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Posts tagged ‘Food Photography’

Jun 29

19 Comments

Fontevraud le Restaurant

Fontevraud l'Abbeye

While flipping through my Food & Wine magazine in Colorado, I came across an article entitled The Ten Best New Restaurants in France. Much to my delight, one of the restaurants happened to be situated directly on our planned cycling route. Too good to be true, I knew it was meant to be. I decided to splurge and booked a table for two at Fontevraud le Restaurant, in the Abbaye Royale de Fontevraud not far from Saumur.

Located in the cloister, and one time prison, of Europe’s largest abbey, young chef, Thibaut Ruggeri, (only 34-years-old), and winner of the 2013 Bocuse d’Or (an international gastronomic competition), serves up extremely stunning haute cuisine in an intimate and peaceful setting. The tables surround a courtyard filled with fresh and colorful herbs where the very kind and attentive wait staff trim and pick fresh ingredients for each course.

Fontevraud-Le-Restaurant

No doubt about it, Chef Ruggeri is an artist. Visually his plates are exquisite. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen such beautiful and creative plating. Our dinner was like an edible trip to a fine modern art museum. In addition to the freshly picked herbs, the chef uses local ingredients, like honey from the abbey’s bees and mushrooms grown in the limestone caves surrounding the abbey. While not every plate was a homerun on the palate and flavor sometime took a back seat to art, it was an unforgettable evening.

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Fontevraud le Restaurant

Fontevraud le Restaurant

Fontevraud le Restaurant

Fontevraud le Restaurant

Fontevraud le Restaurant

Fontevraud le Restaurant

Fontevraud le Restaurant

Fontevraud le Restaurant

Fontevraud le Restaurant

Fontevraud le Restaurant

Fontevraud le Restaurant

MENU ABEILLES \ 20€

Layers of fresh goat cheese

Chicken with mashed potatoes and lemon

Chocolate and nuts

MENU MENU \ 58€

Including wines in keeping with the meal \83€

A springtime revolution

Pollock, and pots herbs

Chicken from Racan, Swiss chard end goat’s cheese

Goat cheese and basil

A symphony of lemon and black olives

GRAND MENU \ 95€

Including wines in keeping with the meal \ 130€

The Paris mushroom at Fontevraud

Fario trout marinated, pinewood

Poached monkfish with shellfish and striped with squid and squid ink with a braised fennel bulb and a dill and red wine sauce.

A pigeon fillet with almonds and covered with a cognac marzipan, honeyed carrots and giblets with 4 spices.

Cheeses from the length and breadth of the Loire

A little sweetness without butter or cream

A symphony of lemon and black olives

Aug 21

14 Comments

No. 355: Being Covered with Croissant Crumbs

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You know it is going to be a great day when you start it covered in croissant crumbs.

Why in the world can no country besides France make perfect croissants and pain au chocolat?

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Jul 11

13 Comments

No. 302: Grilled Summertime Vegetables

It is summertime in France and the open markets are bursting with color and flavor. Since barbecuing is technically illegal in Paris, given the fire hazard and all….we have to head to our local restos to get a plate of perfectly grilled vegetables. But nothing tastes better on a long summer’s night. Don’t you agree?

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Jul 10

2 Comments

No. 301: Crème Chantilly

chantilly_cream_France.jpgAs if there weren’t enough lip-smacking things to gobble up in France, along comes the tried-and-true crème Chantilly fresh from the town of Chantilly in Picardy. This is not what you would call delicate whipped cream. It is a hardy, stand-alone dessert topper whose snowy peaks and designs hold their shapes after a good whisking, like a 60s beehive-hairdo shellacked with VO5 spray.

As the story goes, French Chef Vatel first came up with the recipe to help “stretch out” his short supply of cream during a banquet given by Fouquet honoring the Sun King. (Supposedly he never lived to taste the cream because he committed suicide during the banquet when he found out there was also a shortage of fish for the diners.)

His one-time secret recipe is now a standard in French cooking, and the essential ingredient for a perfect Chantilly cream is top-quality whole crème fraîche (fresh cream),  with a bit of icing sugar, and pod of vanilla mixed in; But beware, precise whisking is a must as too many strokes will turn the cream to butter…not necessarily the worst outcome, mais probably not the best consistency for embellishing desserts.

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When visiting Chantilly, be sure to order a big bowl of the delicious cream to share.

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Jun 18

12 Comments

No. 279-284: six tartelettes que j’aime

bathroom-scale

I am starting to wonder if I will ever lose those last 10 lbs. while I am living in Paris. I only seem capable of “being good” for 4-5 days at a time, and then I have a complete breakdown and wander into a gorgeous pâtisserie and it is back to square one and late-night bike rides on my vélo d’appartement trying to burn the extra calories from the day.

Let’s just say, it will be a very late evening tonight as I mistakenly strolled into Eric Kayser for a healthy quinoa, salmon and roquette salad and came away with a bit more than I bargained for.

Damn, the French and their daily menus which include a boisson (drink) and dessert along with the salad for only an extra €2.30.

As I have missed several days of blogging this week (due to the deluge of American guests à l’hôtel Nancy—going on 24 days, but who’s counting…), I looked at the stunning display of desserts and thought, “I’ll do a post on tartelettes.” And that mes amis is where the diet went all to hell.

Argh! I almost always go for the fruity tartelettes, mais aujourd’hui, I put my healthy blinders on and went straight for the chocolate and caramel display. And then I saw it, those two magnificent flavors combined, and a mini-dessert I had somehow  managed not to discover over the course of nearly 3 years: la tartelette au caramel et chocolate. Donc, I had to buy one. After all, it was a better deal to get the menu instead of just a salad and drink.

Long story short, I split the first one with Button. It was divine, like heaven popped on a plate. And then for the sake of my readers, I bought a second one to bring home and photograph (and retaste) for my blog. Curses!

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Below please see my six favorite tartelettes that I have eaten at one time or the other over the past years all for you and in the name of research: 

 tarte-caramel-chocolat.jpg

tartelette caramel chocolat

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tartelette aux poires

tartelette mascarpone fruits rouges

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tartelette aux pommes

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tartelette au citron

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tartelette  abricots et pistaches

Vocabulaire

mais aujourd’hui: but today

mes amis: my friends

vélo d’appartement: exercise bike

 

 

 

May 1

5 Comments

No. 227: Huîtres: Where Have All the “Rs” Gone?

Yesterday was the end of oyster season. Sigh…

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We have to wait for the next month with an “r” in it to come around before we can enjoy the best of the best huîtres in their proper seasons.

We did have a terrific fall and winter tasting season, and nearly 6-weeks of spring, but now it is May, and May is “mai” en français. Oh why, oh why, can’t “mai” be one of the thousands of French words with a string of silent letters? Why didn’t l’Académie française or one of the 40 all-knowing immortels slip in a silent “r” somewhere between May (mai) and August (août)?

As it is, we will need to wait until September (septembre)—123 days until oyster season rolls around again.

In the meantime, we’ll always have the memories…

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Vocabulaire

huîtres: oysters

 

Apr 27

9 Comments

No. 221: Pâtisserie Algérienne

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Another one of the things I love about France is the very different and interesting culture that the Algerian immigrants and citizens bring to this country. The North Africans bring so much color, flavor, and vibrancy to the forever black and often mild palette of Paris.

I was recently reminded of this wonderful Algerian influence when I was exploring the 11éme arrondissement and came across yet another La Bague de Kenza Pâtisserie. The name, “The Ring of Kenza”, as all good names do, has a story attached to it. It has to do with one of the owners losing (and then finding) one of his daughter’s precious rings. I’m not sure why the father had her ring to begin with, but I like to imagine him panicked in the street of Paris, asking every one he came across if they had seen “Kenza’s ring”.

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It is fitting that bague means ring, because La Bague de Kenza is filled to bursting with sparkling, pastry jewels, the pâtisseries orientales. Everything behind the glass counter is yummy, but as I am nutty for pistachios, I always go straight for the pochette pistache, chopped pistachio and honey paste tucked into a light pouch of heavenly dough. The marzipan shaped fruit aren’t just delightfully whimsical, they are also every bit as delicious as German marzipan.

As you can imagine these pastry chefs bake with many different incarnations of almonds and dates, and pine nuts make a star appearance in several of my favorites, as do walnuts and coconut. La Bague’s pastries are a nice change of pace from French pastries and perfect as a delicate, and different dessert at your next dinner party. Mildly sweet and exquisitely crafted, it is worth stopping by just for the photo opportunity. And if sweets aren’t your thing, they do a mean tangine and fruity couscous, and don’t forget your mint-leaf tea.

 

106 rue Saint-Maur, Paris 75011 (Belleville)

 

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