A three star dinner at Maison Pic, Valence France

Let’s say au revoir to France with one final memorable meal, our three Michelin star dinner at Maison Pic.

We had champagne and little bites while deciding between the two menus, the Collection Pic (classics) or Actualités (meaning “current events” or “news” – essentially dishes of the season).

Three of us chose the Collection, and my uncle went with Actualités.  For all of us, the meal began with an amuse bouche of foie gras brulée, topped with green apple foam – just a few spoonfuls that balanced richness with the bright freshness of the apple.  For the wine, my uncle chose a very nice 1990 Chateau Grillet Viogner, which had a beautiful golden color and was lively beyond its age.

Our Collection menu started with Les Berlingots, essentially little green dumplings of smoked Banon cheese mousse wrapped in tender green pasta.  The name confused me at first – berlingot is a type of candy! – but it turns out it referred to the pyramid shape rather than the flavor.  The broth poured over was scented with ginger and bergamot, delicately enough that it just hinted at an aroma and didn’t compete at all with the flavor of the cheese.  This was delicious, and I loved the experience of biting through that paper-thin pasta to get to the warm, airy cheese within.

Next, the first of two seafood courses, Le Homard Bleu – lobster with little cherry tomatoes in a sauce flavored with coffee and saffron.  Such interesting flavors!  The tomatoes were my favorite part of the dish, peeled and perfect and mouthwateringly “aigre-doux” (sweet and sour, as with a vinegar gastrique).

Then there was Le Bar de Ligne au Caviar Alverta.  (As a nerdy aside, I rather like how each dish is given the definite article, “Le”, which is dutifully included in the English menu translations, giving this dish the grand-sounding name of “The Line Caught Bass”.  This is a restaurant that clearly takes its food seriously!)

It’s described as “as my father liked it – 1971” – and Monsieur Pic obviously liked things rich. The precisely cut rectangle of fish is completely covered with caviar (sustainable, from California) and then surrounded by masses of Champagne foam.

We also moved on to red wine, a 2000 E. Guigal Côte-Rôtie.

The final savory course was sweetbreads, Les Ris de Veau, with two preparations of carrots that were just faintly touched with lavender.  The textures of the two were subtly different – one almost brûléed with a crunch of sugar, and the other formed into tender ribbons.  I’d never seen sweetbreads prepared in one piece like this.

We ended up having two cheese courses, since there was no way I’d go to a three star restaurant in France without plundering the cheese cart (especially to help finish off that Côte-Rôtie!).

First, the composed cheese course that was part of the menu, a sort of Brie de Meaux custard with a nearly translucent cracker on top.  It was very rich, but not at all overwhelming – I cleaned my plate!

Meanwhile, the cheese cart lived up to my dreams – it took our waiter quite a while to name each of the dozens of options.

I picked out five cheeses, with a bias to my favorite just runny, slightly stinky varieties.

After cheese, it was time for dessert.  The first one was by far the prettiest, most feminine confection I’ve ever had – meringue and rhubarb and galangal vanilla cream, with pink dots and sugar ribbons.  And it tasted good too, of course, sweet and tart and crisp and creamy.

For wine, D picked out a delicious 1998 Tokay Pinot Gris from Léon Beyer, which rounded out my uncle’s birthday celebration quite nicely.

Finally, La Myrtille de L’Ardèche (doesn’t it sounds more elegant than blueberry?). Beneath the shimmering crust of peau de lait (again, ever so much better than “milk skin”), we found green chartreuse ice cream and blueberry coulis.  The deep flavor of the blueberries was particularly wonderful.

There was definitely a distinctly different feel to our Pic dinner compared to many of the Michelin three stars in the US, like Alinea or the French Laundry, where the bias seems to be toward many smaller courses.  Here, there were relatively fewer courses that were slightly more substantial, so that we spent time experiencing each.  There are no table turns, so everything feels relaxed with very little coming and going.

And the chef, Anne Sophie Pic, made a visit to each table for a short chat.  It felt like we were being hosted, rather than simply dining – that’s the charm of a family-run restaurant-hotel.

A lovely experience from start to finish!