France trip, Jul 2007 - Paul Bocuse

(This is a long post!)

Paul Bocuse is my first 3 Michelin-starred restaurant. It has held the 3 stars since 1961, which makes it the longest-running 3 Michelin-starred restaurant.

The man himself was considered to be one of the finest cooks of the 20th century and he is one of the most-respected chef in France.

We made the booking with them weeks before our trip. Now, we have heard mixed review about this restaurant, but being the foodie that I am, I have decided to give it a go.

The building reminds me of the houses from Obermagau in Germany:

The interior of the ground level is equally colourful. There are lots of painting on the wall. We were led to the first floor, which is decorated in a more elegant and classical style.

Menu choices was not easy because the menu was entirely in French and the waiter don't really speak English. Luckily, with the combination of his English and my French, we at least worked out what meat/seafood are on the menu. Both are us went traditional, as Paul Bocuse is famous for their quality of ingredients.

First up, as an appetiser, we had a green pea soup with black truffle cream. It was smooth and surprisingly light in texture. Rather appetising.

As we have more time to observe the surroundings, we noticed that all china, utensils and cutlery are embossed with Paul Bocuse's name and/or trademark 'chef figure'. This guy must be very proud of himself!

For the butter

For the salt and pepper mills

For the bread

For the wine

For the napkin

For our entree, we both went with foie gras de canard poêle in a sweet fruity sauce:

It contains 3 'slabs' of liver. The sauce is rich but it goes well with the foie gras. I don't like the fruit bits though. On the other hand, the potato-like thing goes well with the foie gras.

This is the wine we ordered with the foie gras

The sommelier is very professional and he speaks some English! It's too bad that he appeared after we've ordered our food! hahaha

For main, SP and I went for different dishes:

SP ordered the pigeon entier rôti à la broche. Deboned on the spot!

Served up with vegetables. The pigeon is very juicy and tasty. However, being the Chinese that we are, we accused it being an overpriced version of roasted baby pigeon, served with French sauce and under the disguise of the 3-Michelin stars. To be honest though, the pigeon is more tender and tasty than many baby pigeon that we've had in HK.

I ordered the filet de boeuf (beef) Rossini, the classic French sauce. Cholesterol reaches all time high as I take on my fourth piece of foie gras for the night! It is great. The taste is wonderful. Although the sauce is very rich again, I enjoyed every bite of of it.

We both had a great matching wine to go with the dish. (no photo, sorry) It makes the meal really satisfying when the wine brings out the great quality of the food and its taste.

Then, the floating island for served to cleanse the palate. It tastes like any other floating island. But then, this dessert has never been my favourite anyway.

There were a large selection of cheese. Every time I look at the tray, it reminds me of the trailer from Ratatouille. I was really full at this point though, so as much as I want to eat cheese, I passed.

The waiter was kind enough to offer to take our picture.


There were a lot of dessert choices too.

These looks very very good. But I was just too full to tackle them!

SP ordered sorbet with mixed berries but we didn't manage to take a photo of it. He also ordered an espresso, which was very good. We later found out that the beans are from Costa Rica. This has become his 'beans of choice' when he stocked up at Monmouth Coffee.

After the meal, we went downstairs and took a small tour of its displays.

This one is of particular interest. The 'Last Supper' with Paul Bocuse in the middle. I assume the rest of the 'disciples' are represented by his famous students (Bocuse is the teacher of many Michelin-starred chefs). I just hope that none of them betrayed him.

We also took a photo in the now emptied kitchen. It was really busy when we walked it. Now it is spotless!

The restaurant is surrounded by walls painted with Paul Bocuse-related figures. This one on my right is a painting of Bocuse.

Here is a shot of the rest of the wall.

Overall, I think the meal is great. The food can be a bit rich but I guess it is just how French food is. You solve the problem by drinking more good wine!

We have read some pretty bad reviews before we came, but in the end, I think we may have been lucky and that a good 'chef de cuisine' was on duty when we were in.

This meal is totally different from the contemporary stuff like the Japanese/French-fusion cuisine by Tetsuya. If you ask me which meal I preferred, I would tell you, 'depends on which days you speak to me'. And that's that.

Having tried Bocuse, we have now tried 1, 2, 3 starred restaurant and know how to set the benchmark accordingly.

We have tried a few more Michelin-starred restaurants since then. More review to come.