Fresh Pasta with Mushrooms and Truffle

Posted on July 15, 2011 | 14 Comments

Truffle season is upon us, and to celebrate, what’s better than beautiful fresh pasta with lots of butter, Parmesan cheese and shaved truffle…? That’s right, nothing!

This little baby comes from Tasmania and this time, my partner insisted on taking care of it, as according to him I didn’t make the most of it last year and he could do much better… All right then!

He made some fresh pasta, which he then cut by hand, in a kind of short pappardelle shape.

He had previously placed a few slices of truffles in between layers of butter, which gave a nice fragrance to it, before melting it in a pan until it becomes brown.

He cut approximately half of it into little bits, which he threw with the butter, to which he added a handful of freshly chopped parsley and a couple of cloves of garlic.

He then added sliced fresh mushrooms, a mixture of Shitake and Swiss browns.

Meanwhile he boiled the pasta for a couple of minutes, then drained them and served them with the mushrooms, sliced generously the rest of the truffle on top of each plate, added grated parmesan and voilà!

I have to admit it was utterly delicious, you really can’t beat fresh pasta, truffles are worth the extra effort… Maybe I’ll even let the boy be in charge again next year!

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Sydney Pastry Club at the Bathers Pavilion – Balmoral

Posted on June 27, 2011 | 8 Comments

“Pastry is all about creativity, sharing and generosity.”

This is the motivation behind the creation of the Sydney Pastry Club by Fabien Berteau, pastry chef at Park Hyatt, and Elerig Liguet, from Deshel Foods.

As stated on their Facebook page, the idea behind this club is “to showcase Sydney Pastry Chefs’ skill and imagination” by getting them to revisit dessert themes (eg. Meringue Lemon Tart, Gateau Opera, the Baba, Black Forest…). Chefs have two months to design their idea and to come up with their very own creation, which they will bring to the meeting for the other members to taste. Fabien insists on the fact that it remains very friendly & informal and that it is in no way a competition: “We’re just having fun.”

Fabien created the club early this year and received an enthusiastic response from his colleagues. The first meeting took place in February with an Native Australian theme and the second one in March around an Orchard theme (you can check out pictures of their creations here and here).

The Sydney Pastry Club chocolate creations

I first heard of Pastry Clubs in a French documentary called La Revanche des Pâtissiers: “The revenge of the Pastry Chefs”, who had for a long time been eclipsed by their Chefs de cuisine counterparts, until 5-6 years ago, when the attention of the public and the media started to shift towards them: at last they were getting a bit of the limelight!

Christophe Michalak, largely featured in the film, is a famous Pastry Chef who creates beautiful and enchanting desserts at the Plaza Athénée (a luxurious Parisian hotel, also host to French gastronomy monument Alain Ducasse).

Christophe, alongside chefs like Pierre Hermé and Philippe Conticini, is part of a new generation of pâtissiers who have changed the landscape of pastry in France, by striving to inject a new life and more creativity into traditional pastries. Their creations are conceived with the utmost attention to detail and are often compared to haute-couture pieces. Christophe also changed the image people had of the pastry chefs, by sporting a very modern and fashionable look… this also contributed to his ever increasing female fan-base! (and yes ladies, he is still single!)

Christophe Michalak

Together with some passionate fellow pastry chefs, Christophe Michalak decided to start a club so they could meet every couple of months in an informal way, discuss their passion and show their creations on a theme given in advance, which became: “Le Club des Sucrés“, or simply “Les Sucrés”.

There are pastry clubs being created all over the world now, for professional and amateurs pâtissiers. One example of the latter, that has encountered a huge success the last few years is the Daring Bakers Challenge, a web-based club counting more than 1000 members worldwide, mostly food bloggers, who every month are given a particular theme or pastry to reproduce at home and then blog about it to share their successes… or lesser successes!

Anna Polyviou and Bathers Pavilion Executive Chef Serge Dansereau

The chocolate-themed 3rd edition of Sydney Pastry Club took place at the Bathers Pavilion, where Anna Polyviou, the resident Head Pastry Pastry Chef, and her team played host. Serge Dansereau, Bathers Pavilion’s Executive Chef for 13 years, also made a brief appearance to welcome the chefs, before having to return to work.

Bathers Pavilion Pastry selection

Fabien Berteau (creator of the Club), Anna Polyviou and John Ralley.
Second row left: Dean Gibson 

John Ralley – Manta Restaurant & Pastry Team Australia

The beautiful dessert pictured above is the creation of John Ralley, pastry chef at Manta Restaurant (Woolloomooloo): a Milk chocolate and Orange Petit Gâteau, made out of Orange brûlée, Marnier jelly and Hazelnut dacquoise.

Team Pastry Australia: Buddika Gunawardana, John Ralley,
Adrian Pagano, Justin Yu

John is also one of the four members of the Australian Pastry Team, currently preparing to compete at the Asian Pastry Cup in Singapore in April 2012. A place amongst the first four best teams would see them qualify to participate in the prestigious 2013 World Pastry Cup in Lyon.

Dean Gibson, Australia Pastry Team Captain, has got his eyes on the prize

Dean Gibson, a pastry teacher at Hunter TAFE Newcastle and current Captain for Team Pastry Australia was also there to present the team. Dean was himself a competitor for Australia at the 2010 Asian Pastry Cup alongside pastry star Adriano Zumbo! Despite the lack of time for preparing for the cup, the team made it to the fifth place, one spot away from being qualified for France!

This set back didn’t discourage Dean and team coach Jian Yao, quite the opposite! This year Dean is the team captain, and with Jian they have  put together a team of four young and hungry pastry chefs, who are currently training to become a winning machine in Singapore!

But more on this later… :-)

Anna Polyviou – Bathers Pavilion

Anna Polyviou – Bathers Pavilion

Anna and her team had prepared quite a spread for the occasion, including desserts from the restaurant, the café and the high-tea menus.

She talked about her award-winning career, which got her to travel to many places around the world, like Chicago, Paris and London before becoming Executive Pastry Chef at Bathers Pavilion 5 years ago. She also mentioned her participation to the upcoming Shoot the Chef competition, as well as the Chocolate Festival in the Hunter Valley on the 6-7th August, where she and Chef Nick Vivan from the Hunter Valley Gardens will concoct a Chocolate degustation… that’s right, even the savoury dishes will include a chocolate component! Sounds like it could be interesting…


Gary Willis / F. Mayer – Barry Callebaut

Gary Willis, who represents Callebaut in Australia, was just back from a week in Brazil for a chocolate convention, which saw him meet many international pastry chefs and visit cocoa farms and cocoa factories. He told us about this incredible experience.

Aurélien Menuet – Glass Brasserie at the Hilton 

Aurélien Menuet from Glass Brasserie, Hilton, was inspired by the history of chocolate and built a Consquistadors’ boat out of chocolate to represent the discovery  of cocoa by the colons in South America.

Fabien Berteau – “After Four” – Park Hyatt

Fabien decided to give his own twist to the traditional “After Eight” snack by offering an “After Four”, which evokes the “goûter” French kids used to have after school: it usually comprised a nice bowl of chocolatey milk with chocolate biscuits (like BN or Prince de Lu). Fabien is currently “sans” kitchen, as Park Hyatt is currently undergoing major work and will only re-open at the end of the year.

Yves Sherrer – Est Restaurant

There were too many desserts and I soon couldn’t keep up on the specificities of each dessert: pastry chefs, if you read this, feel free to comment and give additional info!

Anna Polyviou – Bathers Pavilion

John Ralley – Manta Restaurant – Member of the Australian Pastry Team

Chris – Royal Sydney Golf Club

Anna Polyviou – Bathers Pavilion (Praline and apricot delice with carrot and apricot sorbet circled with caramelised walnut crumble). 

Lee Turford – Shangri La Hotel’s High Tea

Didier Lannoote – Taste of Belgium

After each chef went through their creation, it was finally time for tasting! It was pretty busy at the buffet and I didn’t get to taste them all, but enough to say that these chefs are all very talented! Pastry really is art on a plate to me, and I really admire their creativity and craftsmanship, having only recently made my first chocolate mousse! Congratulations to the Sydney Pastry Chefs Club and vive la pâtisserie!


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Ravioles de Romans

Posted on June 14, 2011 | 16 Comments

Box of “La Mère Maury” ravioles: Le goût du souvenir

To me, the Raviole box pictured above says it all: “The Taste of Memories“. Ravioles bring me back to my childhood in Romans, in the South-East of France, where they are a specialty. They have been protected by a “Label Rouge” since 1998, under the appellation “Ravioles du Dauphiné”. (The Dauphiné is an old French province that used to include the following current departments: Drôme, Hautes-Alpes and Isère).

Street view of the “Mère Maury” shop in Romans-sur-Isère

Ravioles are similar to their Italian cousins, the ravioli, but much smaller and filled with a mixture of fresh eggs, fresh cheese, parsley and Emmental or Comté (quite simply the best hard cheese on the planet). The most common way to serve them is poached with a bit of grated cheese on top, but they are actually very versatile and can also be baked, fried, eaten in salads, etc. The range of fillings has expanded a lot too with a choice of goats cheese, porcini, basil, foie gras, salmon, snails and even chocolate!

The raviole goes back as far as the Roman times, but its current name appears in the 13th century. It then described a “piece of dough filled with chopped turnip (“rave” in French) eaten at Lent”. The name originates from various Provence dialects (raviula, raiolo, revioro, etc).

Fresh ravioles display under the watchful eye of La Mère Maury

Ravioles haven been shown to be consumed in Romans from 1807 onwards. In the 19th century, they were prepared for big occasions by special cooks: the “Ravioleuses”, who would travel from house to house to make ravioles. One of them was Marie-Louise Maury, the first, around 1880, to serve at her café the hand-made ravioles to her customers. It quickly became a very popular dish. It wasn’t until the 1960′s that the ravioles de Romans appeared on restaurants menus, were produced industrially and sold beyond the Dauphiné borders.

Frozen Ravioles selection (Basil, Porcini, Goats Cheese…)

When I came back to Romans for Christmas last year, my sister offered me a book entirely dedicated to Ravioles. All the recipes looked really good, though some of them might have had the Mère Maury raise an eyebrow or two, like the Spinach & Ricotta ravioles with a quinoa, prawns and pink grapefruit salad, or the Chicken & ginger ravioles with coconut milk and lemongrass!

Once I received my raviole mould from France (merci M’man!), I decided to start simple and stick with the traditional recipe: faisselle (fresh curd cheese), comté and parsley. This recipe didn’t mention eggs for the filling. I replaced the faisselle with fresh ricotta, which I mixed with some cream to make the texture lighter and moister and replaced the comté with Swiss gruyère.

Dough making

But first I had to make the dough, by mixing together: 250g of flour, 1 large egg, 1 teaspoon of salt and 80ml of cold water.

1. Sieve the flour
2. Whisk the egg together with the water
3. Mix the flour with the salt, add the egg mixture and work the dough until it becomes smooth and supple, to obtain a texture similar to an earlobe! (sic)
4. Let it rest for 30 minutes
5. Divide the dough into 8 parts to obtain 8 small balls. Spread each of them of your floured work bench with a rolling pin to obtain 8 very thin sheets of dough.
6. If you own an Italian pasta machine, use it to make the pasta sheets as thin as possible.

I started with the rolling pin but got really frustrated and quicky switched to the pasta maker, which was so much easier! The only problem was that the rectangular shape of the dough didn’t match the square mould, so I couldn’t use the mould to its full capacity.

Raviole filling mixture

Once I had all my sheets ready, I prepared my filling by mixing the ricotta, gruyère and parsley with a fork.

After sprinkling flour on the mould, I placed a sheet on top of it and put tiny amounts of the filling on the sheet following each square of the mould.

I then placed another sheet onto it, which I sealed with the rolling the pin.

I then detached the ravioles sheet from the mould and placed them in a bowl and started the operation again.

I then placed them in boiling water (the tradition requires to use a chicken stock), and drained them as soon as they came back to the surface (after a minute or so).

Drain and serve immediately with grated cheese!

These ravioles are still slightly bigger than the authentic ones but the taste is pretty damn close! Now the next step is to get better and faster at making them and explore all the other recipes. I have got my eye on the Goats cheese ravioles with a capsicum and piment d’espelette sauce… or a Ravioles in a clear shitake and leek broth… the sky is the limit!

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Seizure: The Food Issue @ The Paper Mill

Posted on May 29, 2011 | 9 Comments

Last Wednesday was a really bad day to venture outside: cold, rainy, windy… all attempts to protect oneself proved futile, as the umbrellas were overturned by big gusts of wind! However I decided to forgo the temptation to go home crash on the couch and watch Masterchef to brave this ridiculous weather and attend the launch of a new literary magazine, Seizure. This new publication was created by some good friends of ours, and my partner happened to have done a fair bit of photography work on it, so I really wanted to come and support, rain, hail or shine!

The 1st edition of this bi-annual publication is dedicated to my favorite topic, FOOD, and it promised to be a great event, even more so when I was told that Black Star Pastry’s Christopher The, who contributed to the magazine, would be catering for the evening! Black Star Pastry, for those who have been hiding under a rock for the last few years, is based in Newtown and is responsible for THE BEST CHOCOLATE ÉCLAIRS EVER! Big call, I know, but so true!

The launch was held at the Paper Mill, an art gallery on Angel Place in the CBD. I had to walk past Felix Restaurant, the new venture of Merivale run by Lauren Murdoch, to get there and I just had a little peep through the window on my way past… it looked amaaazing! It’s now definitely on my list of “must eat there”.

But back to our subject…


Alice Grundy – Seizure’s Editor-in-Chief

Seizure is the brainchild of Alice Grundy and her husband Dave Henley, who wanted to bring a bit of freshness to the literary scene by showcasing new emerging talents in the one magazine. It will be published twice a year with each time a different theme (next will be sci-fi).

Mori, the Gumshara Ramen chef who inspired The Chronic” story by author Sunil Badami (centre) and Delia Falconer

The Food Issue is a bit of a wink at traditional gastronomic publications; like them, it contains articles, photos and recipes, but brings its own off-beat / quirky twist to it. One of the stories I have read is about “The Chronic”, the now cult Ramen soup from Gumshara at Eating World in Chinatown, which has foodies, critics and chefs alike raving about it. Chef Dan Hong is one famous fan and is the first who dubbed the Ramen as The Chronic on Twitter: it is a very addictive soup, not for the faint-hearted though, as it is very very rich and porky!

Another contributor is Mark Jensen from Red Lantern in Surry Hills, who included several yummy recipes, as did Cafe Mint‘s chefs Yoni Kalfus and Hugh Foster, as well as Christopher The.


Chris The and Lauren Murdoch, who popped in briefly from next door


Test tube of apple cider granita with champagne

Chris, Buster and Maria had prepared a lot of cute little canapés for all the guests, starting with these little test tubes, filled apple cider granita, champagne and a few flakes of gold, which you could better after agitating the tube, quite fun to drink out of those unusual vessels.

Green olives in dukka and honey

The olives prepared in Dukka were very moreish, could have gobbled up many, but I knew more was to come so I restrained myself.

 Spiced pumpkin tarts


Aussie burgers


Buster (who speaks perfect French!) preparing the chestnuts for roasting

Delia Falconer – Author of “Sydney”,
recently nominated for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards

We listened to a few speeches from Alice, Delia Falconer and Christopher The.

Chris talked a bit about the food that was served. 

The much anticipated Miracle Berry that makes everything taste sweet!
(beautifully shot by my better half, Matthew Venables) 

One of the surprise of the evening was the distribution of a peculiar lolly supplied by the one of Seizure’s sponsors, Miracle Frooties. These lollies have the particularity to make everything you eat afterwards taste sweet! And to support this claim, a big spread of fruits had been prepared: slices of green apple, lime, lemon, grapefruit, as well as spoonfuls of Balsamic Vinegar and other nice concoctions by the Black Star team. We were warned to finish enjoying our wine first, as it would taste sickly sweet afterwards… it would be a pity, considering it was some nice Pinot Noir from Philip Shaw in Orange, and sparkling white wine from Stonehurst in the Hunter Valley.

 The sweetest slice of red grapefruit I’ve ever tasted

All the citrus fruit tasted amazing after I had my pill! There seemed to be a consensus about the lime tasting the best with the lolly, but I thought the lemon was just perfect: all the acidity has gone, leaving only the sweet and sour tanginess to taste…

 Beetroot sherbet

The Beetroot sherbet was in the form of powder at the bottom of a straw that you sucked in…. tasted like sweet beetroot. Of course I had powder all over my face, since I can’t be taken anywhere, just like the balsamic vinegar in the spoon that I poured all over my shirt and camera!

 Balsamic turkish delight with strawberry

That was really good, the texture of the fresh strawberry and balsamic jelly worked really well together.

 Guiness and chocolate spider


Goats curd on pumpernickel (3rd dish from the front)
+ food blogger Angie lives to eat (2nd from the left)

At times it almost felt like a civilized version of a rave party, where people would discuss the effect their drug had on them…: “Have you had yours yet?”, “Yours come on yet?”, “Mine has worn down already…”. I actually felt pretty hyped up, like a kid who had had too much cordial!

One of the big food highlight was the “flambage” of the tarts, which consisted of pouring powdered sugar on the tarts, then spraying some vanilla alcohol, and finally setting them alight with the blowtorch and watching the glorious caramelizing process happening….

 Crème brûlée flambée

I made the mistake of taking my miracle berry before the Guinness & Chocolate Spiders and the Brûlées Tarts were served, so I didn’t even try… I knew it would be too sweet! People were raving about them, especially the Brûlées… aaaaargh!!! My loss…

Marrons chauds

Lovely hot chestnuts were served, which I found really heart-warming as, to me, it is really a French thing to do, typical of winter… It probably comes from a rosied up memory I have from my childhood in France, but when winter was upon us, my mother would often roast chestnuts in the oven and it was just fabulous :-)


A familiar face from the food blogosphere
& Sunil, the author of “The Chronic” story

Conclusion: a very fun night and some pretty crazy food were had by all! Makes me wonder what they would come up with for the launch of the Sci-Fi edition!

Seizure: The Food Issue
Available in all good book stores.

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Garden Court Restaurant – Sofitel Sydney

Posted on May 20, 2011 | 14 Comments

Last week I was invited to a French-themed dinner hosted by Cenk, creator of Social Dinner Club, at Garden Court Restaurant, on the 5th floor of Sofitel in the CBD. Sofitel is a 5-star hotel owned by Accor, the famous French multinational corporation.

The Garden Court’s website describes the restaurant serving “modern contemporary cuisine with a French influence”. I was quite impressed when I made my way inside the grand entrance hall, the decor was simple but classy, you could see guests and patrons enjoying a relaxing drink in the lounge on the ground floor and staff members were most polite and friendly when I asked my way to the restaurant.


Once we were all seated, Alex, the sous-chef at Garden Court Restaurant, talked to us about the dishes that were going to be served, and how they use a lot of French techniques and recipes, but add their own Australian twist to them.

Mushroom Consommé

We were first served a Mushroom Consommé, a warm and clear broth with herbs and mushrooms, which was nice and full of flavour.

Yamba Prawns with Spanish jambon cru

The entrée consisted of Yamba prawns wrapped in jamon on a bed of iceberg lettuce, with kipfler potatoes, green beans, kalamata olives, hard-boiled quail egg, with pesto, tapenade and a preserved lemon, not an especially French-sounding entree, but pleasant nonetheless. The Yamba prawns (Yamba is halfway between Coffs Harbour and Byron Bay) were huge and tasty, apparently they are Matt Moran‘s favourites, which is a good sign. The ham in which they were wrapped was a bit too cooked for my liking, I usually prefer the jamon/prosciutto type of ham as is, raw, but that’s personal taste. They were served with a delightful glass of 2009 Aurum Pinot Gris, from the renowned Otago region in New Zealand, where the climate is very similar to the one we can find in Burgundy.

The vegetarian option consisted in Baked and caramelised fresh figs with Goat’s cheese mousse, crumbled parmesan, micro herbs, which proved almost more popular than its meaty counterpart, from what I could hear from the other guests!

Coq au Vin

The main dish was the very anticipated Coq-au-Vin, the famous dish of chicken cooked in wine with vegetables, lardons… a bit the equivalent of Boeuf Bourguignon but with chicken! The sauce was very dark and rich, which I liked and the pieces of chicken nicely cooked. The accompanying potato mash was not too creamy and went well with the carrots and caramelised onions, the “lardons” (speck) bringing a nice salty flavour and the whole little onions a nice caramelised taste… probably my favourite dish of the night. We were served a glass of 2008 Silverwood Pinot Noir from the Mornington Peninsula, which went down quite well.

The vegetarian option for the main was Sweet potato gnocchi with zucchini flowers, peas, tomato, basil butter cream, which seemed to be appreciated too.

Social Dinner Club guests

French Pastries: Millefeuille, Raspberry Opera Slices,
Wentworth Cheesecake, Chocolate Éclair

An assortment of traditional French pastries was then served, including a Mille-feuille, which consisted in superimposed layers of puff pastry and pastry cream, and a Raspberry Opéra Slice, which was to me a bit too dry. The Wentworth Cheese Cake is Sofitel’s signature dessert, hence the name, which they also serve at Sofitel’s renowned High Teas: I was pleasantly surprised at how light it was, it was almost similar to a mousse, which was good because I was really starting to be quite full! However my favourite of the four desserts was the Chocolate Éclair: the choux pastry was light and soft and the filling of chocolate cream was delicious.

We were given pretty little raspberry and chocolate macarons after coffee, which was a nice attention.

All in all, a pleasant evening spent meeting other foodies around a nice dinner… a good concept I think!

The French Wench dined at Garden Court Restaurant as a guest of Social Dinner Club.

Level 5 – Sofitel
61-101 Phillip Street
Sydney NSW 2000
Ph:  (02) 9228 9179

PS: Next Social Dinner Club dinner on the 9th June is focussed on Turkish food and will be held at Efendy in Balmain: I think it might very well be a good one!

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Le 7, par Anne-Sophie Pic – Valence

Posted on April 29, 2011 | 6 Comments

My French holiday back in December was the occasion to catch up with some very good friends from my uni years, who were also in town to see their families. We decided to have lunch at “Le 7″, the bistro version of the world renowned 3-star restaurant La Maison Pic, Valence, in the Rhône-Alpes region.

The number “7″ refers to the famous Route Nationale 7, also named  ”La Route bleue” (The Blue Road) or “La Route des vacances” (The Holiday Road).

At the height of its glory, the RN7 ran over 1004km, starting from Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, the “Zero point” for all French roads, down to Menton near the Italian border, via Lyon, Nice and Cannes. Even though it has now been replaced with much more efficient highways and motorways, RN7 still evokes a certain nostalgia: the first paid holidays (1936), the first individual cars (50′s), visions of endless traffic jams as the whole French population seemed to be driving down to the Côte d’Azur every summer… happy times!

Many RN7 nostalgics have created associations and clubs to keep intact its memory by organising memorabilia fairs, vintage cars events, even re-enactments of the traffic jams in the fifties and sixties! There are also board games, touristic tours, photography books, all dedicated to the Route nationale.

“Nationale 7″ by Charles Trenet – 1959

“Le 7″ Bistrot was opened in 2006 as an homage to the famous restaurants that could be found along the RN7, such as “La Côte d’Or” in Bourgogne, “Les Trois Gros” in Roanne, “La Mère Brazier” and “Bocuse” in Lyon and “La Pyramide” in Vienne and among them of course “La Maison Pic” in Valence.

“Le 7″ and “La Maison Pic” are both run by Anne-Sophie Pic, recently named the World’s Best Female Chef by San Pellegrino in its 2011 World’s 50 Best Restaurant Awards. She is also the first female chef to obtain the coveted 3 Michelin stars in 2007, thus perpetuating the family tradition, as the accolade was won by her father and her grandfather before her.

“La Maison Pic” was founded in 1936 by André Pic, but the restaurant already existed as “L’Auberge du Pin” as far back as 1891,when it was run by his mother Sophie. He got the restaurant its first 3 Michelin stars in 1934, and his son Jacques repeated the exploit in 1973.

Anne-Sophie, Jacques’ daughter, first chose to study business management, then travelled the world and worked for luxury brands like Cartier and Moët & Chandon. At age 22, she decided her life was in the restaurant kitchen and started an apprenticeship with her father. Unfortunately he died of an aneurysm shortly after, in 1992. She soon left the kitchen for the administrative side of the business, not feeling at ease in the awkward position of “boss/apprentice”. Her brother Alain moved on to another venture a few years later, leaving Anne-Sophie the sole manager. In 1995 she married David Sinapian and together, David at the management and Anne-Sophie back in the kitchen, they worked tirelessly to infuse a new life into the restaurant and bring its 3rd Michelin star lost in 1995.

In 2007, she finally regained the 3rd Michelin star, thus becoming the 4th woman in France to obtain 3 stars.

The Bistrot 7 adds yet another stone to the Pic empire, comprising of the Pic hotel & restaurant, Pic consulting, the e-store, the cookbook, Pic cooking classes, seminars and the Pic foundation..!

Le 7, Bistrot chic

We arrived at “Le 7″ for lunch in a reasonably packed dining room, after walking past the original restaurant next door and marvelling at the 8-course 330€ (AU$450) degustation menu, including a Sea Bass covered in caviar (Jacques Pic’s signature dish, kept on the menu ever since its creation in 1971).

After considering our options, my friend and her partner both chose the set lunch menu at 29€ and my other friend and I chose from the A-la-Carte menu, as we both found the Confit Rabbit Ravioli entree and the Duck main too appealing to refuse. We were then offered complimentary Beetroot dips with bread, which were pretty pleasant.

We all agreed on ordering a 2008 Saint-Joseph, made out of shiraz (“syrah”) grapes and produced a bit further north in the Rhône Valley.  On the Gault & Millau‘s website, it is described as powerful, tannic, fruity, spicy, tasting of blackcurrant, blueberry and violet… which sounds about right!

Game “Caillette” with quince poached in red wine and onion pickle

My friends seemed to enjoy the game terrine from the set menu very much (pictured above).

Ravioles of Rabbit confit with tarragon carrots and mustard jus

The Rabbit Ravioles didn’t taste quite as I had fantasized when I read the menu description, but they were nonetheless very good, the raviole dough was nice and ferm and… there was enough butter!

Fine farce of fish and squid with melted leek and lemongrass emulsion

The above dish was also part of the set menu and my friend enjoyed it immensely, saying it was fresh, light and subtil… I was a bit jealous.

Free-range chicken leg, buttered in cabbage, chestnut & lardon and jus court

Her man seemed also pretty happy with his chicken dish.

Duck breast with home-made tagliatelle and apples

Duck breast with home-made tagliatelle and apples

Both my friend and I were impressed with the generous portion of Duck breast on our plate, it was going to be a mouthful! Not surprisingly I did struggle a bit to finish, but it was very good, the duck breast was cooked to perfection, although I would have appreciated a bit more “jus”, or sauce, to go with it. The caramelised apple quarters brought a nice sweet touch, but I think I still prefer the classic duck and orange combination… (yep, I have very conservative tastes!)

Paris-Brest, with caramelised apple puree and green apple sorbet

I know I said I could barely finish my plate, but I still decided I would have some dessert… so there! I didn’t choose the lightest dessert either, the Paris-Brest being a choux pastry filled with a praline flavoured pastry cream, it’s pretty heavy! But that one went down a treat, the choux pastry was light and airy and the apple puree cream was just delicious… I didn’t regret this little indulgence.

Caraïbes chocolate & praline with orange sorbet

My friend’s partner decides to accompany me so that I don’t feel too lonely eating my dessert… looks like it wasn’t such a sacrifice for him, that chocolate and praline dessert also looked pretty good!

Little gourmandises to eat with the coffee

On the whole, a very pleasant meal and an affordable way to discover Anne-Sophie Pic’s world. Well worth straying from the motorway for a gastronomic drive along the RN7!


Anne Sophie Pic portrait

Le 7 Bistrot
MAISON PIC
285 avenue Victor Hugo
26000 VALENCE – DRÔME
Ph. +33 4 75 44 15 32 – Fax +33 4 75 40 96 03

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Christmas in Romans

Posted on April 4, 2011 | 9 Comments

Romans-sur-Isère, Drôme

In between several “Bûches de Noël” evoked in my previous post, many delicious dishes were shared during the week of feasting at my parents’ place in the Rhône-Alpes region of France.


Some frog legs we spotted when we picked up our oyster platter…

We started with some fresh oysters on Christmas Eve, which is usually more important in France than Christmas Day lunch (this one was low-key though, as there were still only a few of us). The oysters were accompanied with a few drops of lemon juice, which for me is the best way to eat them, except maybe with an eschalot vinaigrette. We also had scallops, which I omitted to photograph, cooked in a creamy sauce, then a lot of cheese and of course the Chocolate Bûche my mother had made (see previous post).

Oyster platter

On Christmas Day we had a bit of a drama as we had to wait for what seemed like an eternity at Valence TGV train station, a huge windy freezing place in the middle of nowhere, while my sister and her two tired and hungry kids were blocked for an extra 3 hours in the train due to the weather conditions (snow, freeze…). It actually wasn’t too bad, compared to other parts of France: a few days later, hundreds of travellers got stuck for 26 hours (!!!) in a train from Strasbourg to Nice… Aaaaaaaah, the joys of train travel!

Meanwhile at home, some guests (I won’t say who ;-) had started on the “apéro” to pass the time and as a result were starting to be a bit tipsy by the time we came back! It was well past 5pm when we finally sat down to lunch, everyone was starving and we just demolished the food!

Duck Foie Gras

We started with a bit of Foie Gras, eaten with slightly toasted bread, followed by the traditional “Dinde aux marrons” (Turkey with chestnuts).

My mum was a bit worried that the turkey would end up being too dry, having stayed in the oven much longer than planned and then out on the kitchen table for a while longer, but it was just perfectly cooked! A little Christmas miracle  ;-)  It was stuffed with chestnuts and accompanied with a stew of chestnuts & apricots, an unusual but pleasant combination, and green beans and potatoes… and gravy, lots of it! Simply delicious.

Dinde aux marrons – Turkey with chestnuts

We then moved on to the cheeses… My cousin had set herself the mission to bring me the smelliest cheeses she could find, assuming Australian cheeses must be pretty bland and that I would crave a good authentic French stinker! She brought the two babies below, probably the smelliest cheeses I have ever encountered! There actually was a third cheese she had bought that we had to throw away, even she couldn’t eat it… and she has a very high smelly cheese threshold!


Crumbed camembert marinated in Calvados

The Camembert marinated in Calvados and covered in bread crumbs sounded really interesting, but at the risk of being branded a wuss, I have to admit it was too strong for me… But I’m half Australian after all, so that can explain! ;-)

Époisses

This one was a pretty far gone Époisses, though I found that if I stayed clear of the crust, it was still quite enjoyable with a robust glass of wine!


Saint Félicien

The above cheese was my favourite of them all: Saint Félicien, which is of the same family as Saint Marcellin. They are from the same region, the Dauphiné, both made from raw cow milk, but the Saint-Félicien is fattier and creamier, mmmmmh……

Vacherin du Haut Doubs

We were also spoilt with some Vacherin du Haut-Doubs (where I was born), very nice and smelly but not overly so. That is the kind of cheese in which you dig a hole, pour some white wine into it, leave in the oven and eat later with a spoon… but we didn’t do that this time, we were quite content to just spread it on some nice Campaillette, an artisan baguette from one of the most popular bakeries in town, la Boulangerie Bédouin. My mother used to send me there to get the bread when I was a kid, and my big pleasure was to tear a big chunk from the still warm baguette and eat it on the way home. By the time I was coming back, half of it would have been eaten…  my mother was not impressed!


Campaillette baguette

I took a few snaps of nice cheeses when we were out buying our baguettes…


More Saint-Félicien cheeses (we bought the one on the right)

The Saint-Félicien cheese on the left is called “Tentation” (Temptation), because it contains even more cream than the regular one (70% fat)! Ouch, my cholesterol… At the back, a beautiful Brie de Meaux, still young and a bit crumbly in the centre and runny on the edges, which is how I like it…

Morteau Sausage with lentils

I also got to eat some nice Morteau Sausage for my birthday lunch. “Saucisse de Morteau” is a pretty strong flavoured sausage from the Jura Mountain (my birth place). It is really delicious, served hot with a mixture of lentils, carrots and a bit of speck… I had to restrain myself to not help myself a third time!

Fresh ravioles

Another item on my list were my beloved Ravioles de Romans, a type of small ravioli filled with Comté, fromage blanc, eggs, parsley, butter and salt. They are delicious just quickly boiled and sprinkled with grated cheese, or “au gratin”, as I could have shown you, had my camera reflex been quicker than that of my stomach!

However, I am determined, one day, to make some at home myself, thanks to a cookbook my sister gave me for Christmas entirely dedicated to Ravioles. So stay tuned, because as soon as I receive my little mould from France, I will go wild on the ravioles!

Fresh quenelles

Also on the list were Quenelles, oval-shaped dumplings made out of fish (mostly pike) or chicken paste and bound with egg.  The ones made out of pike, “Quenelles de Brochet“, are a specialty of Lyon and Nantua. You can also find vegetarian plain ones, as pictured above, which were cooked in a creamy tomato sauce.

They really expand during cooking, which makes them quite light and airy.

Quenelles baked in tomato sauce

Like the ravioles, I will explore the subject further in a future post and try to make them myself… I’m gonna be a busy bee!

Chocolate Quenelle

Here is another type of Quenelle, sweet this time, and a specialty from Lyon Chocolate maker, Voisin Chocolatier. It consists of a soft hazelnut praliné covered with a fine layer of white chocolate.

Coussin de Lyon

The fine piece of confectionery above is called Coussin de Lyon, in English, Pillow of Lyon. As the name suggests, they are another Lyon specialty  and are made exclusively by Voisin Chocolatier. It is made out of a soft dark chocolate ganache centre flavoured with Curacao coated in an emerald green almond paste/marzipan layer. It was shaped like a pillow to evoke a silk cushion, as Lyon was very renowned for its silk industry.

Batna lollies

Kréma’s Batna is a soft and creamy lolly tasting like a mix of caramel and liquorice, another one of my all time childhood favourites. Our parents used to like them too, as they used to keep us quiet at the back of the car on the long hard road to summer holidays. I could eat a lot of them in a row… and I still do!

(Yes, that is glittery polish you can see on my nails, I was fully immersed in the Christmas spirit).

Calissons de Provence

Calissons d’Aix are made from an almond & candied melon/orange paste, shaped like an almond and coated with white icing, they are a specialty from Provence region. These ones were sprinkled with gold and silver powder for the festive season. Apparently the word “Calisson” would come from the Provencal dialect “câlin’, meaning “hug”… pretty cute!

Bugnes

These were made by my friend’s mum, Solange, and we call them Bugnes. They are more commonly known in Australia by their Italian name, Crostoli. Ideal with afternoon tea!

Valrhona dark chocolate

We will finish with a bit of Valrhona chocolate, one of the best, if not the best chocolate in the world. I like the shape of the chocolate “squares”, you can choose whether you feel like a small or bigger piece. I recently watched a documentary called “Les Toqués du chocolat”, where you could follow the life of several chocolate specialists, including Vanessa Lemoine, a “nose”, or Sensorial Analysis Manager at Valrhona, who works with chocolate as an oenologist would with wine, it was quite fascinating. You can see this documentary (unfortunately in French only) on Christophe Michalak’s website.

Voilà! I hope I didn’t try to squeeze too much into the one post and that you enjoyed this glimpse into my French Christmas, à bientôt!

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La Bûche de Noël (Christmas Log)

Posted on March 18, 2011 | 10 Comments

Bonjour tout le monde!

Sorry for neglecting the blog so long, so much to do since I came back from my French & Vietnamese holiday, including moving houses, which is never fun and leaves you internet-less for several weeks!

I am aware that we are fast approaching Easter now, but it would be a pity not to mention my French Christmas and our very own Christmas puddings: the Christmas Log or Yule Log, as I have also seen it written many times. A French Christmas without a Bûche de Noël is not a real Christmas!


Bûches de Noël in the window display of Pâtisserie Guillet, Romans-sur-Isère

The log refers to the wood log burning in the hearth of the homes in Europe during the winter pagan festivities and was later fully included in the Christmas tradition. It was a celebration of the fire, so vital during those cold winter months. On Christmas Eve, a big log of hard wood would be brought back to the home with ceremony, would be placed into the fireplace and sprinkled with oil, salt and mulled wine while prayers were said. The log was then lit with firebrands from the previous year’s log. The log’s ashes were said to protect the home from the evil and thunderbolt. This tradition goes back the 12th century and could be found in most European countries, including France and Italy, up to the end of the 19th.  The tradition died out when fireplaces were replaced with cast iron stoves, and smaller logs were then placed on the tables at Christmas as decorations.


Bûches de Noël from Pâtisserie Guillet, Romans-sur-Isère

These days the logs are edible, mostly consisting of a sponge cake coated with chocolate butter then rolled and coated again with more chocolate butter, streaked with a fork to give it the appearance of the tree bark groves and decorated with kitsch little gnomes, mushrooms and axes!


Bûche glacée au chocolat (store-bought)

You can however find numerous different versions of the bûche: iced or not, chocolate or fruit-based, with as many flavours as you can think of!


Bûche glacée “Vercors”, Pâtisserie Guillet

The above bûche was bought from my parents’ local pâtisserie, Guillet, Maître Chocolatier, considered the best in town. They are particularly renowned for their “Vercors” ice-cream, a decadent combination of caramel, dark chocolate and vanilla ice-cream, named after the region’s beautiful mountain range. This ice-cream was on the top of the list I gave my mum of the things I really wanted to eat for Christmas, utterly delicious!


Bûche glacée “Vercors”, Pâtisserie Guillet

The day after I came home, my mother started on her own bûche, a fairly traditional one with a sponge cake and chocolater butter. She retrieved her favourite recipe that she has been using for years, cut out from an old ELLE magazine.

The initial recipe for the “Gâteau roulé” / Rolled cake calls for 5 eggs, 125g caster sugar, 75g corn flour, 25g flour, 30g almond powder, but we reduce the quantities a bit.

You first mix vigorously the egg yolks with the sugar until the colour becomes very pale.

Mix in the flour, the incorporate the whipped egg whites into the mixture.

Pour the mixture into a frame and put in a pre-heated oven for 10 minutes.

Remove from the oven, turn it upside down with the baking paper on top and let cool down  a dry kitchen towel for a few minutes.

In the meantime prepare your chocolate butter cream, the “Crème au Beurre”.

 

Melt the sugar with a bit of water, just enough so that it becomes less runny and before it caramelizes and get some colour.


Beat the egg yolks while whisking through the melted sugar, as you would to make mayonnaise.

Add the egg-sugar mixture progressively to the softened butter.

Add some dark chocolate powder.


Yum!

Place in the fridge to let it set.

After carefully removing the baking paper from the cake, use some of that mixture to spread on the sponge cake, and the rest to decorate the cake once rolled.

Roll carefully the cake using the towel and leave it with the towel around it in the fridge to set. Once it is a bit cooler, take it out of the fridge and apply the rest of the chocolate butter cream on the cake, and decorate to your taste.


Home-made Bûche de Noël

This bûche was served on Christmas Eve, and as usual it was bloody delicious. You can’t beat a cake made with love by your mum on Christmas, can you!    ;-)

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Chez Maurice, Restaurant de Bourgogne – Paris 10è

Posted on February 13, 2011 | 5 Comments


“Close the door, it’s freezing”. Brrrr, ça caille indeed!

Before going to Paris-Gare de Lyon to catch my train, my friends and I still had time to squeeze in a nice lunch in a neighbourhood bistro, the well-liked Chez Maurice, Restaurant de Bourgogne, located in Rue des Vinaigriers, a still quite rough area a few years back (there was even a taxi driver/killer who used to live there!).

I had been craving snails for days now and my friends thought this restaurant would be ideal for me, rather than the overpriced touristic places of Rue Montorgueil I spotted earlier.

The decor was very typical of a French bistro. The tables were covered in red checked cloths, the menus were written with chalk on black boards, the place was still not packed but in a matter of minutes it was buzzing with all types of patrons, workers, families, regulars, old & young.

Everything on the menu looked appetizing and rich enough to get you through a freezing winter day.

But first and foremost, it was time for the sacrosanct “apéro” :-)

I chose my beloved Picon-bière, beer flavoured with Picon, a sort of alcoholic orange bitter, very old-school but utterly delicious!


Fried Camembert

Here are a sample of the dishes that my table companions chose, including the decadent Fried Camembert and the heart warming Fish Soup.


Fish Soup


Escargots de Bourgogne

Of course I had the snails, one of the specialties of this restaurant whose owner came from Burgundy. I was surprised to see them served without their shell, but it didn’t matter one bit. All the essential ingredients were there: garlic, herbs, butter and some bread to mop it all up. The snails themselves were tender and chewy at the same time, very satisfying.

It was then time for the mains:


Hand-cut Steak Tartare with chips


Grilled Andouillette with Mustard sauce and chips


Bread-crumbed chicken breast with chips


Sirloin steak with peppercorn sauce and chips

When I was asked how I wanted my steak (pictured above), I said “à point”, because I didn’t want it totally “saignant” (bloody = rare), but couldn’t quite find the correct term to designate the in-between stage of “medium”. What they brought to me was definitely well done! As a result it was chewy and quite tough. I also had the impression that they used some powder to make the peppercorn sauce… I couldn’t eat more than half unfortunately…

Luckily my companions seemed to fare better with their mains, especially with the steak tartare, very nicely seasoned and the andouillette, a tripe sausage, which had a nice and crispy grilled skin and was accompanied with a grain mustard sauce.

For dessert I ordered the Crème Brûlée, which was more of a flan in fact. The texture was more eggy than creamy, so I was a bit disappointed, even though the caramel crust cracked nicely under my spoon. My companions seemed satisfied with their desserts: fromage blanc with caramel sauce, profiterolles with chocolate sauce and almond & apricot tarte.


Scruffy haired & stubby bearded locals enjoying their escargots.

As a whole, a nice little unpretentious “bistro de quartier”, which serves tasty snails and many other traditional dishes at very reasonable prices, in comfortable settings and a warm atmosphere.

We finished with a little coffee and my friends sent me off to Gare de Lyon!
It was quite an adventure to drag my suitcase in the metro including one line change, lucky my friend was there to help me carry it through the numerous stairs and corridors…

Gare de Lyon was insane, there were people everywhere going back to their families in “province” for Christmas and getting pretty pissed off from not being able to get around, yelling and shoving through the crowds… Not a pretty sight!
But I ended up reaching my carriage a couple of minutes before the train departed, pfeew! I was finally en route to my hometown :-)

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2 days in Paris

Posted on January 30, 2011 | 17 Comments


Paris, Les Invalides in the background

It has been now almost 7 years now since I left France for Australia and last time I spent Christmas with my family was in 2003! Though I have always been surrounded by great people in Australia at that time of year, my Aussie family in Brisbane and Melbourne or my partner’s family here in Sydney, I always have a little knot in my stomach from being so far away from my parents and sister…

That is why I decided to fly to France last December and have myself a traditional cold and white Christmas “à la française”!

After a pretty smooth going 24-hour flight, I arrived a few days before Christmas at Charles-de-Gaulle Airport. The whole ground was covered in snow,  which, combined with that very peculiar winter dawn light, gave the atmosphere a very eerie feel. Add to that the already well installed jet-lag and it all felt a bit like a dream…

I was soon brought back to reality as I had to buy a RER train ticket to the city. I was certain, now that my credit card was adorned with a beautiful chip, that I would finally be able to use the vending machines and avoid waiting in line at the counters… to no avail! I ended up joining the queue, together with a few British refugees stuck in Paris due to the snow blocking Heathrow Airport… I stopped complaining to myself and thanked my good luck!

My childhood friend and her husband were there to meet me at Gare du Nord, and we walked to their home a few blocks from there in the 10th Arrondissement, not far from the notorious Rue Saint-Denis. The snow made it quite difficult to negotiate the slippery pavements, and we witnessed several near-falls from other pedestrians on our way!

A basket full of pastries, chocolate croissants, raisin snails and fresh baguettes was displayed on the table for my arrival… what a nice welcome! It was good to be home :-)


Ice-skating action at Hotel de Ville

We didn’t linger too long, as I was starting to doze off and hear the sweet call of the couch! My friends were hosting Christmas at their place this year with a dozen guests and they still had a lot of shopping to do! They chose me as their guinea pig to test the dishes they had planned for Christmas eve, including Duck breast cooked in salt crust and a “Bûche glacée” (ice-cream Christmas log) from the famous Parisian ice-cream maker Berthillon… I was only too happy to oblige. That’s just the type of friend I am ;-)

We first went to Berthillon, where even in the heart of winter, tourists queue in order to taste the famous ice-cream! However most people were locals ordering their “bûche glacée” and there wasn’t much left to choose from already! We therefore left with an Apricot & Gingerbread Bûche.


Saw some nice Laguiole Knives on the way back…

Back at the flat, my hosts left me sinking into the couch while they were cooking the duck. I could hear faraway in my dreams some dramatic exclamations and shouts from the kitchen, which made me fear something bad happened to the duck, but it came out perfectly cooked, see the little video below!

We had the bûche for dessert, which was really delicious! I would probably never go for Apricot & Gingerbread if other flavours like Chocolate or Vanilla had been available… and that would have been wrong, because it really was a great match!


Apricot & Gingerbread Bûche

The following day was dedicated to more food shopping, including a trip to the shop of famous Macaron master Pierre Hermé.

The picture policy of the shop was quite strict, as I was only allowed to take 2 pictures unless I contacted Pierre Hermé’s PR department… We saw Hermé’s best-known macaron, the Ispahan, but didn’t buy it, which I now regret! It was difficult to chose from all the lovely flavours, but finally set our choice on a box of 12 macarons.

The flavours we chose were: Rose, White Truffle & Hazelnut (very fragrant!), Quince & Rose, Milk Chocolate & Passionfruit, Chestnut & Green Tea, Chocolate, Salted Butter Caramel, Crème Brûlée… I couldn’t recommend one in particular, they were all delicious!


Some of them were a bit damaged on the way back unfortunately,
fragile little things!

We then walked to La Grande Epicerie de Paris, located in the same building as Le Bon Marché, which was buzzing with BCBG (“Bon chic, bon genre”) people doing their last Christmas shopping. There was an opulence of fine food all over the shop (poultry, foie gras, truffles, caviar, smoked salmon, all kinds of seafood, chocolate… you name it), and hundreds of customers trying to make their way between the shelves… it was a bit oppressive!


Poulets de Bresse, Pintades, Dindes…

We finally made our way out and walked along the windows to admire the Christmas displays and lights.

The hues in the windows were changing every few seconds and all the streets were illuminated… Paris at that time of year is really beautiful, there is a sort of magic about it!

Some friends and their little girl were expected for dinner that night, and a nice raclette was planned for the occasion. The raclette set means each guests fries their own cheese under the grilling machine at the centre of the table, and pours it on boiled potatoes, accompanied with ham, smoked ham, salami, cornichons… it is very convivial and perfect for that type of freezing weather!

A bit of melted cheese action below…

I think the pictures speak for themselves!

Once more jet-lag got the better of me and I was soon unable to keep my eyes open and string a sentence together. I dug deep down to find the strength for a glass of “digestif” though, a delicious Armagnac, which finished the job of putting me to sleep!

And thus unfolded my last evening in Paris… Another trip, albeit shorter, was awaiting me the following day: I was taking the T.G.V to return to my hometown, yay!

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