La Fourchette in Mumbai
Menu complet:
Salade frisée with mustard vinegerette
Minute steak with frites and a dollop of Café de Paris sauce (herbs and garlic butter)
Crème brûlée
Porcini Mushroom Festival in Cortona, Tuscany
Menu completo trifolato:
Pasta ai Porcini
Scaloppine ai Porcini
Contorno di Porcini
On the Pensione roof terrace
Wild asparagus served with fagiole
Beef charbroiled on wood fires
Walnut biscotti dunked in Vin Santo
Dufour estate, Lumiere in the French Jura
Pain chemin de fer
Maison Mumbai - la culture indienne en Lumière
Clear trotters soup
Lamb brain stuffed with green chutney, coated with egg and tawa-grilled
Chicken cinnamon masala and beef cooked with vinegar-spices
Steamed rice crumpets and cottage cheese simmered with fenugreek
~
Prawn samosas
Goa fish stew
Chicken tikka marinated in pink spices and lemon then grilled
A skewer of yogurt-marinated lamb liver, sprinkled with crunchy pine nuts
Okra and tomatoes
Cauliflower heads in brown sauce
Fluffy yellow basmati rice
Pickled carrots, cool yogurt and cucumber, unleavened bread
~
Le Saule Pleureur (The Weeping Willow)
Nineteenth-century oil painting of the Marseille fish
markets
Orchid centrepieces
Satie music in the backbround
~
Hors d’oeuvres of pike carpaccio with a truffle and asparagus vinaigrette
Fricassee of freshwater oysters
Spinach and carrot semolina two-toned bread with chilled terrine de foie gras served under a white truffle and port gelée
Bouillabaisse
Roast suckling pig
Fennel ice cream and toasted figs with nougatine
~
Salmisde palombes (pigeon pie in a Merlot and shallot sauce)
~
Goat cheese and pistachio soufflé
~
Mille-feuille with preserved citrus cream made
from Menton lemons
Chunks of pike grilled on metal skewers accompanied by a crayfish and sherry saffron sauce
Rouget stuffed with asparagus and simmered in a grapefruit bouillon
Stewed hare served with infused couscous and a cucumber and sour cream salad with a handful of lingonberries
~
Hassan's French Cooking Apprenticeship with Madame Mallory
Study the Lyon butcher’s treatise.
Early morning visits to the market with Madame Mallory for purchases and lessons.
Kitchen duties: Washing dishes, mopping the kitchen floors, scrubbing and preparing les légumes.
Restaurant: a bread-boy in tunic
and white cotton gloves, closely studying the ballet of service.
Set the dining room off-hours under the supervision of Madame Mallory.
Kitchen: Plucking and cleaning wild pigeons, quail,
and pheasant.
Front desk with Monsieur LeBlanc: Taking reservations and learning the skill of properly seating a restaurant and the delicate politics of not offending repeat customers.
Early evening: Thirty minutes of wine tasting
and corresponding lecture, under the tutelage of the sommelier.
Promoted to commis chef after passing an oyster test.
La Gavroche, Paris
Hired by Chef Pierre Berri.
Working as sous chef then promoted to senior sous chef.
La Belle Cluny
Working as chef de cuisine alongside Chef Marc Rossier.
Le Chien Méchant
Number 11 Rue Valette
(Landlord: Le Comte de Nancy Selière)
Hassan opens up his own restaurant with his sister, Mehtab, as business partner and funded by his father.
Chef de cuisine: Serge Poutron.
Maître d’hôtel: Jacques.
~
Daurade aux citrons confits
Smoked eel with fresh horseradish cream
Siberian ptarmigan roasted with tundra herbs
served with caramelized pears in an Armagnac sauce
Le Coq d’Or, Courgains, Normandy
Owned by Chef Paul Verdun.
~
Omelet with codfish cheeks and caviar.
Poularde Alexandre Dumas.
Chez Pierre, Marseilles
1928 Krug Champagne
Teacup of Marseille fish soup
Dish of tiny clams
Loup de mer
(sea bass grilled on fennel stalks and bathed in warm Pernod then flambéed)
Maison Dada, Aix-en-Provence
A minimalist restaurant owned by Chef Mafitte.
~
Crystallized foam
(a hard froth made from sea urchin eggs, kiwi and fennel)
Bowl of 'pasta'
(made entirely out of Gruyère cheese and reine des reinettes apples)
Lobster lollipops served with truffle ice cream
Frogs legs deboned and caramelized in fig juice and dry vermouth served alongside a polenta 'bomb' studded with foie gras and pomegranates
Paul Verdun’s memorial dinner
Champagne under Monet’s Gare Saint-Lazare and Seurat’s Circus.
Dinner was served in the grand salon with white tables dressed with long-stemmed irises in glass; adorned with Baroque murals and Rococo mirrors; surrounded by tall windows offering a panoramic view of Paris.
~
Amuse bouche:
A shot glass filled with a bite-sized baby octopus cooked in its natural essence, extra virgin olive oil from Puglia, and a single caper on a long stem.
Served with the 1959 Château Musar from Lebanon.
Oyster in clear broth.
Salad of Belgian endive garnished with chunks of
Norwegian smoked lamb and quails’ eggs.
Served with the 1989 Testuz Dezaley l’Arbalete.
Poached halibut in champagne sauce.
Served with a 1976 Montrachet Grand Cru, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti.
Paul’s Partridge in Mourning.
Served with the 1996 Côtes du Rhône Cuvée Romaine.
Guests at table seventeen
Hassan Haji
Chef André Piquot
Madame Elisabet (fish wholesaler to northern France)
Le Comte de Nancy Selière
James Harrison Hewitt (American expat writer and food critic for Vine & Pestle)
One of Hassan's favourite paintings
 |
| 'Gray Partridge, Pear, and Snare on Stone Table' a still life painting by Chardin |
Books mentioned
Le Bottin Gourmande
De Re Coquinaria by Apicius
Margaridou: The Journal of an Auvergne Cook
1871 edition of Larousse Gastronomique
* Information taken from The Hundred-Foot Journey written by Richard C. Morais *
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