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I first came to Troisgros in 1996, which seems a long time ago and yet it has been running since 1930, with three generations of the family as chef. The kitchen is now in the safe hands of Michel Troisgros, who had 17 chefs working at this lunch sitting, which had barely more than 20 diners. It is situated in the unlikely setting of Roanne, a town with considerable history as a trading centre due to its situation on the Loire, but now a rather sleepy, unappealing place. The restaurant (which also has rooms) is an oasis amongst such blandness, situated almost opposite the main train station, which is a leisurely one hour train ride from Lyon. The décor uses a lot of grey in the building, and the dining room itself looks out onto the pretty garden, where we sat to look at the menu.
The wine list is vast, and the wine cellar impressive. It is all temperature and humidity controlled, with 40,000 bottles and 2,000 separate wines stored. Unlike so many three- star places, the wine list is affordable. Etienne Sauzet Batard Montrachet 2003 was listed at EUR 290, yet this wine will cost you around EUR 178 in the shops. There are some non-French wines, such as Kistler Dutton Ranch 1997 at EUR 152 for a wine that will cost you at least EUR 80, and Diel Spatlese Trocken Dorsheimer 1992 at EUR 41 for a wine that you will struggle to find for less than EUR 25. The bargain of the list was the Coche Dury Puligny Les Enseigneres 1999. At EUR 130 this would appear to be well below the level of its retail price (around EUR 200), so that is what we drank (hat tip to SG for the recommendation).
Nibbles were little tomato fritters with sesame seeds and ginger, which featured beautiful tomatoes, semolina and lime with lovely texture, and crackers with coriander chutney, rather like an ultra-light poori (10/10). Bread was served warm and was a choice of classic baguette, cereal bread and, my favourite of the three, a remarkably light corn bread (9/10 average). The first dish was a pair of small pieces of mackerel in cassis jelly with sweet onion, and just a hint of mustard. This was an unusual idea, but the acidic balance of the dish was sound, and the little bite of spice lifted the dish (9/10).
Gnocchi made with artichokes with slivers of sardine was a technical triumph (10/10). A “pillow” of mousserons was made from milk skin; the mushrooms themselves were excellent, with a little of the mushroom cooking juices inside the pillow, but although this was all very clever I would have preferred a wrapping of, say, pasta (8/10). Better were discs of potato containing truffles, resting in a mushroom veloute and garnished with peas and a few additional mushrooms. This dish had lovely balance, the vegetables again having the finest flavour (10/10).
A little piece of cod with tomato essence was a fine piece of cooking, the cod flaking perfectly, the tomato essence having great flavour concentration. Cod is not my favourite fish, so for me to get excited by this shows real culinary talent (10/10). I most enjoyed the next dish, blue lobster on a bed of perfect spinach, the lobster lightly spiced and having little slices of redcurrant skin to provide acidity, plus a little fennel. This dish worked really well, and the lobster itself was magnificent, with great flavour and tender as could be (10/10).
A pair of pieces of lamb were served simply with some cooking juices, a few sliced broad beans, a red pepper sauce and garlic, with red pepper slices garnishing the top of the lamb; a fine aubergine was served on the side. The meat was cooked beautifully, seasoning was just right, and again the purity of flavour of the vegetables was striking (10/10). Cheese is from the affineur Herve Mons in Lyon, and was in excellent condition e.g. ultra-creamy Brillat Savarin, excellent Munster, lovely St Marcellin, which is fairly local to this area (10/10).
Afterwards the desserts began with a verveine sabayon with a dusting of chocolate. I am not going to score this, as I personally find verveine something that simply should not appear on a plate. Ironically the excellent soap used in the bathrooms here are scented with verveine, so to me this was like tasting soap sabayon. Of all the wonderful flavours in the world to create sweets, why chefs in recent years insist on going out of their way to find odder and odder ingredients simply eludes me. I am sure it was a well made verveine sabayon, but that does not mean that I want to eat it. Pear sorbet with meringue, a hint of ginger with wild strawberries was back on track (9/10). Rhubarb soufflé was very well made, with fluffy texture and the natural acidity of the rhubarb making it an ideal constituent for a soufflé; I am not sure it needed the addition of mint which it seemed to have (9/10). Petit fours included an excellent almond biscuit and superb raspberries, as well as a fine tuile (9/10). The bill was EUR 281, which included an EUR 130 bottle of wine.
Service, with the exception of one rather curt elderly waiter, was superb, with the staff helpful and attentive. I have to say that, despite the technical perfection of the cooking here, I preferred my meal here a dozen years ago; I think this must just be a sign of me getting old.
Below are notes from June 1996.
This is a modern hotel, just opposite the railway station in Roanne, a grim little town with no obvious redeeming features - when asked what there was to do in Roanne, the hotel staff looked at each other thoughtfully and then said “have you been to Lyon?”. The hotel itself was excellent, very modern and luxurious, with lots of glass and mirrors. Service was friendly and competent, and there was valet parking, a useful bonus as parking otherwise looked problematic. The main dining room continued the modern style, with panels of wood and stone, beige blinds, modern prints and irregularly spaced tables, the room overlooking an attractive garden. The garden itself is small and informal, with elegant wooden chairs and huge umbrellas, there beyond tastefully placed herbs in pots in between large trees to screen out the concrete wasteland beyond the garden walls.
The menu presented to Stella was without prices, which is still common in France presumably to protect frail female diners from the sheer scale of the prices. Amuse-bouche was snails in a tomato and garlic sauce with creme fraiche (3/10). The other nibble was smoked salmon with rock salt, fresh ground black pepper and lemon (6/10). I tried the menu gourmand. This meal proper began with crustaceans in aspic on a mint puree, which was not entirely to my taste but was hard to fault in execution (6/10). Next was a magnificent dish of warm foie gras with mange tout and cabbage, with a well-balanced vinaigrette (10/10).
Stella’s starter was a tender lobster salad, with julienne of carrot, turnip, red cabbage, scented with mustard and cress, dill and chervil (8/10). The menu gourmand continued with sandre (pike) roast with a herb crust, served with saffron potatoes - the fish was competently cooked but a little flavourless (6/10). This was followed by perhaps the best lobster I have tasted, pan fried and served in its shell with a herb and butter sauce (10/10). The main course was a pigeon, roast and very pink, with a reduction of red wine sauce, with garlic. Stella’s main course was a truly divine turbot, baked and filleted, served with a beurre blanc and finely diced vegetables, including green beans, tomatoes and orange and grapefruit segments, which sounds odd but actually worked fine (10/10). On the side were some perfect caramelised onions and petit pois puree (10/10).
Breads were: country bread, white, rye with sesame seeds, pistachio and a raisin bread to go with the cheese (7/10 overall). A vast selection of cheese was brought, of which we tried: a magnificent local fresh goat cheese (10/10), Camembert (6/10), Epoisses (10/10), Brie de Meaux (6/10), a Brillat-Savarin like cheese (7/10), a local ewes milk cheese (8/10) and a garlic and pepper cheese (9/10). Overall 8/10 for the cheese.
Next was a lovely idea - a trolley of summer fruits rather like a cheeseboard., but with fruits instead. We tried prunes, dried apricots, pear, banana, strawberry, kiwi fruit, cherries, pineapple, oranges, melon, sultanas, all served with a strawberry coulis prettily interwoven with cream. This was all truly magnificent, the fruits in perfect condition (10/10).
The dessert chariot was a fine affair. We tried a chocolate mousse cake with sponge, a little vanilla custard and chocolate mousse (10/10), a bitter chocolate tart (10/10), a strawberry tart with puff pastry (9/10), bread and butter pudding with a burnt sugar top (10/10) and a raspberry cake with layers of sponge, raspberry and chocolate (10/10). A grapefruit sorbet as a breath freshener was truly remarkable, with utterly perfect texture and fabulous balanced flavour (10/10).
Coffee was very good (8/10), offered with crystallised orange peel, and a whole plate of tuiles - almond, spiral almond biscuit and glazed puff pastry (10/10). With the meal we had Puligny Montrachet Etienne Sauzet 1988 at a very fair 340 FF, and a glass of excellent 1990 Justice (second wine of Gillette) dessert wine. The set menu was 690 FF, the restaurant bill overall 1,928 FF for two, the room a modest 1000 FF (list price 1200FF). |
