So guys, I apologize for the long absence. Had
a pretty hectic week here, with 2 papers due plus a friend's
birthday. Anyway, I've caught up on the comments you've left so
if you were waiting for a reply, go check again. The other
reason I've been putting this post off is that I haven't had a
chunk of free time long enough to do the whole thing. I'll warn
you now... this upcoming post is officially the longest post
ever.
Saturday night was it - the main event of our
trip. Dinner for three at
Guy Savoy, a
Michelin three star, and the first three star meal of my life.
My grandma, grandaunt, and two cousins were staying behind on
this one so that my dad, aunt and I could go the distance with
Savoy's biggest tasting menu. It's a menu I'd been studying for
a couple of weeks already, since the planning stages of our
trip. The "Textures et Saveurs" menu has 11 courses, and costs
285 euros per head, easily making it the most expensive meal
that's ever gone into my belly. You can imagine how excited I
was to go. I mean, how much better could it get than the meals
I'd already had?
So at about 8PM, I put on my suit and tie and
off we were. A quick cab ride later, we were there. It's a
fairly inconspicuous place from the outside. A dark, wooden
front with simple sans-serif letters are all that you can see,
along with a doorman. Inside, the place doesn't look that big.
It doesn't have the grand ceilings or open space of the other
restaurants. Actually, the restaurant has an extremely modern
design throughout, a shocking contrast to the flashy Baroque
grandeur of
Le
Meurice the night before. Dark, sleek woods, contemporary
furniture, and a variety of interesting art decorate the
interior. The place is actually divided into several different
smaller rooms.
The host led us to our table, which is in a
smallish room in the back. On the way we passed Danny DeVito
getting ready for his dinner, in a room across the restaurant
from ours. Our room had 4 tables, populated by an American
couple, a French couple, and a big group of some 8 or 10
Americans. The French couple, at the table next to us, appeared
to be VIP, as Guy Savoy came out several times during the night
and had extended conversations with them. We at least got to
watch.
I decided rather quickly that despite the
amazing Le Meurice dining room, I felt a lot more comfortable in
Guy Savoy. I really digged the cool, minimalist decor and
atmosphere. I guess most people my age would...
foie
gras and sourdough toast
Literally the moment we sat down, we were
brought these little single-bite skewers of foie gras with
toasted sliced sourdough. Delicious - I started getting really
hungry. We didn't have to think for long as we already knew we
were getting the big dog dégustation.
chopped cauliflower and broccoli with tomato gazpacho,
tomato stuffed with goat cheese
Soon came this first cold amuse, a refreshing
tomato broth with a healthy-tasting dose of veggies. The
bite-sized cherry tomato with goat cheese was hidden under the
right cover thing. A very solid start.
l’huître en nage glacée
Next came one of Savoy's signature dishes, and
the first listed item on the menu. This is simply an oyster
sitting in an icy gelée of its own juices. You guys know I'm not
big on oysters, but I really liked this a lot. I've never had
anything that tasted quite so much like the sea before. The
oyster lovers must be drooling at this one.
lobster, crusty and soft, raw and cooked, sauce made from
its juices, snap peas, spring onion
This one looks beautiful, doesn't it? This was
the next listed dish, lobster served in a variety of ways. In
the center is a lobster tartare, split in half by some kind of
crunchy lobster 'cracker', if that makes any sense. Around the
side are pieces of perfectly-cooked, tender lobster meat. The
drizzled sauce had a hint of sweetness to it, as did the
tartare. The snap peas and onions added a refreshing crunch. I
freakin' loved this.
small
peas served all ways
This little spoon wasn't listed on our tasting
menu, but it was an item on the regular menu as well as the
summer tasting. It had some pea puree, peas, pea sauce and a
small bit of egg yolk. Boy, did it taste as green as it looked.
It was the most intense bite of pea flavor I've ever
experienced, and I definitely enjoyed it. I doubt I could eat a
whole plate of the stuff though, which is what the French woman
who ordered it a la carte was doing right next to us. One
spoonful was perfect.
colors of caviar
This dish was pretty cool. It came out without the top layer,
and displayed a generous amount of caviar at the top in all its
glory. The bottom two layers are cream and pea puree. After a
quick 'oooh', the waiter poured on the top layer of sabayon
which kind of hid the caviar. When eaten together, the
ingredients created a delicate balance of creaminess, veggie-ness,
and saltiness. It actually had a similar feeling to the
cauliflower panna cotta with caviar that I had at French Laundry
a few weeks later - I'll write more about that in a while. Very
good stuff.
'chop' of fat turbot with egg and spinach sprouts...
Another pretty dish - this time just a simple,
delicate piece of turbot with a beautifully-poached egg and some
raw spinach. The waiter drizzled some very good olive oil on
top. The fish was moist, tender, but still full of texture. As
we ate, we wondered - why the hell are there holes in our plate?
Is that just to look cool? Meanwhile, the valuable yolk and
olive oil seemed to be falling through.
turbot part 2 - the soup underneath!
And when the three of us finished our pieces
of fish, the answer was revealed. Our plate was actually two
pieces - the holes were just a cover for this bowl, which had a
turbot consommé, potatoes and spinach in it. The egg yolk and
olive oil had dripped through. After lifting off the cover, the
waiter also added some more pieces of turbot, explaining that
these are different cuts of meat that come from the side of the
fish. This fired on every cylinder. The broth was delicious,
still very hot, with a strong flavor from the fish and the olive
oil. The fish itself did taste a bit different - a little
fattier, I'd say. The soup was actually in the description on
our menu, we'd just forgot about it when we got the first part
of the dish. This one gets 68 billion style points.
roasted duck foie gras with a red cabbage nage, horseradish
purée and mustard
The requisite foie gras course this time was
pretty unusual. Instead of some kind of sweet fruit, it came
with a red cabbage sauce, which added an interesting
sweet/bitter element to it. The mustard and horseradish gave it
a bit of kick. The foie itself was, of course, excellent. Pretty
unusual take on a regular item.
artichoke soup with black truffles with a mushroom and truffle
brioche
This is Guy Savoy's major signature dish. My
dad had been hyping it up, claiming that he doesn't even like
artichokes but can't get enough of this. It didn't disappoint. I
actually do like artichokes, and soup had heaps of artichoke
taste (like my Aussie speak?). The truffles and cheese added
some variety. The brioche (way in the back) was soft, flaky, and
pretty much heavenly.
all-veal
Finally came our main dish, a variety of veal.
The bottom was a braised veal shank with parsnip purée, followed
by a filet on the left. The top was a lightly-breaded
sweetbread. On the right is a kidney, and the center is a fried
tongue and some girolle mushrooms. I'd say in my order of
preference went sweetbread, filet, shank, kidney, tongue. The
tongue was a little bit weird for me, to be honest. It was fried
and had a sort of chewy texture. But I loved the four others.
The kidney had a great distinct kidney flavor. The shank was
meltingly tender, though slightly underseasoned. The filet was
simple but well-executed. The sweetbread was masterful - a
perfect balance of crispy breading and delicious, almost creamy
gland.
red
fruit moëlleux
I apologize again for stupidly forgetting to
take a picture of my cheese. Just believe me that I had some and
it was good, but not really anything you haven't seen yet. Now,
the first in a barrage of desserts - this was one of the 3
listed on the menu. I'm not sure how to translate 'moëlleux',
but it's a sort of soft but semi-solid puree. From left to
right, they were blackcurrant, raspberry and strawberry. It was
quite refreshing, and a neat, steady progression from sour to
sweet.
blackcurrant with pistachio, madeleine, wrapped raspberry
These things were good but less memorable.
Pretty much tasted like a blackcurrant and a raspberry. The
Madeleine was definitely good, but not quite as impressive as
the bigger ones we had at Le Meurice.
cerise à l’exotique
I thought this had a cool French name. The
second listed dessert, this so-called exotic-style cherry was
actually pretty complicated: cherry gelée with lychee sorbet,
cherry chips, and aloe vera. This was my favorite dessert of the
night - cool, refreshing, sweet, and very inventive. The cherry
gelée and lychee matched together perfectly, while the jello-like
aloe vera balanced out the sweetness.
chocolate disc with tonka bean, cocoa sorbet
Our final listed course, this deep, rich
chocolate was flavored with tonka bean. I had no idea what a
tonka bean was at the time - apparently, it's a South American
bean that is sometimes used to flavor alcohol and cigarettes,
and has a taste like tobacco. That didn't really occur to me -
it tasted like chocolate and chocolate mousse/cream to me.
earl
grey tea sorbet
The menu was over, but stuff kept coming. This
one was another winner. A light tea flavor to cleanse the palate
a bit. This and the jasmine crème brûlée we had at
Capelongue made for a high success rate with tea-based
desserts.
lemon
marshmallow, chocolate mousse
What were we cleansing our palate for? Well...
At Guy Savoy, after you finish dinner, they apparently come
around with a frickin' DESSERT CART stocked
with all kinds of goodies for you to pick and choose. Candies,
mousses, ice creams - all kinds of stuff. I started off with a
lemon marshmallow - fluffy and citrusy. Then I eyed their jar of
chocolate mousse, which was creamy and delicious.
vanilla and toffee ice cream
As our waiter introduced all the stuff on the
cart, I sort of embarrassingly asked how many I could pick. He
told me as many as I wanted, so of course I tried all kinds of
stuff. The ice creams were great. You can see the specks of
vanilla bean, and believe me you could taste it. The toffee was
like Haagen Daaz dulce de leche on steroids. Amazing caramel
flavor, but not too sweet. I also got an apricot macaroon that
came out blurry - it was good too.
And that was it. 18 courses, and the most
expensive meal of my life. Was it the best meal I've ever had?
Well, I feel pretty safe saying it's the best Western meal I've
ever had, but I can't really compare it to Asian food. Needless
to say, this was extremely satisfying. And though the three of
us were extremely full, we never felt disgustingly stuffed. I
don't know how considering the quantity of food.
How did Guy Savoy rate compared to the other
meals? Well, the third star clearly meant something. The service
was just out of this world - a perfect balance of
professionalism and friendliness. My dad noted that despite what
you might first expect, the service is not at all stiff, snobby
or condescending. Our waiters were genuinely interested in our
having a good meal. It sounds cheesy, but it was a noticeable
difference. One of our main waiters was a Nordic-looking but
very French guy, who perfectly skirted the line between being a
classy professional and being your best friend. When we chatted
with him he'd joke about people never think he looks French,
which doesn't get him a ton of respect in the restaurant biz.
The teamwork that went on throughout the night was seamless. To
be honest, we didn't have to ask for a single thing during our 4
hours there, and I mean that literally. I stood up to go to the
bathroom, and before I was completely upright, one of the
floorpeople had already read my mind, walked up to me, and
offered to show me the way. It was an eye-opening experience.
Anything negative about the meal? Well, for
one, I'd say it isn't completely fair to compare this meal with
the others because we didn't have the big dog tasting menu
anywhere else. Secondly, the bathroom that I was led to was a
bit on the small side. That's about it...
I hope I've recounted the experience well
enough. Out of curiosity, I just did a word count of this post
and it's longer than both of the papers I had to write for this
week.
© 2005 Arthur Che. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Arthur Hungry "eating one meal at a time"
www.arthurhungry.com
____________
