The 4th generation family-run hotel and restaurant is now in the hands of Michel Troisgros. We got a glimpse of its future when we were offered a tour in their kitchen where we met César Troisgros, who's Michel's son and heir-apparent to the family business. He's also the restaurant's chef de cuisine.
After the tour, we were finally seated at the quiet corner of the dining room with a small window in front of us looking into the kitchen.
La Maison Troisgros is open for lunch and dinner Thursday to Monday. Apart from the a la carte menu, there were a 10-course tasting menu (€250) and much shorter 5-course Market Menu (€120) offered during lunch service.
We were first presented with a number of small nibbles to start the meal. Firstly, a pair of caramelized cherry tomatoes with sesame seeds and ginger. There was a strong burst of acidity when I popped it into my mouth.
It was followed by a slice of juicy watermelon served with a pillow-shaped pastry with cheese filling, rice crispies, orange confit and bottarga.
La Maison Troisgros's signature ham brioche was next and it was nice, buttery and very flaky.
The first dish of the tasting menu was a refreshing, cold starter themed "Red Salad". The mix of strawberry, peach, plum, rhubarb, watermelon and red cabbage provided a great balance of freshness, sweetness and acidity. A perfect summer dish with the plum vinaigrette dressing supplying a subtle finish.
We were offered some more bread, this time a loaf of homemade corn bread.
The second dish certainly looked familiar. I had a similar dish when I was dining at La Maison Troisgros's sister restaurant in Tokyo but it was a dessert with mozzarella cheese, custard and pumpkin dressing like a sunny-side-up egg. Today, we got a savory version of it.
Inside the veil (I call it a milk curd ravioli) made with milk were mussels and girolle mushrooms in a saffron cream sauce. A lovely dish with very delicate and fresh flavors.
Next up was beef tripe with cheese ravioli (I thought with tomato too) and hazelnut served in a warm consommé made with duck and vinegar.
What impressed me the most about this dish were the raviolis with seemingly liquid cheese filling. The consommé was more on the acidic side but it worked well to cut through the richness of the raviolis.
Our fourth and final starter was crayfish and red endives in a chilled raspberry and vinegar sauce. This time, the vinegary sauce was more on the sweet side (raspberry!) meshing well with the Perilla flowers to give the crayfish a very nice lift.
Our fish course was red mullet served with butter lemon cream. This dish again demonstrated very precise cooking and the level of sharpness in the butter lemon cream was spot on with the red mullet fillet giving it great depth of flavors.
The original meat course was sweetbread, poached and pan-fried to golden brown color and served with a variety of zucchini which has been marinated with curry. Jelloman loves the fact that it's almost caramelized on one side and most importantly, the melt-in-the-mouth texture that came with it.
Since I'm not a fan of sweetbread, I went with the alternative, which was a beef dish and it was a beauty!
It's local Charolais fillet of beef served with red wine reduction and bone marrow - one of the classic dishes from Jean and Pierre Troisgros, Michel's grandfather and father's recipe. Yes, this is very simple cooking but very often the simpler the dish, the harder to get it right. And this was right on the money, from the texture of the beef to the wonderfully rich red wine sauce.
At this point, Chef Michel Troisgros himself came out to greet us. We had a brief chat about food and the culinary landscape around the world. He joked with us that he's jealous of us living in Asia with all those good food but I told him I would rather find myself living in France instead!
Dessert was a contemporary version of mille-feuille called "730 Layers".
The super flaky pastry was accompanied by a mixed berries salad.
Finally, our petite fours arrived ending this wonderful culinary journey into history.
Roanne likely won't be the same without the Troisgros family around.
This is haute cuisine at its best and although today's dishes didn't come with the same wow factor as they did at Maison Pic three days ago, the precise cooking (highlighted by the brilliant use of acidity in the dishes), creative flavor combination and rich history are all worth the special trip.
Food Rating: 8.5/10
Price: €€€€
Address: 1 Place Jean-Troisgros, 42300 Roanne, France
Tel: +33 (0)4 7771-6697
Website: www.troisgros.fr
S. Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants: 78th (2015)
Post a Comment
Please tell us what you think