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“POTATOES WITH PLANKTON AND PICKLED CELERY SEED SOUNDED PECULIAR, BUT TRANSLATED TO AN INTRIGUING DISH”


This page: L’Auberge de la Source features top- class cooking from chef


Kevin Legoy, a master of local Norman produce


what strikes your fancy. The first thing I noticed was that there was no meat on the menu because Crenn swore it off several years ago. Setting ourselves up with a mineral-rich Alsatian Riesling, which seemed the best wine choice for a mostly seafood menu, we began with an order of the brilliant tartare of aged red tuna, served wrapped in shiso and with several sauces. We also very much enjoyed the ceviche of sea bass with baby peas in leche de tigre (a Peruvian marinade made with coconut milk, lime juice, garlic, onions, coriander and other ingredients), along with the fluffy, warm-from-the-oven Parker House rolls, an old-fashioned American comfort food, where the usual accompaniment of salted butter was swapped out for three intriguing condiments – shiso-miso sauce, egg-yolk jam and rice cream.


Observing the dining room, it appeared that most of my fellow diners were also puzzled by the menu, since it varied so much from the traditional gastronomic architecture of a French meal: starter, main, cheese (perhaps), dessert. “It’s a rather confusing experience, because I don’t know what goes with what,” I overheard a woman telling the waitress, “but Madame Crenn’s cooking is sublime.”


Potatoes with plankton and pickled celery seed sounded peculiar, but translated to an intriguing dish as the gentle brininess of the plankton


62 ❘ FRANCE TODAY Oct/Nov 2023


flattered the earthy primal flavours of sweet potato, with the pickled seeds adding lively notes of acidity. Corn flour tacos stuffed with grilled abalone (a popular shellfish in Northern California) were succulent, chewy and intriguingly bright with different flavours. Though it may sound odd, since most of us have been taught that freshness is the ultimate measure of good seafood, ageing fish like they do in Japan has become popular among California chefs. The idea is that fish, like meat, develops fuller and more complex flavours when aged in a chilled rock-salt-lined locker with carefully controlled humidity. This explains the two main courses on the menu – grilled yellow pollack and a stunningly succulent aged sea bream for two with gem lettuce leaves, mint and coriander with which to wrap pieces of the fish and Korean style condiments. Coconut beignets with pineapple and Japanese-style orange ice cream were a charming conclusion to this intriguing meal at an address which offers a unique new culinary experience in Paris.  Hotel La Fantaisie, 24 rue Cadet, 9th arrondissement, Paris, Tel. +33 01 55 07 85 07, www. goldenpoppy.com. Average à la carte dinner €130.


LA SOURCE, NORMANDY I’ve been a fan of L’Auberge de la Source in the lush green Norman countryside around Barneville-la-Bertran, just ten minutes’ drive inland from Honfleur, ever since I first stayed here almost ten years ago. This intimate 18-room hotel in beautifully restored red-brick farm buildings is exactly the type of hotel one dreams of finding while travelling in France – a welcoming, unpretentious, good-value place of real charm and quality. With the recent arrival of chef Kevin Legoy, the hotel’s restaurant has become a sort of in-the-know address for many Parisians who have second homes in the area, as well as discerning locals from Le Havre and Honfleur. Legoy is a native of the region, which explains his superb mastery of Norman produce, including everything from apples and cider to some of the best cheeses in France, locally landed seafood, fine fowl, excellent beef and first-rate vegetables and herbs. Legoy worked at the Ritz in Paris for several years, which explains the precision of his cooking and his beautifully made sauces. Eager to return to Normandy, he found a job in the kitchens of the storied Ferme Saint-Siméon, once


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