean red prawn, avocado, citrus dressing - now THIS was a very pretty dish. Thin layers of burnt and smoked avocado lined the bottom of the caviar tin, with sections of
carabineros, topped with avocado
purée, flowers,
cresson alénois, and wafers of little mushrooms that could have been
shimeji (占地茸). Served with a citrus dashi.
This was, of course, fantastic. Loved the little fragrance and acidity from the citrus. But of course... The Great One had to ask what Ricardo did with the prawn heads...
Heirloom tomatoes, honey dew melon, hazelnuts, basil - hmmmm... this looks familiar... like the
cucurbitaceae at Mirazur,
par hasard?
The fresh hazelnuts from Piedmont, the heirloom tomatoes from the south of France, honeydew melon, lemon basil, basil seeds all sit in a thick and viscous tomato
bouillon with the consistency of a thickened olive oil, accented with a few drops of basil oil.
Totally delish.
These are fresh hazelnuts, which I had never seen before.
Organic egg, cep, chorizo, vin jaune - the
onsen egg came with cream of cep mushrooms,
chorizo crème,
chorizo oil, and topped with dehydrated bits.
So... we had a duck press rolled in front of us, and the chamber was stuffed with a lobster head as well as the shell.
Blue lobster «à la presse», coco bean, chamomile - the
homard bleu was, naturally, delicious. The liquid from the press was incredibly savory and delicious, full of the flavors of the ocean. The Kaviari Kristal on top was fine, but I didn't particularly care for the coco beans as they added some grainy texture in the mouth. However, there were some chewy bits at the bottom which turned out to be cod tripe. Now THAT is pretty cool.
Monkbread, Menton lemon sauce - the only dish that I've tasted before, although the dish has now been renamed "monkbread". It's an interesting creation designed as a transition from seafood to meat, and the textures of both the monkfish and the sweetbread continue to be pretty fantastic. The
confit lemon sauce, the shaved lemon zest, the veal
jus, and the sweetbread crumble all worked well to enhance the dish.
Veal rack, eggplant, bagna cauda - a nice little veal rack showed up at our table, but thankfully we only got to taste a small part of it... This had been seared before spending two hours in the oven at 75°C.
The doneness was perfect, and the fat inside the tender, pink veal sure was tasty. The eggplant on the side was good, but the thin rings of black olives really added a lot of flavors here.
Époisses, cumin, Tai Po Tin Tsuen longan honey - I told Ricardo that he is a brave man for serving Époisses, and it's pretty damn pungent. Truth be told, the pungency had been somewhat moderated after being made into a foam. The disc of crystallized sugar on top added sweetness to soften the blow, as did the longan honey. The cumin seeds were surprisingly strong and fragrant, which also helped.
Petrus finally got around to hiring a pastry chef, and the result was pretty obvious.
Mara de bois éclair, white chocolate - so we've got an
éclair topped with pastry cream, some white chocolate from Valrhona, and Mara de Bois strawberries. Served with a
quenelle of strawberry
sorbet.
Finally, we had some
petits fours...
Coffee macaron
Coconut-chocolate tart
Cherry - not actually cherries... but tasty nonetheless.
White honey truffle, almond, sablé - we've got almond cream inside the tart crust, and shavings of Hungary honey truffle on top.
A very long and enjoyable lunch. Many thanks to Fiona and Ricardo, and especially to The Great One for letting me be her "plus one"...
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