the best of You cook this week – Liberation
Editorial: to brunch or not to brunch?
Start the year with a brunch at the restaurant: the idea, at any other time, we would have glued pimples of hives. It’s because these brunches are often too expensive, when you’re a little smeared, you don’t want to have to swallow the whole menu to justify the cost (especially in the all-you-can-eat buffets) and that it is just as much at home in front of scrambled eggs as in a restaurant listening to evening debriefs from strangers at the next table. But – it’s only the fools who… – this year, browsing through the January 1st menus made us salivate. For those who want to start the year in style, but who do not necessarily have the desire or the means to afford a meal reserved for the restaurant for New Year’s Eve, the brunch, particularly neat on the first day of the year, can be a good in-between.
Example: at Jòia, the table by Hélène Darroze in the Sentier, the New Year’s Eve menu costs 285 euros a head with wine, but brunch the next day goes down to 75 euros. On the menu for this exceptional brunch: chicken pie with foie gras, scallop carpaccio, scrambled eggs with black truffle and Colonnata lard mouillettes, panettone… Chez Deux, between République and Belleville, the ultra-promising Tiphaine Mollard and Romain Casas will offer a brunch at 70 euros (cut champagne included) with pancakes, an egg parfait with truffles, stuffed capon with candied thighs and chestnuts, vanilla cabbage and salted butter caramel…
And if you’re ready to break the bank, you can treat yourself to brunch at Le Meurice, at 240 euros (i.e. four times less than the menu the day before, charged more than 1,000 euros per guest), where pastries from the media Cédric Grolet, champagne and various seasonal dishes. And then, brunch on New Year’s Eve is practical: it’s a good excuse to leave the evening and the party favors as soon as the heart tells us.
It is a Pinot Noir for the night, with a dark and poisonous robe. Extremely silky, it was served to us with fish, a dish that would lazily call for a white. But no ! Nuit Noire, from Domaine Les Funambules in Alsace, is a wine so capable, lively, light, that it remains elegant in all circumstances. It must be said that these winegrowers do not do things by halves. Three plots only on the localities Vogelgarten, Mambourg and Schnekentor in Kientzheim, with a culture in agroforestry, organic, diehard as we like.
The nose is sensual, said to show aromas of wood, humus. On the palate, the attack is powerful but controlled, the palate touch is spicy, warm, and ends with fruits, cherries and raspberries. A wine of extreme delicacy and surgical precision, created with the greatest respect for nature, which takes nothing away.
Information: www.vins-lesfunambules.com/fr/les-vins. 22 euros, public price.
There are few sauces at Soces. In reality, everything is more on the bone: cuttlefish cut into tagliatelle, placed on two spoonfuls of bone marrow, with a broth of green oil. Silky tarama, served with good bread. A ceviche of scallops and thin slices of lime, intertwined with slices of pumpkin. A very simple beetroot, as if sleeping on its lick of buttermilk. A French toast to die for. And very square wines, like Si Rose (thanks for the pun), a gewurztraminer and pinot gris from the domain Christian Binner in maceration, with the scent of rose, precisely. Soces (1) therefore gives pride of place to fish and vegetables with perfectly paired natural wines, but there are also, for meat lovers, game dishes for two. The decor is adorable, the staff is funny and competent, and everything is bathed in a pretty yellow softness, in the flame of candles. The perfect winter restaurant. ︎
(1) 32, rue de la Villette, 75019 Paris. About 60 euros per person. Info. : 0140341430.