Dîner des Chefs at Park Hyatt Paris Vendôme

I went to a very interesting dinner the other day, the Dîner des Chefs at Park Hyatt Paris Vendôme. The dinner was organised for the 6th time (and always during the Paris Book Fair), by the publishing house Glénat. One of the specialities of Glénat is cook books and books written by famous chefs, so for this dinner they had gathered 5 different French chefs for an extremely creative dinner.

The chefs were

• Jean-François Rouquette from Pur’ Restaurant at the Park Hyatt where we had the dinner (1 Michelin star)
• Patrick Jeffroy from l’Hôtel de Carantec in Bretagne (2 Michelin stars)
• Sébastien Bontour from Palace Es Saadi in Marrakech
• Davide Bisetto from Casas del Mar in Corsica (2 Michelin stars)
• Nicolas Masse from Les Sources de Caudalie in Bordeaux. (1 Michelin star)

And I should also mention Pier-Marie Le Moigno, chef-patissier at Pur’, responsible for one of the desserts, called simply Le Cube, although it was probably not that simple to make.

A creative dinner, yes. What we were served was French cuisine haute couture. Fascinating, delicious but, as often is the case with haute couture, sometimes a bit too complicated and even strange.

I give you here the menu in French; I will not even try to translate it into English:

• Langoustine froide avec gelée de soja et pamplemousse (Jean-François Rouquette)
  
  Served with Chablis 1er cru Vaillons 2008 from Joseph Drouhin. A full bodied wine the a minerality and freshness that matched the grape fruit.
  
• Saint-Jacques fumée et queue de bœuf frite, émulsion de raifort (Patrick Jeffroy)
  
  Here the Chablis did very well with the horse radish and the smoked scallop.
  
• M’hamsa safrané à la tchekchouka parfumé aux fleurs de coriandre, écrevisse snackée à la fleur de sel, Caviar de l’Ambassadeur (Sébastien Bontour)
  
  Served with Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Chalumaux 2007. A very clean and complex wine that did well with all these different flavours. Caviar de l’Ambassadeur is a new and delicious Iranian caviar
  
• Tortellini d’ossobuco, fondue d’ubriaco, balsamique 25 ans d’âge (Davide Bisetto)
  
  Served with Château Batailley 1998, Pauillac. Ready to drink now, a very classy and classic Bordeaux. Very nice with these very tasty tortellini. I wanted more of them!
  
• Bar épais Rossini, pomme de terre onctueuse et compotée d’oignons doux (Nicolas Masse)
  
  Again, the Paullac was superb.
  
• Le Cube (Jean-François Rouquette et Pier-Marie Le Moigno)
  
• Fine gelée à l’infusion de Naâna & granité à la menthe poivrée
  
  Beautifully combined with exceptional Sauternes wine Clos Haut-Peyraguey 2006

So indeed a star studded dinner!

-Britt