Email from London

Received this email the other day from my daughter with beautiful photos and her experience of fine dining in a French gourmet restaurant, I can't resist but to post her email (with her consent).

L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon

Heavenly!

L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon (with Michelin stars) was really a good experience. The food was good and the service was fantastic. We ended up having a 9 course dinner, by accident. We only intended to have a 3 course dinner. So, although we originally planned to leave by 7pm, we ended up staying way past 8pm, from a 5.30pm sitting.



The entire place is in black and red, and we sit at the counter instead of a table, informal, but very tasteful. So, it didn’t feel very pretentious for a place of such status. I like the ambience very much.

J remarked at their expensive plates and cutlery. The plates, apparently go for about RM200 each. Of course, he was flipping over the plates and such to see their brands.

For appetisers, he ordered fresh sea trout tartar with some lemon dressing.



This is the first time that I’m eating sea trout raw, and man, it was good. Taste like really expensive salmon, but with more firmness to the flesh, and goes really well with the lemon dressing and pickled cabbage.

I ordered a poached egg with hazelnut vinaigrette.



The hazelnut vinaigrette was amazing, very fragrant, and somehow, complements the egg, which sits on some beetroot (I like) very well. We swapped our appetisers, so those are the first 2 courses.

The serving portions, although for tasting plates were rather generous. As we were very impressed with the appetisers, we ordered another 2 types of appetisers.

J wanted to try their standard beef carpaccio. He said that it wasn't cold enough, but I think it was because we keep on taking photos of it before we started eating.



And I chose a crab dish



Needless to say, they both astounded me. I like the crab dish because it is served in between thinly sliced turnip and as I pop each portion into my mouth, the flavour of crab blends with the turnip, which is crispy and slightly sour and after I swallow, the taste of sweet crab lingers in the mouth.



Then, it was time for the mains. J's pollock fish was so-so only. To be fair, it is quite good, but, the excellent appetizers sort of made us expect more. My fish was delicious until I reached the tummy part. It was very fishy. Normally, I would have just drink a lot of water, cut away that portion and continue eating, but this is Robuchon that we are talking about, so I returned the dish. The restaurant confirmed that their fish was fresh, but would be happy to replace my main for another fish or other stuff.



At that point in time, I still that fish taste in my mouth and J's fish wasn't too impressive, so I decided to go for the chicken.



Actually, the name is 'Chicken breast stuffed with vegetables, served with sauce Normande'. I'm saying the full name because it deserves special mention. The chicken is served with roasted apples in some alcohol (which I think could be Calvados) and some bitter radish-like thingee. That dish was so delicious that although I was already quite full, I wolfed down the chicken in less than 5 minutes. It was with reluctance that I swap with J’s fish after that.

By then, we were really really full. So, we decided to order only 1 dessert and J chose something that requires skill – soufflé, my favourite after crème brulees. It was orange soufflé with raspberry sorbet.



Sounds very ordinary, looks very ordinary, but it wasn’t ordinary. The soufflé is light, but the orange flavour is solid. And, the orange flavour tasted very fresh (I don’t have another word to describe). The taste combined with the smell, is like an orange when it is being peeled. I don’t know how they do it. So, when you put it in your mouth, it is like having foam, with an explosion of fresh orange. The raspberry sorbet, unlike normal sorbet, is creamy, but light and packed with the intense flavour of raspberry, which again, I have not tasted any better. When eaten together, the orange and raspberry made an interesting combination.

Now, the restaurant, to ensure that I’m really happy with my meal, given the fish incident, gave us a medley of cakes and tarts for free.



There was (in the order starting from near to far) a lemon cheesecake, chocolate orange tart, strawberries on tiny cakes, cinnamon tart, and crème brulee on apple pie. Well, these are the names that I fixed for them because I’m sure these cakes have good names to match their exquisiteness. I ate the cakes in the order above, with one tasting better than the next. Therefore, the crème brulee on apple pie was the best, when I would have been most happy with just the lemon cheesecake. So, you can imagine how good the crème brulee on apple pie must have been.

At the end, we were really full. I think I need to go on a diet. Good thing J is going back to KL tomorrow.