Paris Journal 2015 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com
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One of my favorite pastimes is cruising through Lafourchette.com, looking for promising new restaurants in the 15th arrondissement. I reserved a table at one of them for last night’s dinner. L’Ardoise du Quinzieme (the Blackboard of the 15th) is the name of this place, on rue Sebastian Mercier, tucked into a quiet residential neighborhood just off of the rue Saint Charles and the rue de la Convention. I’d read numerous glowing reviews of L’Ardoise, but one slightly negative one bothered me; the reviewer said the dining room was uncomfortably hot. The evening was very warm, but dry, with a slight breeze. When we arrived, we noted that only the front door and one window were open, and there certainly was no air conditioning. Still, if we could get that table by the open window, we thought, it wouldn’t be too bad. And so we did. The server was very accommodating, especially since we were the first customers of the evening. Besides the glowing reviews, one other feature attracted me to L’Ardoise: its chef has earned the designation of Maitre Restaurateur (Master Restaurateur). Only about 70 restaurants in Paris have this honor. L’Ardoise is so proud of this achievement that a number of Maitre Restaurateur booklets were available for customers like us to take. I picked one up. The booklet lists restaurants all over France, divided by geographic area. “Maitre Restaurateur” is a label that recognizes that the cuisine is made entirely in house – no pre-prepared, frozen foods, etc. – all freshly made. But it is more than that. Here’s a translation of the booklet’s introduction: “The title
of Master Restaurateur is the only title bestowed by the State for the
restaurant business in France. The
Master Restaurateur is a working restaurateur with valid professional
experience; it is an engagement of cuisine made in house, starting with raw
ingredients, freshly made. It is a
title attributed by the prefect, after an audit has been conducted. It is a step taken voluntarily by a
professional who renews it every four years.” Another interesting page in the booklet tells us that the title of Maitre Restaurateur also concerns the service and reception at the restaurants. The French Association of Master Restaurateurs wants to “rehabilitate” the dining room jobs, from the simplest jobs to those of the highest level, from the apprentice to the maitre d’hotel. We’ve been to several of the Paris restaurants with the Maitre Restaurateur designation: Le Procope, La Bastide Odeon, L’Epi Dupin, Le Christine, Chez Françoise, L’Antre Amis, Le Moulin de la Galette, and finally, La Gitane, which no longer exists. We’ve talked about going to La Tour d’Argent for lunch sometime, but we haven’t done it yet. Le Petit Zinc on rue Benoit in the 6th is another place that has caught my eye, and I’d like to try. Now we can add L’Ardoise du Quinzieme to the list of Maitre Restaurateur places where we’ve dined. It was a fine experience. Our starter course was a millefeuille d’ecrevisses – a chilled shrimp salad interspersed with the thinnest possible slices of buttery toast, topped with a bit of leafy green salad in a very fine vinaigrette. It made our taste buds tingle. My main course was the duckling with apricots and a rosemary sauce. It came with a delightful purée of potatoes, which I shared with Tom. Delicious! Tom’s main dish was a navarin d’agneau – stewed lamb with fresh peas and snowpeas, with a few little boiled potatoes. He loved it. The dessert we shared was a financier de framboise with pistachio cream. Heavenly! We had no idea what a “financier” would be, but it turned out to be a spice cake filled with fruit. The pistachio cream was the perfect finishing touch. The chef at L’Ardoise is Maxime Vilatte. His motto is “Good cuisine is honest, sincere and simple.” He had worked for famous chefs David Alvès and Joel Robuchon for several years, and then decided to open his own restaurant with his wife Marie. So it was in April 2012 that the Vilattes opened L’Ardoise, deliberately choosing a quiet neighborhood rather than one with “a symphony of casseroles,” as they say in French. As the name implies, the menu at L’Ardoise is entirely presented on the blackboard. The restaurant’s web site tells us that the “products are scrupulously chosen by the chef himself.” The menu changes regularly, with the season. Lunchtime is an especially good value, when you can have two courses for 18.50, or three for 23.50. I remember that in the first several years we summered in Paris, I was worried to see so many traditional French bistrots close because the proprietors had reached retirement age. I was afraid they’d all be replaced by Italian restaurants. But that hasn’t happened. Instead, we keep seeing new places open, with new chefs who have bright, new, creative ideas – places like L’Ardoise, Bacco, and Le Pario. And we have a couple more to try this week. Long live French cuisine! |
Wednesday, July 22, 2015
L’Ardoise du Quinzieme,
at 70 rue Sebastian
Mercier.
Millefeuille d’ecrevisses.
The
duckling with very fine puréed potatoes, apricots, and a rosemary sauce.
Navarin d’agneau (lamb stew).
Financier de framboise with pistachio cream. |
