A Bistro Ducasse Style

It's Friday night and I'm not performing, so my partner and I decide to make a reservation at Benoit after we had seen a show of Giada De Laurentiis in Paradise where she featured a restaurant by Alain Ducasse. After reading his bio and eating dinner here I have become a huge fun of him. A little trivia that we learned while dinning is that at the original Benoit in Paris was created in 1912 by Benoit Matray, the grand father of Michel Petit who sold the restaurant to Alain Ducasse.

Let's start with the Restaurant Week Dinner Menu, it makes this boy happy just to look at it. I would had try every single thing.

Right after you order they bring you a great crunchy, very French bread with butter and some cheese puffs that are so soft that you could faint and fall in these cushy pillows.

The soup of the day was Lobster Bisque and I had to have it. Well, I was so right. It was delicious. I can honestly say that I felt like they had put a Lobster in a juicer and this was the glowing red liquid I was tasting.

Michael choose the Green Lentil & Frisée Salad, he kept telling me how wonderful it was and when I tried it, it was a very well balanced salad where everything had a place and nothing over powered the other ingredients.

When I'm in a french restaurant and they have Duck Confit, I have to have it.  Today was not going to be any different for me. I consider myself an expert of Duck Confits. This one was well executed and the best part in was the confit onions that the duck was laying on. Those onions were the highlight for me.

Michael had the Moules Mariniére and Pommes Frites. He loves mussels and this one where just so good and the meat was so big.  The frites where crunchy on the outside and soft and creamy in the inside. Surprisingly there was not an ounce of oil on them.  The chef could teach a master class on frites making. The worst part was when the waiter staff took our bread away before we got to dunk it in the sauce, we had to ask them for more bread.

After the meal, I was very happy.   The desserts were good but they where too sweet for me. Perhaps that is because when I bake I always remove a portion of sugar from the recipes. This is a Lemon Tart.

And Michael had the Prune Clafoutis & Vanilla Ice Cream.

I'm so happy that we tried Benoit. I would definitely come back and must go to the original as well. 

Merci Monsieur Ducasse.

A little taste of Paris

It's the third week of Restaurant week and my Partner and I decided to go for the first time to JoJo. Open in 1991, this is the first Jean-George Vongerichten restaurant in NYC. If you are hoping for a taste of Paris this cozy, quiet boutique restaurant located on East 64 Street does not disappoint.

I first started with the Roasted Carrot and Avocado Salad with Crunchy Seeds, Sour Cream and Citrus. It was very refreshing and felt unusually warm on a cold winter night.  The Carrots where presented whole on the bottom of the dish as the only slightly warm element on this salad. The dollop of sour cream on the top was creamy, rich with clean taste and added decadency especially with the croutons.

For the main course, I chose the Slowly Cooked Cod with Maple-Celeriac Puree and Pink Peppercorn Vinaigrette. Sadly they didn't have the Cod but instead Flounder, so I can't really give an opinion in how this dish is. But what I can say is that the cold gentle sweet vinaigrette and the warm Maple-Celeriac puree were a perfect marriage for this flaky and buttery Flounder.

When you're a French restaurant there are a few signature desserts that you should have and should be done well. I chose a classic Warm Molten Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream and must say it was done to perfection. Any day, I would go all the way across town from Lincoln Center just to enjoy this  velvety delight.

My Partner Michael had the Banana Cake, Salted Caramel Ice Cream. Avery dense but moist cake.