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Restaurant Saint Etienne, Vézelay, Burgundy, France
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The Best in Vézelay
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Peter and Linda D'Aprix
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Chef Gilles Lafontaine has recently created a charming small country restaurant in the heart of southern Burgundy that offers cuisine that is clean, light, fresh and delicious and a welcome break from the typically rich and heavy food of the region or even the finest of the Burgundian chefs who still ladle on the butter and cream with a heavy hand. He even created a magnificent vegetarian plate filled with delectable totally vegetarian tasties when a friend arrived from the middle east and could eat nothing but pure vegetarian. There is not a drop of meat juice and it is a superb dish. It was so successful with his friend, he put it on the main menu.
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Signature dish of vegetable creations. All vegetarian.
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Tuna steak on a bed of puréed red peppers.
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Interior of restaurant with the beamed ceiling, soft yellow and earthtone colors and country furniture.
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© 2000 photos Peter D'Aprix
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In 2002, Gilles has added even more vegetarian dishes to his menu. There is a "Petit-marron au four fourré d'une farce de petits légumes des lentilles roses au curry de Madras" (a chest nut loaf stuffed with lentels and curry sauce) as well as many other smaller dishes. So for the gastronome who loves to eat fine food but does not want or cannot eat meat, there are culinary delights for you here in Vézelay.
He and his wife Catherine who presides over the dining room and helps give the restaurant is friendly, country air, opened the restaurant just a few years ago in the very special hilltop village of Vézelay not far from Avallon. Vineyards line the slopes leading up to the walled village. The local wine is becoming better known. Kermit Lynch of Berkeley, California is now importing them into the United States. One of France's top chefs who has his restaurant and hotel just down the hill (see L'Esperance) directs his clientele to Saint Etienne when his own kitchens take their day off.
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The exterior of the restaurant on the main street of the village that leads up to the cathedral.
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Window table with a soft light filtering in from the street.
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Chef Gilles Lafontaine work for a long time at the Hotel George V in Paris. When they closed for a renovation, he decided the time was ripe to leave the city and enjoy life in the country with his own enterprise. He and Catherine bought this charming restaurant in this special village of Vézelay and had an uphill job transforming it into their vision. It had been a pizzeria filled with garish interior desecrations. The building codes have been tightened enormously in recent years, after the pizzeria had engineered their interior disaster, so they faced a protracted project working not just on restoring the old building back to its early look but working through the tedious building permits and planning of local bureaucracy. For the most part the restaurant has been transformed into the golden colored country feel we see today.
The style of the cuisine though is not country. It is modern and understated. The ingredients are fresh, the sauces mainly light reductions of the juices of the ingredients. His medallions of chicken arrive with a sauce of Morvan honey, a little dome of Basmati rice and golden roasted potatoes. The Tournedos of Tuna is char grilled with cumin on a bed of tomato "fondue". Alongside is poached Tuna tartar and a marvelous compote of onions and Corinth grapes. And the list goes on. The best thing is to try the restaurant yourself and work off the meal with a fascinating stroll around the exquisite Burgundian walled hilltop village.
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Langoustine dish.
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Country vegetable soup with croutons.
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| 11/20/06 |
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