Dining in France

By MERV HECHT | Restaurant Critic

We are traveling in France, eating in some of the top restaurants in the world.

My favorite is the La Grande Cascade. This beautiful restaurant was built in 1900 as part of the world fair in Paris, with a waterfall built next to it for a nice walk after lunch.

It is situated in the largest park in Paris, the Bois de Boulogne. The decor is like being in a castle.

While it looks like something from the 19th century on the one hand, on the other, everything looks very new and clean. This time of year, seating is only on the outdoor patio.

Originally Michelin failed to award any stars to this restaurant, on the theory that no serious restaurant would seat people outside. But eventually they relented, and now the restaurant has a star.

We’ve eaten here with Parisian friends a few times over the years and not much has changed. The chef is a minimalist.

My first course consisted of a large morel mushroom with a mushroom stuffing, one poached langoustine, and a square piece of cake filled with pieces of langoustine and vegetables. Delicious and not overfilling for a first course.

Next was something almost impossible to find in the U.S.: sweetbreads. I know a lot of people don’t eat organic meat, but I love this dish and this was one of the best I’ve ever had. Again, it was minimalist: one large piece lightly sautéed with a poached vegetable on the side.

As usual in this type of restaurant some sweets on the house were served with coffee.

A few days later we traveled to Lyon, France, to honor the memory of Chef Paul Bocuse. He built his own temple—a brightly painted house a half hour out of town—and people flock to it from all over the world.

Upon making a reservation an email is sent out, so you know to expect a bill of at least $300 per person—if you don’t order too much.

The Bocuse group are not minimalists. They serve time-tested special dishes with a lot of sides, and a lot of table-side service and dishes “en croute.”

The restaurant was totally filled in each of the four rooms we could see, and there is a second floor with a large room that I ate dinner in last year.

This time we were there for lunch during the week, and it was still filled, but the tables are spaced well apart.

As always, the service was impeccable even though the chef passed away a couple of years ago. I missed his friendly greeting at the front door.

We didn’t order as much as usual. We started with lobster in a citrin sauce. This was a complex dish with citrus foam and chopped vegetables around the edge.

Then we shared an order of large white asparagus with hollandaise sauce on the side of the plate. How they find such large, delicious asparagus is a miracle, I never see it in Los Angeles.

Like the last time I was there, I noticed a very popular dish: the chicken from Bresse. The people next to us had that, so we had the pleasure of watching its ceremony.

At the table on the other side of us the couple ordered the fish baked in pie crust—also prepared table-side—and it looked delicious, but that’s one dish that we can find in LA and I sometimes make it at home.

So I ordered something a bit mundane and dated: Tournedos Rossini. That’s a beef filet with a slab of fois gras on top, surrounded by Bordelaise sauce.

But this serving was a bit different: instead of a slice of fois gras, there was a big piece and there were two sauces—one dark and one with a cream base—served over the steak. It really was special. But the steak itself, as always in France, is no better, and perhaps not as flavorful, as the meat in the U.S.

On the side was a wonderful small asparagus soufflé. And as always, a series of extraordinary sweets, including a small box of chocolates, was served with coffee. But even knowing about the sweets on the house, Joan couldn’t resist picking one of the extra desserts from a cart, and I had a slice of Roquefort cheese.

I washed it all down with a half-bottle of Cote Rotie Madiniere 2021 and said a prayer over the wine that I can return here again.

Merv Hecht, like many Harvard Law School graduates, went into the wine business after law. In 1988, he began writing restaurant reviews and books. His latest book, “The Instant Wine Connoisseur, 3rd edition,” is available on Amazon. He currently works for several companies that source and distribute food and wine products internationally. Send comments to mervynhecht@yahoo.com.