Chef Matthias Marc
Trout tartare with raspberries, recent horseradish and beetroot coulis
It wasn’t till I went to Liquide, chef Matthias Marc’s new “fashionable tavern” cum bistro in Les Halles in Paris the opposite day for lunch that I noticed simply how a lot I had been lacking eating places since they shut down in France final October. What I’d been craving was that entire spectrum of gastronomic expertise, wit and creativity which can seemingly ceaselessly elude me even throughout my finest moments as a prepare dinner. In different phrases, my palate was simply determined for dishes past my ken within the kitchen, and so I arrived at Marc’s newest desk with very excessive expectations.
An ideal instance had been the oysters Bruno and I shared over a glass of Jura Chardonnay. They had been garnished with fava bean water, cherries, verveine oil and verveine leaves, or a register of perfumes and flavors which rendered their oceanic brininess an ideal course at an city sidewalk summer time picnic.
Additionally contemplate the starter I had right here on a scorching day on their terrace within the rue de l’Arbre Sec. Trout tartare dressed with raspberries and freshly shaved horseradish had been tossed with a coulis of beetroot to create a luscious and brilliantly refreshing summer time dish that delivered the distant countryside of the Jura to a desk within the coronary heart of Paris. It was a easy however good preparation that was stunningly authentic and deeply pleasurable.
Bruno’a flamed mackerel with pickles, grilled aubergine and dill was an excellent little dish, too. Peering inside, lots of the decor of Racines 2, a earlier restaurant on these premises, had survived, together with components signed by Philippe Starck. The general impact of this decor got here off as dated and attempting too onerous, as if some how or one other Starck’s aesthetic isn’t getting old nicely, so we had been glad to be outdoors.
In a marked distinction from Racines 2, the younger service workforce right here was notably pleasant, environment friendly and attentive, too, which significantly added to the pleasure of our meal. Eating from the very good-value 29 Euros lunch menu, a extremely nice guess within the coronary heart of Paris a number of footsteps from each the brand new Pinault Assortment and the Louvre, each of us ordered the roasted Landes hen with croutons, turnips, and a vigorous condiment sauce produced from the turnip greens, tarragon and ginger.
Our dessert was spectacular, too. Cool feathery gentle rice pudding was garnished with recent cherries, cherry sorbet and pleasantly pungent and piquant oxalis. Summery and satisfying on the similar time, it confirmed off the talents of a kitchen that’s already impressively well-drilled for having opened so just lately. Marc put his colleague Jarvis Scott in cost right here, and the 2 draw up the menus collectively.
And when the waiter observed us eyeing the plate of chocolate bark he’d simply delivered to a neighboring desk, he generously introduced us slightly sampler to style, and it was simply scrumptious.
Liquide is a wonderful restaurant, and the subsequent time I’m going, I look ahead to sampling one other one of many home specialities, a roasted pigeon full of Morteau sausage from the Jura. I noticed this go by, too, as a part of a particular order, and it seemed simply stunningly good.
So finally there’s gentle in Paris once more, and Liquide is a good place to have fun the tremulous renewal of the lifetime of this nice and supremely gastronomic metropolis.
