L'ECOLE FERRANDI - Tasting New Talent at Le Premier and Le 28, the School's Charming Restaurants

 

  As someone who passionately loves good food, there's nothing I find more fascinating than the privilege of visiting a working restaurant kitchen. When they're busy and well-directed, working kitchens often offer the same magnificent but unselfconscious spectacle of the physical and cerebral metaphysically melded together as one finds at the ballet, the difference being that dance is usually better lit and deprived of the same olfactory teasing a kitchen subjects you to.

  

 

  So I was delighted when the friend who'd invited me to the 'Diner des Chefs' four-handed dinner cooked in tandem by chefs David Toutain (Agape Substance) and Alexandre Couillon (La Marine) wangled us behind the kitchen doors for a few minutes before we ordered our meal. This was a special night in the kitchen of Le Premier, one of the two open-to-the-public teaching restaurants at the Ecole Ferrandi, the school of culinary trades in the 6th arrondissement which has recently trained many of the most distinguished chefs in France, including Adeline Grattard (Yam'Tcha), Bertrand Grebaut (Septime), William Ledeuil (Ze Kitchen Galerie), Francois Pasteau (L'Epi Dupin), and Matthieu Viannay (La Mere Brazier, Lyon), among many others. Just before the night got very busy, the last prep was being done in this immaculate kitchen by a bunch of poignantly eager, intense and very serious young students under the direction of the school's permanent fulltime teaching professors, while Toutain and Couillon met with students in smaller groups to go over the details of the plates they'd be cooking and serving together. 

  

 

   Back at the table with several other friends, we sipped Champagne and enjoyed the expectant atmosphere in a dining room that's unlike any other in Paris--the lighting may be a little harsh, but the joyous sort of maternity-ward atmosphere here just brims with expectation and a desire to please, and the first indication that this would be a slam-dunk of an evening in terms of great food was a stunningly beautiful little amuse-bouche of dressed crabmeat in a pool of deeply reduced shellfish bouillon by David Toutain. Then while waiting for our first course, our table with British, Brazilian and American guests, shared an interesting conversation on the current state of food in Paris--even if the quality of the food in its brasseries and cafes remains pretty much appalling, the city's in the midst of a pretty spectacular revival of the neighborhood bistro recoined for a new century, and just exactly why this revival is taking place. Well, we didn't really have to look very far or very hard for an answer to this last question: the awesome and thoroughly admirable rigor of a classic French culinary education equips young chefs who train at the Ecole Ferrandi to spread their wings with real confidence, because they know how to do everything. And armed with a deep knowledge of the past, it's easier to dare a bit of modernity and succeed. One of the huge global misapprehensions about professional cooking is that it's all about creativity (much of this nonsense comes from the inane cooking shows that have become so popular). It's not. Instead it's all about a relentlessly rigorous execution of technique and ferociously exigent and ingenious sourcing...with a just pinch of creativity.

  

 

   For the first course of this special meal, we had a choice between 'egg, corn, cumin seeds' or 'sea scallop, parsnip, blueberry,' or Toutain and Couillon respectively. On a raw night, anything with an egg was irresistible to me, and the exquisitely comforting little dish that arrived is something I could eat a pair of everyday for breakfast for the rest of my life--a perfectly poached egg yolk on a sunny creamy bed of corn pudding with wands of cumin-spiked corn bread. Next up, a choice between scallops with romanesco (green cauliflower) and Madras curry or cod with butternut emulsion, goat milk and mint. Both dishes were excellent, and emblematic of the type of superb contemporary French cooking students at the Ecole Ferrandi are learning today.

  

   

  Though this dinner was a one-off event, it still served as a discreet showcase of the skills of the current class of students at the Ecole Ferrandi, and they cook to such an exceptionally impressive level that I'm really looking forward to coming back for a 'normal' service. 

  

 

  A superb composition of rosy veal with bluefloot mushrooms in clove emulsion and a gorgeous chocolate-caramel-coffee-cream pastry with clementine-pear coulis round-out this excellent meal, an evening of real charm heightened by flawless service and the awareness that we were some of the luckiest guineau pigs in Paris. The friend who invited me advised me to try dinner on Monday or Tuesday at the more intimate Le 28 the next time I come, which I'll look forward to, but the other mental note I made is that the 25 Euro lunch menu at Le Premier is excellent value for money in a setting where the tables are widely spaced and there's lots of sunlight during the day. So it's an original and very convenient spot for a business meal or a tete a tete on the Left Bank. And of course the implicit fun of dining here is that you may very well catch a rising star before he or she becomes fodder for the Michelin guide.

   

L'Ecole Ferrandi, 28 rue de l'Abbe Gregoire, 6th, Tel. 01-49-54-17-31 (mornings only) or email resaresto@ccip.fr. for reservations in the school's restaurants. Mo Saint Placide or Rennes. Opening hours: Le Premier - Tues-Fri for lunch, 25 Euros; Occasional Thursdays for dinner, 40 Euros; Le 28 - Wed-Fri for lunch, 30 Euros; Mon, Tues for dinner, 40 Euros. www.ferrandi-paris.fr 

   

AGAPE SUBSTANCE--Brilliant Eating in Saint Germain, A-; LA GRENOUILLERE--A Superb Gourmet Weekend Destination, A-

  

  

N.B. Chef David Toutain will be serving his last meal at Agape Substance on December 1, 2012, so this review is valid only up until that date.

Since Saint Germain des Pres remains the world's best-loved Paris neighborhood, the recent opening of the oddly named L'Agapé Substance is very good news. Now, at long last, I have a really excellent restaurant to recommend in response to the recurring request for a great place to eat that's within walking distance of the Cafe de Flore. Occupying a tiny railroad-car like space in the rue Mazarine, talented chef David Toutain and Laurent Lapaire have created a chic new table with oustanding contemporary French cooking, and it also offers a relaxed but stylish good time.

  

  This is an interesting restaurant, too, since it's a successful cameo of so many major restaurant trends in France right now, among them, small-plate dining; the cryptic menu--at L'Agapé Substance, a menu is offered, but it's just a list of ingredients with no explanation of how they're prepared; a decidedly Asian aesthetic in terms of the way the food is presented; a starring role for vegetables and fresh herbs and shoots, including many obscure ones; tables d'hotes serving with stool seating; pedigreed produce--the names of the producers are supplied by your waiter with a certain reverence; a relaxed and friendly serving style; and the use of foams and oils instead of traditional sauces. 

  

  Coming for dinner on a Friday night, the restaurant was packed--this rare summer opening has attracted a lot of attention, and we were seated at what's described on the restaurant's website as the 'VIP table,' which is a table for two in a niche directly across from the small, busy galley kitchen, a perch that provided a great show during our meal but not one that I would recommend on a warm night, since I would describe this restaurant as being nominally air-conditioned. From our first amuse bouche, though, I knew that we were in for a fascinating meal.

  

  

  This edible miniature was not only beautiful, but it also provided the perfect preview to our meal, and a reason to use the dictionary when I got home., which is how I learned that the 'berce' in this composition of berce is hogweed, or an herb from the parsley family. The other ingredients were mandarin skin, a gelee of the Japanese citrus fruit yuzu, and a fragile crispy rice wafer. This dish also served as a resume of the thirty-year-old Toutain's peripatetic career--prior to teaming up with Lapaire, Toutain, a native of Normandy, worked at L’Arpege, Marc Veyrat, Mugaritz in Spain and New York's Corton, and he clearly learned his lessons well enough to have invented a distinctive cooking style of his own.

  

  After skimming the good wine list, here on an Ipad, we decided to drink by the glass--a good decision, even though I normally prefer to stick with a wine or two during a meal, and to go with the carte blanche tasting menu at 99€, which is what I'd recommend. At noon, the other options are three dishes for 39€ or four for 51€, but I don't think these shorter versions let you adequately discover the impressive culinary imagination of the chef. 

  

  

  Next, a sublime hen's egg in a puddle of gentle new garlic cream with fresh almonds and lemon verbena foam, a composition that was angelic in its purity and modesty. It was also delicious. Tasting menus don't work unless they're served with a rhythm that leaves you enough time to ponder what you're eating and then a brief pause, but the timing on this one was absolutely impeccable. 

  

  Tiny baby carrots followed, and if they were pleasant, they were eclipsed a few minutes later by a an exquisite dish of two cork-sized spoonfuls of impeccably dressed crab with grapefruit confit and a hauntingly good consommé of sweet gray North Sea shrimp. This delicate and perfectly balanced miniature was one of the best and most satisfying dishes I've eaten this year.

  

  

  A truly beautiful edible still life of lightly griddled razor shell clams, squid and zucchini in lavender foam with yuzu cream and a scattering of dill flowers arrived a few minutes later, and it was simple, lucid, and shrewd, or just plain brilliant.  

  

 

  Then, just when I'd begun to wonder at a kitchen with such a restrained sensuality, it seemed nearly asexual, two courses followed that showed some quiet muscle. A creamy lotte filet came with epeautre, a foamy tonka bean sauce and a griddled baby green onion, and the tone of the meal gently shifted to an earthier appeal to the palate.

  

 

    The sweet tones of the fish were followed by a politely assertive chunk of tender veal clad in black tapenade and accompanied by a grilled gray shallot.

  

  

  And now for a warning before dessert. Toutain changes his menu constantly, sometimes even twice daily, so there's a very good likelihood that you'll only be served a few of these identical dishes when you come to dine. With any luck at all, though, the cheese course will still be shavings of the magnificent two-year old Comte cheese that Laurent Lapaire's father makes in the Jura, and the peach poached in lemon-verbena syrup will still be on the menu.

  

  

  Oh, and since it will inevitably be difficult to get a reservation here, you may be wondering if you should go to one of the other L'Agape addresses--the original L'Agapé or L'Agapé Bistrot, both in the 17th arrondissement. My advice is that both of them are good, but that you should hold out for L'Agapé Substance, a truly remarkable little restaurant.

 

Agapé Substance, 66 rue Mazarine, 6th, tel. 01-43-29-33-83, Metro: Odeon, Open Tuesday to Saturday for lunch and dinner, www.agapesubstance.com 

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LA GRENOUILLERE  

  

  With rain streaking across the window next to my desk this Saturday afternoon, my heart goes out to all of those people who are on vacation and cooped up in seaside hotel rooms staring out at wet beaches. The poor weather in Paris for the last month has a lot of people second-guessing their vacation plans, too, but for anyone looking for a terrific rain-or-shine weekend getaway, I would highly recommend La Grenouillere, which is located in La Madeleine-sour-Montreuil in the Pas-de-Calais.

  

  Brilliant young chef Alexandre Gauthier has just opened eight striking new 'huttes,' or cabins, designed by architect Patrick Bouchain, and as long as you pack a good book or two, you'll have a terrific time here, since these a cozy, all black roosts that come with iPod dock, televisions, coolers stocked with Ch'Ti beer, apple juice and mineral water, and soaking tubs set next to picture windows that overlook the surrounding meadows.

  

Avocado and monkfish in seawater

  The main reason you'll be here, though, is to eat, since Gauthier is one of the top five young chefs working in France today. Stopping by for dinner the other night, I had an astonishingly good and absolutely fascinating meal in this three century old auberge's striking new dining room. Dinner began with sea bass carpaccio interleaved with razor-fine slices of nectarine, and continued with a suite of superb dishes, among them a cube of avocado and monkfish in a shallow pool of sea water, green pea gnocci with pea shoots, frog's legs meuniere, roasted lobster served in smoldering boughs of juniper, and rare beef with salicorne (seaweed) and a nest of grated potatoes in a gentle garlic cream. I loved the grande finale of this meal, too, which occurred when a beautiful young waitress arrived and threw of a transparent sugar globe full of sorrel mousse into plate. Both of us laughed, and the refreshingly astringent mousse was a brilliant conclusion to this meal. 

  

Green pea gnocci with pea shoots

  In addition to his 110 Euro eleven-course tasting menu, Gauthier also offers eight dishes for 85 Euros and an a la carte menu. And if you decide you want something tamer, Gauthier also runs an excellent rotisserie restaurant, Froggy's Tavern, five minutes away in the charming town of Montreuil.

  

La Grenouillère, La Madelaine-sous-Montreuil, Tel. 011-33-3-21-06-07-22, Closed March, 20 December-4 February, Tuesday and Wednesday except July-August, www.lagrenouillere.fr