Lunch at Les Bouquinistes
14 Wednesday Apr 2010
Posted Les Bouquinistes, lunch
in14 Wednesday Apr 2010
Posted Les Bouquinistes, lunch
in05 Monday Apr 2010
Posted French history, Grand Vefour, lunch, Paris
inRaymond picked the restaurant himself. I graciously let him do so especially after peeking at my bank account. We met under the archways in front of Le Grand Véfour, a three star restaurant, located at 17, rue de Beaujolais in the 1st Arrondissement by the Théâtre du Palais-Royal. Raymond told me that the restaurant is in all probability the first grand restaurant in Paris since it was opened in the arcades of the Palais-Royal in 1784. Raymond, very much “en forme” told me that Antoine Aubertot, opened it as the rather chic Café de Chartres and it was not until 1820 that it became known as the Grand Véfour. Apparently it didn’t take very long before it became known as la meilleure adresse gastronomique de Paris. The restaurant closed between the years 1905 to 1947 and re-opened in 1948 with Jean Cocteau having designed the menus. Famous names like Colette, Jean Giraudoux, Sacha Guitry, Louis Aragon, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir have been faithful culinary clients. They can add my name now.
Before sitting down, Raymond noted that the restaurant was purported to be one of the “ideological centers” of the French Revolution. “What better place to draw my legal inspiration and my passion for truth and justice than here” he added. I really believe he meant what he said.
It was a tough menu to choose from with such exceptional creative delicacies as almond-milk flan in sorrel bouillon, lightly cooked salmon terrine with eggplant aspic and basil shortbread topped with candied fennel. You get picture. The milk-fed calf’s sweetbreads studded with truffles and cooked with a broad bean just caught my eye but so did a double chop of farm-bred pork wrapped in a smoky bacon (be still my arteries.) That was maybe more my style but I was going to keep my powder dry just a while longer and continue my examination of this menu. Twice we were interrupted with someone coming over to shake hands with Raymond, arm around the shoulder and a pat on the back here, a little whisper and a “bonne chance mon ami” there. I felt as if I was peeking through a keyhole and observing strange rituals of the high and mighty of French society. Finally we got down to important business of our meal with Raymond starting with the foie gras ravioli, truffle cream and I the lobster from Brittany, with sesame and salty lemon juice. I was going to suggest lets just add a few more plates and skip the main course. We decided to share the sauté frog legs, prepared in a sage sauce, garlic bread and marrow on bed of tomatoes. I was almost ready to cry uncle but decided to push on valiantly. This all went down beautifully with the help of a chilled bottle of Taittinger champagne.
The main course was challenging. I was torn between the Turbot meunière with a shrimp purée or the roasted monk fish, zucchini, almond cream, shellfish juice. I was on a health kick here and was going for fish. Sanity prevailed and I decided on the roasted double veal chops, sweet potato doughnut, and wasabi juice. Raymond decided on one of their signature dishes, two perfectly prepared lamb chops with a vegetable chutney. We lunched with our good friend a 1990 red Burgundy from the Domaine Borgeot of Santenay. We had our choice of farm cheeses, from France and from Savoie. Raymond had a nice slice of lovely camembert and I chose the Roblochon from Savoie plus it was a favorite of Napoleon, if you remember in Quelques Fromage de Napoleon.