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In Brief: Just a couple of hours drive south from Paris in the north western reaches of Bourgogne, this restaurant is within easy reach for lunch or dinner. Better yet, stay the night in the luxurious yet country styled rooms of the five star hotel, "Le Relais Bernard Loiseau", that is the home of the Loiseau restaurant and be relaxed about your meal and enjoying your wine. The service is a good as it ever was. M. Loiseau's wife controls everything including that is on the menu. One begins to realize that it was not just the passion and talent of M. Loiseau that made Relais Bernard Loiseau such a success but the abilities of his lovely and charming wife Dominique as well.
There are not enough superlatives to describe Patrick Bertron’s food. He is of course carrying on Loiseau’s cuisine but adding his own creative stamp on superbly crafted and innovative dishes. Having worked at Loiseau's side for two decades from the time he first started his apprenticeship in a professional kitchen, he knew the cuisine of Loiseau perfectly since it was he, not loiseau, who was producing the food on a daily basis that Loiseau had masterminded. But both he and Dominique Loiseau felt that while part of the menu should retain the Loiseau signature dishes, the restaurant would grow stale if they just ground out the same menu year after year. If Loiseau was anything he was a man of intense creativity, passion and change. Bertron's cuisine pays homage to that spirit and style but he is projecting it into the future with superbly crafted dishes with fun new tastes and concoctions but that never make the mistake, as so many young chefs do today, of gilding the lily with too many tastes on the plate often in conflict with each other. Instead, each dish is a marvelously balanced group of tastes, each complementing the other perfectly. We decided to sample the new menu. See below for photos of the classic menu from our previous story coverage. The meal started with a light, cold melon soup with melon balls bobbing around and a touch of tarragon that cleared the palate marvelously. I carried on with a dish of perfect spring vegetables in a nettle sauce that was simply wonderful. Peter had the Ravioli which was really a loosely wrapped thin pasta made with fresh herbs encasing some langoustines and violet artichokes which was also excellent. I followed the vegetable starter with a pair of rouget fillets accompanied with stuffed with courgette flowers, crushed olives and yellow squash napped with a signature parsley sauce. Yumm!
Peter had the roast pigeon which was perfectly done sitting on a purée of butter mashed potatoes accompanied by tender asparagus spears and the jacket of the potato stuffed with fresh baby greens while I had the thick, mouth watering Filet of duck from Challans with accompanied by glazed baby carrots and a small salade of tender baby white beet leaves. Why is it the French are the only ones who consistently make such superb renditions of duck? An impeccably prepared pigeon was my favorite with puréed asparagus and baked onions. The only disappointment for me as a lover of rhubarb was my dessert. The rhubarb (described as "Tronçons de rhubarbe poêlés, craquant à l'anis, compotée de rhubarbe et son sorbet" which sounded fantastic!) was of minimal existence in an otherwise perfectly nice cake. Peter’s trio of chocolate delights was divine. Both of these desserts proceeded by a "pre-dessert" of lycee sorbet with pineapple sauce, which was unusual and delicious. After an excellent espresso "digestif" and, in my case, a tissane of rosemary and thyme, we agreed a walk around the strategically lit garden paths and a visit by our dog to his own garden spot would be in order after which we happily went off to our charming room and fell into bed.
Le Relais Bernard Loiseau Web Page: http://www.relaischateaux.fr/loiseau Bernard Loiseau also established three other restaurants The restaurant addresses in Paris: |
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