IF JUSTICE prevails at Michelin HQ, then the 1998 Guide
to France, due out shortly, Will restore to Alain Ducasse at his Louis XV restaurant in the Hotel de Paris in Monte Carlo the third cooking star which was inexplicably removed in last year's Guide. Presumably it was because Ducasse had just taken over Joel Robuchon's already triple-starred restaurant in Paris, and the Michelin pundits judged that he would not be able to split himself between Paris and the Cote d'Azur so as to sustain the same excellence at both establishments. The answer is that he can, and does, and that my lunch chez Ducasse at the Louis XV on 2 January not only set a daunting benchmark for the year ahead, but was also Probably the finest meal it has ever been my good fortune to eat, anywhere. It was Certainly not a jot inferior to the lunch I ate in his Paris establishment, and wrote about here, last July.
Following this remarkable lunch in Monte Carlo, Alain Ducasse gave me a Copy of the article he had written for Le Monde on Christmas Day. Demain, c'est tout un plat' sets out his culinary philoso- phy — the use of the finest raw materials, treated with the utmost skill and respect — as the way to achieve the highest standards. This lunch showed how it works. The room itself, with its large tables spaced well apart, Pastoral ceiling paintings 'style Louis XV' between the chandeliers, glittering glass, gilded plates and gold-plated cutlery, along With the prices (our menu was Fr890) might seem daunting and not to universal taste, but the preparation of each of the seven Courses was a tour de force, the service was Immaculate and charming, never pompous, and the wine list an encyclopaedic, mouth- watering work of art, which, if at times stratospherically costly, never seemed unreasonable for what was offered, and, With chief sommelier Noel Bajor's wittily enthusiastic, authoritative advice, was a joy to select from.
The meal demonstrated Ducasse's princi- ples in action. There was no complexity for Its own sake, ingredients were the best, beautifully balanced and impeccably pre- pared. My friend, a retired ambassador, now resident in Cannes, whose enthusiasm for such things happily matches my own, took the same menu to make this a joint venture. It began with a light, yet intense, cream of broccoli soup, served with tiny chopped vegetables, smoked ham and sheep's milk fromage frais, and continued with a truly great gastronomic experience, a perfectly textured risotto, with a veal jus, over which a waiter, wearing the thinnest of white cotton gloves, grated quantities of superb white Alba truffles. Next came a prime Breton lobster, oven-roasted with sauté young winter vegetables, just a hint of ginger, and a fine sauce made from the crushed residue of the fish: stunning simplic- ity and incomparable flavour. With these we drank an admirable Louis Crochet Sancerre of 1995, and now moved on to an exemplary 1989 claret, Château Poujeaux from Moulis. This accompanied a plump, succulent young pigeon breast from the Alps of Haute Provence, roasted perfectly a point and pre- sented with a gorgeous escalope of duck foie gras and some potatoes braised in a juice of pigeon entrails and herbs: for once a main course that was not an anticlimax. After a fine selection of cheeses (vacherin, livarot and roquefort in my case) came two desserts: a tian of oranges and clementines with a slightly soured cream sauce, succeed- ed by Le Louis XV, a delectable chocolate confection. With these sommelier Bajor kindly offered an intriguing muscat wine from Corsica. Coffee and some of the best petits fours ever rounded off an unforget- tably brilliant meal, served with the utmost charm and skill.
For New Year's Eve the ex-ambassador had booked us in to the Palme d'Or restau- rant of Hotel Martinez in Cannes, where, despite the astronomical price, large parties of attractive French jeunesse doree gathered to smoke for France, dance cheek to cheek and pay scant attention to what they were eating. This was a pity as the head chef, Christian Willer, from Alsace, had devised an 11-course epic of remarkable style and substance. With commendable initiative 'This little piggy went to market, this little piggy stopped at home. This little piggy had lentil salad.' the management offered their own selec- tion of appropriate wines at a fixed price of Fr600 per head. We accepted and enjoyed skill in selection as well as commendable generosity of service: Taittinger 1991, en magnum, as aperitif, followed by 1993 Graves, Château Olivier, 1995 Auxey- Duresses, then superb Chassagne Montra- chet, then Margaux, Château Malescot St Exupery 1986, before returning to cham- pagne for desserts and midnight. A splen- did array.
The meal began with some excellent Belon oysters with a subtle balsamic sauce. Next came a brilliant timbale of jellied beet- root and caviar with a dill-flavoured potato gaufrette, then a slightly under-flavoured (too cold?) foie gras encased in a black olive tapenade with lamb's lettuce. Then a gor- geous combination of lobster and scallops with endive preceded a fine Swiss chard soup, and after this an exquisite Taittinger sorbet brought down the curtain on Act I. A splendid partridge, roasted a point, with young cabbage and a mélange of celeriac, pumpkin and truffle juice was followed by a classic brie de Meaux, and desserts of a white peach poached in rosé de Provence and a Palme d'Or chocolate and citrus com- bination, ending with coffee, petits fours and more champagne to see out 1997. A magnif- icent meal, so skilfully assembled that we were not left feeling bloated, just extremely well fed.
Before the Louis XV and Palme d'Or firework displays it had been heartening to discover that Jacques Chibois at the Bastide Saint-Antoine up at Grasse is still offering a superlative set lunch at Fr210, that he hopes to open his bedrooms by Easter, and that his successor in the Royal Gray restaurant at the Gray d'Albion hotel, just off La Croisette in Cannes, is offering a superb menu at just Fr205, no doubt in an attempt to regain the Michelin stars that Chibois took with him to Grasse. We ate this at dinner and had a remarkably fine meal, which, in my case, included a glorious florentine of oysters with a champagne sabayon, and a delectable wild duck roasted in a fricasse of salsify, chestnuts and pump- kin. The room may lack style and be harsh- ly lit, but clearly Michel Bigot is a worthy successor to Chibois, and I shall be much surprised if he does not regain his stars in guides to come. Certainly cooking of this quality and elegance would not be found here in Britain for twice the price.
Le Louis XV: Hotel de Paris, Monte Carlo; tel: 00 377 92 16 30 01. Closed Tuesday and Wednesday.
La Palme d'Or: Hotel Martinez, 73 boule- vard de la Croisette, Cannes; tel: 0033 492 98 74 14. Closed Monday and Tuesday.
La Bastide Saint-Antoine: 48 rue Henri Dunant, Grasse; tel: 0033 493 09 16 48. Open all week Le Royal Gray: Hotel Gray d'Albion, 38 rue des Serbes, Cannes; tel: 0033 492 99 79 79. Open all week.
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