GASTROMONDIALE

Alla Testiere -- Venice

The seafood of Venice and the Adriatic coast to the south is one of the very best and unique in the world, but it is not always easy to find authentic restaurants which make best use of fresh and local ingredients. One restaurant that had been recommended by some frequent visitors of Venice who are also discriminating palates is restaurant Alle Testiere. This place was on my radar screen for a long time, but we have never had a chance to get to Venice. Finally the opportunity came up when we were spending three days in the beautiful Venetian town of Verona, where one of my favourite contemporary writers, Tim Parks lives.  (I recommend very highly his non-fiction “Italian Neighbours” for those interested in Italian culture.) We drove to Venice from Verona, parked the car in Piazzola Roma and then happily walked to the restaurant as the public boats or vaporettos were on strike. Alle Testiere is a small trattoria with only 6 to 7 tables, and the room is charming in a natural way without any artificial attempt to make it look “cozy” for the outsiders.  These tables fill quickly, and one needs reservation even for lunch.  Dinner reservations are very hard to get, so the restaurant does have multiple seatings for dinner during high season.  We were seated by a young waitress in a nice corner table, and then a friendly (but without artificial excess) and easy going person came to take our order and recited the daily specials. His name was Mr. Luca, and it turned out that he is the co-owner (the other owner is Bruno, the chef) and also the wine buyer. Luca speaks both English and French fluently, which made communication easier.  A few months later, in a more recent visit, we would learn that Luca is a consummate professional, and he discovered Bruno’s cooking as a client, and when the two joined hands, he as the manager and Bruno as the chef, they turned a cute neighbourhood trattoria into arguably one of the two best restaurants in Venice (the other being Da Fiore) and into one of the very best Italian seafood places. Although there is a written menu posted outside, Alle Testiere buys its seafood daily from the open-air fish market near the Rialto bridge and, therefore, the menu changes daily depending on the availability of fresh and seasonal products.  So when Luca recited the six daily antipastas, or entrees, it turned out that they are all favourites of mine and some of them can only be had in the Adriatic.  We ended up choosing five out of six beauties.

Isami -- Paris

For people who wish to have a quick and light and high quality lunch, however, there is a better and cheaper (but not cheap) alternative than L’Atelier in Paris. This is however not an international style contemporary brasserie but Japanese fast food, a sushi place. Located in the touristic Ile Saint Louis, ISAMI is a tiny mom and pop and daughter type of place that only prepares sushi and sashimi. Thanks to Mikael who recommended this place I was able to secure a reservation and then watch scores of people, mostly Japanese and some French, get turned down since they did not have reservations. The clientele is in fact is mostly Japanese and the overall quality of sushi is very high with pristine quality fish and shellfish. They set standards high with the amuses: excellent bulots which taste as they do in Brittany and also a silky and rich and delicate foie de lotte or monkfish liver which will elicit oohs and aahs if it is ever served in a modern three star, such as Gagnaire.

L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon

I was looking forward to my first meal at L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon with great expectations as I have dined several times in the past at Jamin-Robuchon and consider him to be a culinary force, perhaps one of the greatest chefs whose cooking I have had the privilege to experience. My expectation was such that L’Atelier was delivering a toned down version of the great chef’s cuisine to make it more accessible and in line with contemporary taste. I wish this were the case. Unfortunately, as it stands now, L’Atelier only bears resemblance to the old Jamin in naming some dishes after the original versions. But unfortunately the food at L’Atelier bears no resemblance as to why honed palates rightly held Robuchon at such high esteem when he cooked at Jamin, and, for a short time, at the Poincaré location before handing it over to Alain Ducasse.

L'Ambroisie -- Paris

Arguably, to call this tiny place located in one of my favorite squares on earth, the regal Place des Vosges, a “restaurant” is misleading. In fact, L’Ambroisie is rather an institution which is quintessentially French, and one that can only be found in Paris. Like all institutions grounded in historical traditions, L’Ambroisie has its set of unwritten rules and codes of behavior. One salient rule is that customers at L’Ambroisie are perceived less as passive recipients of gastronomic delights whose needs have to be pampered at all costs, but rather as potential partners and friends of a culinary institution who will internalize the culture over repeated visits. It is therefore the client who should adjust his expectations to suit the mores/norms of the restaurant and not the other way around. To some, especially some non-French more steeped in individualist traditions, this attitude is seen as elitist and nationalist, and their first visit to L’Ambroise (if they have managed to get a reservation) is often the last one. Yet for others, the type of classic traditions that this restaurant epitomizes and stands for are perceived as a magical escape from the dictates of modern fads and realities of the marketplace, and they appreciate the type of professionalism and perfectionism that is expressed in this institution. Thus for many people, including this writer, the first visit to L’Ambroisie is the beginning of a journey whose rewards increase with each repeated visit and whose pleasures, both culinary and intellectual, may be savored long after the end of your meal.

Alain Ducasse -- Paris

To tell the truth, when entering the abode of one of the highly acclaimed citadels of haute cuisine in Paris, restaurant Alain Ducasse at the Plaza Athenee, I was quite unsure of the prospects. This is because, the chef de cuisine I had admired, Jean Francois Piege, had left a year earlier to take the helm at Les Ambassadeurs in Hotel Crillon and I was not quite sure about the pedigree of the new chef, Christophe Moret, who had come not from a fine dining place, but from the Parisian brasserie owned by Ducasse, i.e. Spoon.