AurelleA: Taillevent

[This is a version of what I wrote for 56 Insolite, the student magazine at NYU in Paris. I also sent it in to Baedeker, NYU's travel magazine. But yes, here are my impressions of my meal at Taillevent, the best meal of my life. If you don't believe me on how good it was, just Google it.]

Let me start off by saying that Taillevent has two Michelin stars. So I knew it was going to be good. But I had no idea what was coming my way.

Shuli and I started our research for the “really nice” dinner about five days before he and my mom arrived. Through our own separate Googling, browsing Frommer’s, Time Out Paris, the New York Times, and a million other “Best of Paris” lists, we noticed that Taillevent had made almost all of them, and every description made it sound irresistible. We took that as a good sign, and I e-mailed for reservations for Tuesday of their visit.

Taillevent is in the eighth arrondissement, about a five minute walk from the Champs-Elysee. It was established in 1946, named after a 14^th century cook for the Charles V who wrote the first French cookbook. The chef now, Alain Solivérès, lost his third Michelin star in 2007 (not that I would be able to tell the difference). And if the restaurant wasn’t cool enough already, apparently there is a scene in Ratatouille that was inspired by it.

We walked in and were immediately greeted by three different people. Our coats were whisked away, but then they noticed that Shuli was not wearing a dinner jacket, just a nice cashmere sweater. “Il faut que vous apportez une veste, monsieur,” one of the garçons said. Of course, they had extras in the back of their coat room, and he was soon sporting a slightly large, but actually rather nice, brown dinner jacket. The restaurant was nicely decorated with gorgeous flowers, interesting art, and beautiful china, of course. But because there was no obnoxious theme or overwhelming design, it really let the food take the stage, just as it should be.

What followed once we sat down was pure ecstasy. We had an aperitif of the house champagne, which even after everything else was still one of my favorite parts of the meal, and they served us small puffed cheese pastries while we waited to order. The waiters then patiently translated all the dishes for us. Despite more than six years of French, this restaurant menu was complicated and fancy enough to have many words I’d never even seen before, and I would not have wanted to miss one part of the menu.

And then, the real food began. They brought us a choice of white or brown dinner rolls, which were perfectly warm, with a hard crust and soft and chewy center, to go with deliciously rich butter. The waiters brought over an appetizer, compliments of the chef, of lobster mousse with curry sauce--only at a restaurant this spectacular could they make flavors like that work together. For appetizer, I ordered barley risotto with frog’s legs, a true French dish. It’s true what they say, they really do taste like chicken, and the risotto was perfectly creamy and al dente. My mother had crispy prawns with citrus marmalade and green tea, but prawns are not my favorite in general. And Shuli had a tarte of smoked salmon, horseradish, and caviar, which was truly the stand out. The quality of the ingredients was unlike anything I’d ever had. And of course, we had a bottle of wine that the house sommelier had recommended to pair perfectly with all of our food choices – a 2003 Bordeaux.

But the appetizers were nothing compared to the entrées. My mother had a sea bass with seaweed sauce, which was so tender and delicate. Shuli enjoyed a filet mignon with real bone marrow covered in potato rolls, and I had the house specialty of duck and foie gras pastry and arugula salad (arranged into a tower, of course). Every time we ran out of sauce, the waiters would come over and pour hot, fresh flavor all over our plates. Each dish was perfectly balanced, rich and fresh, but never overwhelming.

Then the waiters came out and offered us a cheese course while we waited for our dessert, complete with a “cheese man” (as I referred to him) to advise us. I had a brie, a camembert, some other mystery flavorful cheese, and a Roquefort, which made your tongue sting it was so strong. The walnut cheese and goat cheese Shuli ordered were also a standout, especially paired with the raisin bread they offered us.

For dessert, my mom had the chocolate mousse with warm chocolate sauce in the middle, Shuli an upside down chocolate tarte with crème brulée on the top, and I had the trilogie – a tasting of three house desserts. The first was an exotic fruit pastry, where you could distinctly taste each citrus and flavor, the second a South African red tea (rooibos) tiramisu, and the third was a champagne sorbet. If I wasn’t already overwhelmed by the delicious and unexpected combinations of flavors in all the dishes, it turned out the champagne sorbet had pop rocks (made in-house, I’m sure) inside! My mouth was crackling for twenty minutes, and it made the whole experience that much better. We finally finished our meal with a digestif - - cognac with champagne for me and Shuli, coffee for my mom.

The whole dinner experience lasted three and a half hours, and it truly was an experience. There was not a moment where we didn’t have two waiters checking in on us, instantly offering us more bread as soon as we had less than a third of a roll left, or refilling our water at every second. There was an escort to the bathroom, and our napkins were perfectly folded on the silver china when we returned. If the food had been eaten in a garbage dump, it would have been just as amazing. But it was the service that truly made the dinner the best meal of my life – which is why we took home the menu as a souvenir, just as most other diners that evening did.