Saturday, April 10, 2010

meat and potatoes... à la Français!






The Chef invited us upstairs again. Day six of my French escape and my mouth is watering in anticipation. What does he have on the menu for us today? Packed with a bottle of Spanish wine (a much better version than my San Sebastian experience) and another bottle of French champagne, we trek up the stairs directly to The Chef's kitchen.

Charlotte... I have found you your new French pen-pal. The Chef shares the same food motto as you do - fresh ingredients, simple preparation, allow the flavours to shine. It is for those reasons that I think the two of you would get along like two peas in a pod... that, and I think he loves fois gras as much as you do! (I know, hard to believe).

The Chef prepared a mouth watering entrée - un napoleon de fois gras et pomme; seasoned with a pinch of cardommom, and accompanied by a red wine reduction. Both the apple and the fois gras melted in my mouth; a thing of true beauty. Charlotte you would have died. Seriously.

He then returned to the kitchen and continued the preparation for the main course... first he walked to the freezer and pulled out the new star of the meal - a truffle. And not just a little piece of truffle, no no no, The Chef had a good knob of it (two actually, although we only used one)! I'd call it liquid gold, only it's not liquid... but is it ever golden! The Chef had already prepared a potato purée, and so he finely grated the truffle into the purée; flecks of black peppering the potatoes. He then turned his attention to completing the canard sauvage; a wild duck that was perfectly crisp on the outside, nice and red in the centre, cooked with beautiful french mushrooms and in a jus that just brought all the flavours together.

Don't you just want to take a bite? Doesn't it all sound amazing?! And to think, The Chef was working off a two ring stove top; no oven, no gas, nothing other than to little rounds and a frying pan. It was an absolute culinary experience.

A traditional French meal, offered up by a very French chef... and enjoyed by a very happy Canadian girl :0)

2 comments:

lechefmarc said...

Bonjour Lyne,

J'ai adoré ton article et continue de m'intéresser à suivre tes aventures gastronomiques.

Gros bisous et à très bientôt !

gigi

Unknown said...

I love all your pictures and comments but disagree about foie gras, it should be banned, do you know how they feed the geese to enlarge their liver?
aunty michele