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In the evening, the exquisite cuisine of chef John Claude Brugel (Meilleur Ouvrier de France 1996) awaits you - not to be missed - at the Monte-Carlo Beach Hotel's new restaurant "Elsa". His food absolutely stole our hearts! This spectacular chef will only propose daily what the market provides and the season requires. So many chefs truly are straying from their regional and seasonal offerings presenting instead a conflicting mixture of flavors and tastes from around the world. Chef Brugel loves the culinary products and history of the French and Italian Rivieras and turns out stunning and innovative dishes with such a smooth blending and matching of tastes that a meal is more of a gastronomic symphony.
Restaurant Elsa is the big innovation for 2010. With the cuisine of Chef Brugel, it is now a culinary destination in itself even if you are not staying at the Monto-Carlo Beach Hotel. Book early and ask for one of the two tables set right in the plate glass window alcoves with a view out over the Mediterranean, the beach bay and all the way west to the peninsula of Monaco with the old town high on the palisades. As night falls, it is an ever changing panorama to accompany your meal.
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Amuse Bouche - Terrine of Salmon and Vegetables.
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Typical interior design of the hotel. This is a mini lounge found on each floor at the elevators.
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Broccoli soup with goat cheese ravioli, sun dried tomatoes, broccoli buds and the obligatory foam dabs.
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Chicken served two ways: preserved leg "confit" and roast breast.
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To see larger version of the photo, click on the "zoom++" link.
Peter D'Aprix © 2010
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With daylight still in the sky and the Amuse Bouche only just fading from our memories, Linda started with the Broccoli soup with ricotta and goat cheese ravioli, sun dried tomatoes, broccoli buds and the obligatory foam dabs that captured the essence of broccoli. Peter started with the Grilled Vegetables, thin sliced lengthwise served with a delicate small salad. Linda's chicken dish was prepared in two ways: simply roasted for the white meat and then "confit" style for the thighs served with with a serving of lightly steamed vegetables (served and shown separately). Peter loved the sea bass on caramelized onions served with separate enameled iron mini-pot of green peas.
Showing remarkable restraint, we both enjoyed the Minestrone of fruit with raspberry sorbet for dessert. Of course, we could have had any number of delectable other choices from Citrus Fruit Macaroon, Panna Cotta Madirofo or Provencal Apricots in Puff Pastry with chilled Quenelle with Honey and Fromage Blanc and more. But actually after such a delicious meal, the light effect of the Minestrone was an excellent close.
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Our dinner view before dark.
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Side order of baby vegetables.
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Minestrone of fruit with raspberry sorbet.
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Grilled Wild Sea-Bass served over caramelized onions.
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Twilight view out over the coastline of Monaco from the window table at the Elsa Restaurant with Monte-Carlo in the background on the spit of land to the left of the photo.
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Chef Brugel is not only a marvelous chef but a very pleasant guy to talk food with. Over coffee as we watched the pearls of lights start to string the bay, we talked about his passion for the tastes of Provence. Before he entered the kitchens on the path to becoming a chef, he worked with his parents on the family farm. So suppliers can't pull the wool over his eyes - he knows his ingredients from the inside out. He was born on the other side of southern France in the rugged country between two major rivers the "Tarn" and the "Garonne".
He has worked with Joel Garault at the "Reserve de Bealieu" as well as at Roger Verge's famous "Moulin de Mougins". The Monte-Carlo SBM group, that moves quietly but powerfully to bring the best of hostelry and cuisine to Monaco, was his next focus with a place in 1992 as Chef de Partie with the Brigade Volante. Since 1998, he has been Chef des Cuisines at the Monte-Carlo Beach with responsibility for "Le Deck", "La Vigie", "Le Sea Lounge" and now the hotel's brand new restaurant "Elsa". This is a talent to keep track of.
"Restaurant Elsa" at the Monte Carlo Beach Hotel
Avenue Princess Grace,
06190 Roquebrune-Cap-Martin,
France (only just across the border)
Tel : +377 98.06.25.25
Fax : +377 98.06.26.26
Web Site: www.monte-carlo-beach.com
You can make a reservation from the web site.
E-mail : montecarlo@relaischateaux.com
Member of Monte-Carlo S.B.M. (Société des Bains de Mer)
and, in 2010, a new member of the Relais et Châteaux Chain
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Location:
We are including the restaurant in both our French and our Monaco coverages since it almost straddles the frontier between the two and is only a stone's throw from the center of Monte-Carlo.
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