Les Ambassadeurs
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Hôtel de Crillon, opened its doors in 1909. Built in 1775, Les Ambassadeurs, the ballroom of the first owner the Duke d’Aumont, has retained the opulence of the time with its 25-foot ceiling, Baccarat chandeliers and marble in seven different colors. However, the décor presents a new look with updated materials, colors and shapes. Lighter tones for the curtains, chairs and table enhance the light streaming in from the Place de la Concorde. The chandeliers have been restored to their former splendor. At thirty years of age new chef Jean-François Piège trained with Bruno Cirino, Christian Constant and Alain Ducasse. He was Ducasse’s chef at the Plaza Athénée in Paris, and brought Ducasse’s Parisian venture to stellar highs. His cuisine is always in step with nature, resulting in a menu that changes daily according to the time of the year. Piège limits himself with a choice of three appetizers, three meat courses, three fish courses, and four signatures dishes. The menu includes langoustines wrapped in phyllo, with mousseline and caviar; blanc à manger with morels and crayfish; araignée de mer in basil-lemon sauce, draped under foam from its own juice.- March 2005
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Les Ambassadeurs is not somewhere to go if you're on a tight budget. In fact, by far the best time to go there would be if someone else is paying. The prices here are, by anyone's standards, silly money.
However, the fact is you get what you pay for. In return for parting with enough money for a week's package holiday at the lower end of the market, you get a truly stunning gastronomic experience. I really can't fault this place at all.
We were invited to sit in the bar with a pre-dinner drink while perusing the menus, and then brought to our table when it was ready. We were given the most substantial amuse-bouche I've ever seen, which consisted of a mock "TV dinner", consisting of various wonderful things. A great start to the meal.
My starter was the signature dish of langoustine and caviar. This actually consisted of 3 smaller dishes of langoustine and caviar, all cooked in completely different ways, and all delicious. My partner had asparagus with crayfish, which was also excellent. I'd love to know how they find asparagus that has that much flavour before the asparagus season starts.
For main, I had pigeon stuffed with foie gras. The pigeon was excellent, with a fantastic gamey flavour, and the foie gras complemented it beautifully. If I have any complaint at all, the presentation of my main course wasn't particularly imaginative, particularly coming after the starter, which was exquisitely presented. However, the flavours were superb. My partner had fish (sea bream I think), which was much more elegantly presented and also consisted of stunningly good ingredients prepared to perfection.
The wine list was excellent, but many of the wines were at truly ludicrous prices, even by the standards of a place like this. We settled for a bottle of NV Roederer champagne at €130. A nice touch was that there were a good selection of dessert wines available by the glass: I had a 6-puttonyos Tokay with my dessert, which was a real treat.
The service was every bit up to the standard of the cooking. I think there was approximately 1 waiter for every table, and they were friendly yet extremely professional. They appeared when you needed them and kept out of your way when you didn't.
A nice touch was the herbal teas that were on offer. They brought round a trolley of freshly growing herbs, and your chosen herb was cut and made into tea in front of you.
One thing that surprised me was just how much we got fed. I sometimes associate such high-end restaurants as being so focussed on quality they forget about quantity, but we were actually very full by the end of the meal. The large amuse-bouche no doubt contributed to that. The chocolates that came with the coffee were so numerous we barely made an impact on them.
So, our meal for 2 came to a little over €600, which is the most I've ever paid for a meal for 2. But it's hard to say it's not good value, as the quality was absolutely top-notch.
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NautiusMaximus
Thursday, April 24, 2008
the most amazing dinner of my life.
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Sunday, November 26, 2006
