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| Keeping it Simple: The very best Shrenki hybrid caviar from China with eel jelly |
A generation ago, there had never been any three-star Michelin restaurant located in a hotel. No one ever explained why not – it just seemed to be of those unwritten rules that somehow it just wasn’t done. That changed after Alain Ducasse took control of the kitchens at the Louis Quinze in Monaco in the early Nineties and now nearly a quarter of all three stars around the globe are in hotels. The chief reason for this shift is that it is quite an expensive business for a stand alone restaurant to aim for – and then maintain - three Michelin stars. This is not the main issue for hotels and some have been known to spend millions on haute cuisine restaurants with oversized cookery books to achieve this. These days, especially when it comes to Parisian Palace Hotels, such as the Plaza-Athénée, the Georges Cinq or Le Bristol, they are an essential marketing tool. Strangely enough, it is not to satisfy the taste of their own clients … one hotelier confessed to me “If you created a restaurant solely to appeal to your guests, you would end up only serving club sandwiches and hamburgers.” No, they are a marketing tool to entice guests from other Palace Hotels to visit you and, he added, “That is the best way to get new clients into our bedrooms”. It seems to be working at the Plaza-Athénée as fully a quarter of the diners at Alain Ducasse au Plaza Athénée, are from other Parisian Palace Hotels.
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As Francois Delahaye, the general manager and Chief Operating Officer of the entire Dorchester Collection explained, the other useful factor is “We are a tick box – one of the places you must try before you die.”
As Francois Delahaye, the general manager and Chief Operating Officer of the entire Dorchester Collection explained, the other useful factor is “We are a tick box – one of the places you must try before you die.”
The Plaza-Athénée is the chicest of the grand Parisian Hotels. It is located at Ground Zero in the fashion world, with LVMH opposite and Christian Dior and Hermes just down the road. Most of the more well-known models stay there during Fashion Week and the tall lady having breakfast who looks like Naomi Campbell, usually is. The Plaza-Athénée prides itself on having long serving staff, some of whom have been with them for nearly 50 years. Denis Courtiade, the restaurant director, is, along with Eric Beaumard of Le Cinq, one of the very best in the business.
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| Plaza-Athenee Head Chef, Romain Meder with Alain Ducasse |
Given this well-established niche that the Plaza-Athénée occupies, Ducasse succeeded in attaining three stars at the turn of the century. It was considered quite daring when, after a lengthy renovation, he reopened the signature restaurant in 2014 and excluded all meat from the menu and instead, opting for a cuisine of “naturalness” – fish, vegetables and cereals.
The customer reaction in the first year was not very positive…after all, if you have become accustomed to their version of ris de veau, lievre a royale or pate en croute, it is quite a shock to be told they are no longer on the menu. I admit that I was also one of the sceptics to begin with. Given that at that time, Ducasse already had three stars at the nearby Le Meurice, another Palace Hotel, I suppose I put his new approach more down to the need to take a different approach for the sake of novelty rather than ideology (https://www.gastroenophile.co.uk/2013/05/palace-hotels-in-paris-ducasse-at-plaza.html). However, Ducasse has refined his approach and is nothing if not up to speed with every international trend in haute cuisine. I don’t know how often I have tried the latest fashionable place in Shanghai, Cadiz or Copenhagen, only to be told “Oh Yes, we had Monsieur Ducasse here only last week”.
He also has the best intelligence network in the culinary world as he always keeps in touch with the chefs who train in his kitchens and work around the globe. This means he is always thinking of the Big Picture and how all of his restaurants fit in.
The actual Plaza-Athénée restaurant, with its makeover from Patrick Jouin, looks like a docking station for a space ship, with three white pods in the middle along with a white overhanging shell on the side. It feels slightly clinical and futuristic but I suppose that is the intention. Anyway, his philosophy of naturalness couldn’t be more on message now.
We started with a Lanson Noble Cuvée 2002 Champagne to go with the array of starters,
which included home-made bread with olives,
Fermented carrots from the Château de Versailles, flaxseed camelina, nectarine condiment
Aber-Wrac'h turbot head cold cuts and paté cheeks, plum condiment
Hautes-Alpes chickpeas in delicate hummus, marinated sea bream, lemon caviar
Then we moved on to a Grand Cru Chablis from Benoit Droin, which I confess I had never had before – it was supremely delicate and didn’t appear to need more bottle age.
Then, Poached oyster in a broth of black radish peel
Also, as much as he professes to want to work with humble ingredients to show their true colours, it is hard to beat the signature dish of caviar on a squishy bed of eel jelly.
For those who are troubled by such opulence, he also has a version with chick peas.
The next dish was a string of four scallops along with a slice of cauliflower gratineed tart with chestnut butter – it looks rather quotidian, but works because of the supreme quality of the simple ingredients.
A Clos de Vougeot then appeared, which although it bordered on infanticide to drink it now, the sheer vitality of the 15 vintage made it very enjoyable.
The Normandy Lobster, beetroot and flambéd blueberry kefir was vinously ambidextrous, going equally well with either of the two Burgundies.
Instead of this, my wife went for another unadorned dish - a slice of perfectly cooked turbot with mussels and “pomme de mer”, or potatoes actually grown on the seashore.
There was also a superb pasta with dried Jerusalem artichoke yeast, entirely smothered in black truffles – hardly humble ingredients but cooked in a way that allowed them to express their flavours and textures to perfection.
The puddings were relatively simple, including a slice of tart and a Comice pear from Lizac, with crushed absinth, mellow galette pastry.
There is definitely a backlash against the multi-course tasting menu as only five dishes were served on the night I was there, which is a welcome sign of sanity returning to haute cuisine. As Francois Delahaye remarked, “Maybe I am an old fossil, but for me, a Three Star should be a memorable experience, so I don’t like tasting menus with a dozen or more dishes. Frankly, I don’t think you can remember a dish if you only have one bite of it.. anything more than five courses and I hate it.” (I noticed this trend is catching on in Paris – Le Cinq, the Three Star at the Georges Cinq, also goes in for amuse bouche starters and then only four courses.)
The Plaza-Athénée trend towards healthier haute cuisine is catching on elsewhere too –
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| Amber's Blue Lobster, girolles, Kabu hazelnuts, Vin Jaune |
Richard Ekkebus of Amber, the most acclaimed European chef in Hong Kong, recently announced that he was removing all gluten and dairy from Amber, his Two Star restaurant.
Romain Meder, Ducasse’s head chef at the Plaza Athénée, doesn’t want to go to those extremes, although all of the bread is made from rice flour, hence gluten free. “I suppose what we are doing is a Haute Couture approach to cuisine rather than Prêt-à-Porter. It is important to make people more aware of natural resources and how to take care of them. Each chef has his own identity and philosophy. In my case, I think of one product and how I can deconstruct it and serve it in different ways.” There are bound to be more chefs experimenting in this way and to a certain extent, if a large proportion of your clients are from the fashion world, perhaps they are more at ease with this philosophy than most. The most critical thing to always bear in mind, as one famous Scandinavian chef said to me, that regardless of how he cooks his food, it must be yummy. The Plaza-Athénée certainly wins on that score.
Alain Ducasse at the Plaza-Athénée www.alainducasse-plazaathenee.com/en
Lunch menu with wine £180 per person
Dinner £350 plus wine
A shorter version of this story first appeared in Reaction Life
https://reaction.life/making-a-mark-alain-ducasse-and-romain-meder-at-the-plaza-athenee/
A shorter version of this story first appeared in Reaction Life
https://reaction.life/making-a-mark-alain-ducasse-and-romain-meder-at-the-plaza-athenee/