Yvan Roux is a former rugby player in the French national team who manages a restaurant situated at less than 5 minutes from my house in the South of France. He is extremely expert in fishes and sea food and cooks marvellously. Some board members of the eBob forum who visited me, as many of my friends, have had the opportunity to discover his food.
He knows very well Michel Troisgros who manages alone the famous three stars restaurant and the hotel since his father Pierre retired. And the idea that I would meet Michel appeared some months ago. I received a call from Yvan : “can you come to our place on Friday night to meet Michel and his wife”. A second call came : “I will email you the menu on Friday noon, and you can bring the wines that you wish to bring”. And he added something incredible : “I will close my restaurant. We will be only 8 people, as I want to enjoy the dinner with you”. As we are on the sea shore, to close a restaurant at the highest point of the full season gives an indication on the temperament of my friend rugby player.
I receive the menu and I see two difficulties. Normally, I plan a dinner by choosing my wines first and then asking a chef to make a menu for them. I am asked today to make the contrary. The second problem is that my cellar in the South is much more limited than the one in Paris. And Yvan makes things even more difficult by choosing some courses which are not friendly to wines.
Here is the menu :
Beignets de Rasteigues (Anémones de Mer) / Cru, Cuit de Thon aux Graines de Sésame et au Soja / Fleurs de Courgette Farcies (Aubergines, Tomates confites, Echalotes, Oignons nouveaux, Basilic, Pignons) et fleurs de Courgettes Tempura. / Carpaccio de Loup sauvage à L’huile d’olives parfumée à la Vanille de Madagascar et citron vert. / Seiches en Papillote au Lard de « Pata Negra ». / Demi langouste rôtie dans son jus. / Soufflé à la Vanille et son sorbet aux fruits de la Passion.
I decided to not ask any change as I wanted to play the game completely, with one exception. Babette, the wife of Yvan, loves Maury, so I asked a dessert with chocolate instead of having a vanilla soufflé.
I arrive before the others and I put some of my bottles in Yvan’s fridge, and Yvan told me : “concerning Dom Pérignon, I win on you”. And I said : “if you say so, show me”. And Yvan came back with a magnum Dom Pérignon 1983. So, he won, and I let my bottle of DP 98 in my bag.
I arranged every bottle and opened them, and the guests arrived. We were eight : Yvan and his wife Babette who received us, Michel Troisgros and his wife, a friend of Yvan who loves wine and good food, with his wife, and myself with my wife. During the dinner I was the one who served the wines, playing the sommelier, for the first champagne from Yvan and the other wines brought by me.
We began with the champagne Dom Pérignon 1983 in magnum. It must be said that it is a fantastic champagne. The colour is of a pure deep gold, the smell is intense and precise. In the first taste in mouth I had a quick flash of orange skin, which disappears to let the place to iodised aromas and salt. Michel found the champagne very dry. It is an excellent champagne, full of charm, and improved by the format of magnum. The beignets of ‘anemone de mer’ are something very special, and Michel asked many questions to Yvan about the way he cooks the fishes and sea products. And I must say that I have been impressed by the fact that Michel was always positive, making sincere compliments, and at no moment he said : “I do that so and so”. He was purely admiring and wanted to learn. This is for me something great as such modesty belongs only to great sincere persons.
Now, I serve my wines, on the Tuna fish cooked marvellously, the Château Chalon Jean Bourdy 1952, is absolutely fantastic. 1952 is a brilliant year, and I love it even more as such a year was considered as a standard average year by the family, and when I told them how fantastic it was, they changed their mind after my remark. I am rather proud of that. The wine was gorgeous and Michel was astonished by the acidity of the wine which was a sign of youth. The combination pleased everyone, and with a hazard which happens to me so often, Yvan had included some pieces of nuts in the sauce, without knowing that I would bring this one. It is a pure coincidence which enlarged the combination.
On the flowers of ‘courgettes’, I served a Châteauneuf-du-Pape « Les Olivets » Roger Sabon 1974. The wine is an authentic CdP, which is exactly in the definition of what CdP must be. And every component of the taste is purely balanced and expressed. The year helps a lot, as it does not create any excess. With the flowers filled with farce it was a delight. It did not work with the beignets of courgettes, much too sugared for the wine. I have noticed the particular length of this CdP.
The carpaccio of ‘lotte” is delicious. I had asked to soften the lemon and the combination with the champagne Salon 1988 is absolutely perfect. Michel said that this combination reaches perfection. The champagne is incredible. The idea that came to my mind is following : when you read a book about crime, when you are at page 82, you already imagine who is the murderer and what the mobile was. But things will change during the rest of the book, full of suspense. This Salon is exactly that. When you consider that you have understood the tastes, a load of new tastes appear, and gives you a new image of its complexity. This is a very great complex Salon, which shone completely tonight.
The next course with the ‘seiche’ meat was really made with sophistication and Michel gave many compliments to Yvan.
We had nice small langoustes extremely tasty, and I served Château d’Yquem 1988. I had tried Yquem on ‘cigales de mer’ and it came wonderfully. For the langoustes, a 1988 is too powerful, and I should have tried the 1987 but I had none in my cellar. Of course the combination was good, but the Yquem was too strong. The wine itself is fantastic, genuinely great, with absolutely no sophistication. It is just a pure pleasure as a Guigal Mouline can be.
On the chocolate, liquid and solid, the Maury La Coume du Roy, de Volontat 1925 plays on its field. It is sure to win. It is a great Maury, with tastes of brown fruits like prunes.
My preferred wines of the night are Salon 1988, then Dom Pérignon 1983 and then Yquem 1988, due to its intrinseque quality.
The best combination was Champagne Salon with the meat of ‘lotte”, followed by Chateau Chalon with tuna fish and the Chateauneuf with the flowers.
But the real pleasure of this night has been the generosity of Yvan and the extraordinary friendly attitude of Michel Troisgros with whom we talked about gastronomy with an incredible open mind. This is a dinner that I will remember for ever.