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"Restaurant of Villa Belrose", Gassin, France
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Dreamlike view and wonderful fish and vegetable dishes.
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Peter and Linda D'Aprix 2004/7
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Like certain other special places where we have enjoyed fine dining, the eating experience at St. Tropez’s Villa Belrose is one in which it is impossible to separate the physical from the gastronomic - a combination of great food and superb setting. Granted, the dining room, while pleasant, is nothing special, but unless it is pouring cats and dogs outside, you will likely be eating al fresco on the terrace overlooking the broad sweep of the bay of St. Tropez with the port of Cogolin to the left, St. Maxime gleaming in the distance and, especially just as the sun sets, the jewel of St. Tropez glowing to the right. Between these markers are the blue waters of the bay sprinkled with white sails, racing hulls, small speed boats with arching wakes zipping around gracious motor yachts of all eras.
Couple this dream setting high on the hills of Gassin, the micro region just before you get to St. Tropez, with the talents of Chef Thierry Thiercelin (one Michelin star in 2002, 17/20 GaultMillau) and you have an unbeatable combination. Chef Thiercelin is an immaculate chef who does wonders with vegetable dishes and fish and is filled with great imagination and people skills bordering on the hard to believe. Back in 2004 a few dishes did not quite make it to our tastes, but on our visit in Spring 2007, the entire lunch was faultless! Certainly to our tastes. He walks that difficult line between highly sophisticated preparation and design on the plate with out rendering the ingredients beyond recognition. Vegetables are both served at their peak of taste and by being served both whole and developed into a variety of preparations, you get the best of garden and the best of talented and creative preparations. The same holds true for the meat and fish dishes.
This is a chef who is truly is hitting his stide at the top of the game. Now Michelin just has to catch up and recognize this. If this man does not deserve 2 Michelin stars, no one does in our book.
We enjoyed a lunch that we will always remember for the experience even if total recall of what exactly we ate may fade in time. The spring day in 2007 was as perfect, warm and sunny with a cooling sea breeze as it was in 2004; white market umbrellas providing a glowing shade and one excellent course after another coupled with a local rosé, Côtes de Province, light and dry that perfectly matched each course.
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Dining al fesco on the terrace under the white market umbrellas with the bay of St. Tropez spread out before you.
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Young Vegetables cold bourride style with whipped cream sauce.
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Vegetables and Pigna White Beans in a "pastilla" pie with zucchini flowers and tomato juice
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Ratatouille decorated with a thin strip of zucchini and a leaf of basil.
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Photos Peter D'Aprix © 2004
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One dish stands out from the others because Chef Theircelin excels in working with the best and tenderest of baby vegetables harvested at their optimum. The menu description does not even start to give an idea of the taste explosion this dish provokes. "The Vegetables and Pigna White Beans in a "Pastilla" pie with zucchini flowers tomato juice" sounds good but not fantastic; but fantastic it is!
The Pigna white beans are a specialty of Nice and he gets his from a special grower in Nice. The majority of these are puréed and combined with finely copped red and yellow peppers, zucchini and carrots which are then wrapped using zucchini blossoms into a pie which rests in a pool of thin sauce of fresh tomato pulp. A crispy tube is stuffed with more finely chopped vegetables and balances on top. Some white beans and wedges of zucchini, carrot and a couple of green peas decorate the plate along with a few leaves of parsley and sweet basil and a zig zag of balsamic sauce. None of these last are purely decoration, they do provide points of taste to the pie so each bite is a little different from the last. If all the other courses had been dreadful, this dish would have made the meal memorable. Fortunately such was not the case.
The meal actually started with a palate teaser, a mini-cone filled with a purée of fresh chèvre and roasted red peppers. With our appetite thus encouraged, the next course for Linda was of fresh steamed, coarsely chopped baby vegetables made an island in a small pond of frothy white cold bouride of a thin whipped cream sauce. I had another island in a pond of cold tomato purée sauce with generous olive oil and some dots of Balsamic vinegar, but my island was a delicious ratatouille decorated with a thin strip of zucchini and a leaf of basil. These delicious vegetable dishes lead up the afore mentioned “Vegetables and Pigna White Beans”. These vegetable dishes confirmed for us the chef’s superb talent with vegetable dishes, at once filled with subtle flavors that continued to evolve in the mouth. Too bad more chefs do not discover and make available for us the pleasures of vegetables well prepared. His friend, chef Eric Canino, of Restaurant Le Cremaillère in the Haute-Provence also shares a talent and passion for vegetables prepared with the tastes of Provence.
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Daurade fish with stuffed vegetables
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Pan Seared Fillet of Rouget cooked on the skin and seasonal vegetables on a bread crust with pesto sauce.
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Baby Leg of Lamb from the Pyrenees larded with "piquillos" pepper and comesquis plus a dollop of polenta.
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Beef Fillet Simmenthal sauteed with kefir goat cheese, roasted asparageus and gnocchi with a confit of tomatoes on top.
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Linda then sampled chef Theircelin’s talent with fish barely giving me time to photograph her plate for your pleasure before plunging in. "Red Mullets" (Rouget) pan seared fillet cooked on the skin served on a thin slice of eggplant with pesto sauce with a spectacularly colorful and artistic line of vegetables to the side. The menu had described the fillet as being on "a bread crust with pesto" but chef Theircelin had use eggplant instead and we think it was an improvement. I had the Dorade which was cut into two filets which sandwiched the denuded backbone and ribs plus tail which was cooked and put back between the two fillets making a kind of macabre fish sandwich of itself. Original and amusing. Did not affect the taste which with the rich fishy sauce, The baked tomatoes stuffed with fish paste and the baby potatoes stuffed with finely chopped zucchini and crispy leaves of sweet basil, made a fantastic dish. Fish is definitely, along with vegetables, is one of chef Theircelin’s strong points.
Linda then had the "Leg of Lamb from the Pyrenées wrapped in a very thin bacon slice served with "Piquillos" pepper and cromesquis". (Don’t you love these menus with descriptions no one has the slightest chance of figuring out?). The small piece of the leg of lamb was perfectly cooked. It was served with a deep fried polenta roll and a dollop of polenta implanted with two asparagus spears as well as the baked pepper.
We were pretty full by this time so passed on the poultry, but the choices of "Bresse Chicken" roasted with thyme, potatoes prepared in different ways and the leg "Parmetier" style sure sounded good for next time as did the "Farm Pigeon" with green peas" à la Française" will also be on our next must eat list.
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Terrace at night, St. Tropez in the distance to the right.
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Four chocolate variations in the "Chocolate Surprise" dessert.
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Chef Thierry Thiercelin picking onion blossoms for lunch dishes.
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Mix of regional strawberry varieties as well as wild wood strawberries in puff pastry with dried fruits, sweet lemon mousse on a crispy pancake with strawberry sorbet .
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The clean and simple dessert of a mix of regional strawberry varieties as well as wild wood strawberries in puff pastry with dried fruits, sweet lemon mousse on a crispy pancake with strawberry sorbet on the site was wonderfully refreshing as was my chocolate plate with four different variations on the chocolate theme well represented.
We were so impressed with chef Theircelin’s flair for vegetables I asked him about it. I asked him if he had a "potager" for the restaurant’s kitchen. He said "well yes and no" and then elaborated that while he did not have his own kitchen garden, one of his main suppliers who had worked with him to provide the vegetables and herbs he wanted invited chef Theircelin to work with him on his truck garden just a few kilometers down the road. An invitation chef accepted with alacrity. 2003 he started with a list of vegetables, herbs and fruits he particularly wanted to work with and his partner planted and maintains them, giving chef Theircelin first pick and then selling the overage. For example, chef Theircelin’s has 30 difference types of mint growing including one that tastes like chocolate. He is growing his own Pigna white beans to see what the taste will be in the local soil and micro climate.
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Chef Thierry Thiercelin with St. Tropez in the background
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One of the several cheese boards.
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This is a very talented chef who has a broad background including owning and running his own restaurant. He is given great latitude in running the restaurant of this lovely and deluxe hotel Villa Belrose and does his best to cater to the wide diversity of guests who come from far and wide all wanting different taste sensations. Some other dishes we sampled at dinner were clearly aimed at northern Europeans and not as much to our taste as his splendid dishes filled with the tastes of Provence.
His menus are posted in full on their web site, so do not miss this excellent food experience and the incredible view that accompanies it on the terrace overlooking the bay. It will be memorable.
Restaurant of the Hotel Villa Belrose
La Grande Bastide
F-83580 GASSIN
France.
Tel: 33-(0)4.94.55.97.97
Fax: 33-(0)4.94.55.97.98
E-mail: click here
Web site: http://www.villabelrose.com
Map link, click here
Member of Relais et Chateaux.
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For a link to the Relais & Châteaux Group of hotels and restaurants own site, click on the button left.
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