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A mouth-watering French travelogue
By Fernando Aracama

FROM THE FABULOUS city of lights, Paris, to the grand peaks, valleys and lakes of the beautiful mountains of the French Pyrennees and to the foie gras and truffle rich countryside of Perigord, it was a chef's journey of discovery, flavors, culture, wines and that off-chance that someone might ask you to cook a lechon for them. Stranger things have happened, believe us.

Here are some culinary high points that Cyrille Soenen and I experienced on our last trip to France. Drum roll, please.

Restaurant 'Aux Lyonnais'

The correct way to eat bread is to break it open and with your eyes closed, inhale and take in the aroma. This was sage advice from eight-year-old Cassandra, daughter of Cyrille and Anna Soenen. We were having lunch in Alain Ducasse's Restaurant "Aux Lyonnais" in Paris. A typical bistro featuring the specialties of Lyon by chef de cuisine David Rathgeber, Cyrille's old friend from his days in The Ritz Hotel and also at Le Grand InterContinental Hotel in Paris.

The correct way to eat bread is to break it open and with your eyes closed, inhale and take in the aroma. This was sage advice from eight-year-old Cassandra, daughter of Cyrille and Anna Soenen. We were having lunch in Alain Ducasse's Restaurant "Aux Lyonnais" in Paris. A typical bistro featuring the specialties of Lyon by chef de cuisine David Rathgeber, Cyrille's old friend from his days in The Ritz Hotel and also at Le Grand InterContinental Hotel in Paris.

Chef David's menu was small, well-chosen and featured what was only in season. Golden chanterelle or girolle mushrooms, a rarity in our neck of the woods, was in a few items, the best being an egg dish gently cooked in a bain marie with a rich creamy sauce. Artisan sausages and pates or charcuterie in distinct Lyon style were presented with delicious ratte potatoes, boiled eggs and a simple vinaigrette. I tried the rillette of rabbit with foie gras and marinated vegetables. Simply flavored but very rich and satisfying. The sour dough bread toast that came with this was excellent! Cyrille had truffled spring vegetables that had baby radish, haricot vert, spring onions and baby carrots served in a small pot. A typical spring dish seasoned with fleur de sel (flower of salt)and freshly ground pepper.

For the main course we chose roasted sea bass with fennel and a big rib eye steak with fresh mushrooms and baby potatoes and crayfish with quenelles. The sea bass dish was accompanied by both roasted and fresh fennel. The crunchiness of the fresh fennel shavings gave texture to the mildly flavored fish and the sweeter cooked fennel underneath. The steak was a hefty piece good for two served in a hot pan surrounded by girolle mushrooms and cooking juices. A deceptively simple dish but very hearty in flavor and substance. The crayfish quenelles were airy and light floating on crayfish essence. Cyrille liked it very much.

We tried the Saint-Marcellin for the cheese course and I loved it. It had that great funky aroma and flavor. We ate it by scooping the cheese out of its terra cotta container with a shallot-rubbed toasted baguette. It was very good. For our desserts we had a sampling of what was on the menu. Cherry clafoutis and a side of granita was a nice dual temperature dish that we tried. I really enjoyed the rhubarb and strawberry crisp. It's a warm compote of fresh rhubarb and strawberries topped with a sweet biscuit/cookie crust and some homemade ice cream. We also had a chocolate hazelnut dessert that was rich and nutty.

This was a classic bistro lunch. The season dictated the menu and it made perfect sense. The flavors were uncomplicated and honest. The vegetables were naturally sweet and pronounced. The mushrooms were delicate and meaty. The sausages and pates were light and filled with tradition. The bread, oh my god, the bread. C'est superbe! This bistro rocks! What a pleasure to have experienced the cuisine of chef David Rathgeber.

Ledoyen

After spending the day with my old friends Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy in Disneyland Resort Paris where adult happy meals consist of a hotdog, pommes frites (French fries) and a beer, we were off to see the wizard-the wonderful wizard of the three-star Michelin restaurant, Pavillon Ledoyen, chef des cuisines Christian Le Squer. Chef Le Squer was Cyrille's mentor when they worked in the kitchens of both The Ritz and Le Grand InterContinental Hotel.

There are only a handful of three-star Michelin restaurants in Europe and Ledoyen in Paris is one of the frontrunners. The restaurant is on what Cyrille proudly calls the most beautiful street in the world, the Champs-Elysees, I couldn't agree more. A lush and blooming garden surrounded the restaurant and screened the busy traffic close by. The interiors were subdued and pleasing. It had a quiet, modest yet elegant atmosphere around it. Nothing ostentatious or overboard, the dining room was classically French and well appointed.

Joining us for dinner was Cyrille's wife, Anna, and his father, Jean Claude. We were served champagne cocktail drinks and small bites of savory morsels or amuse bouche. The foie gras in napoleon and the smoked salmon rolls were exceptionally good. Menus were offered to each one of us, but only Cyrille's folder had prices because he was the host of our party. It was still spring and the repertoire was a showcase of the best of the season. Quality over quantity was the rule here. There was an a la carte selection and an offer that read "The discovery of specialties-for your great pleasure, allow chef Christian Le Squer to be your guide through a special five-course menu." We bought it!

All four of us took the degustation of chef Le Squer. And we were all quietly excited.

The breads they presented were amazing in variety and out of the ordinary. One was a deep black bread roll made with squid ink and shrimp essence. Another was almost like puff pastry with thousands of leafy layers studded with smoked bacon. The breads were fantastic!

Then dinner was served. The first course was a mousseline of herring tamara (roe) with avocado, tomato aspic and olive oil. It was refreshing, lightly tart, which balanced with the bold flavor of the fish roe. Served cold, the dish was a nice jump-start for the taste buds. For the second course, chef Le Squer presented a simple plate of roasted langoustine from Brittany. The waiters served the citrus emulsion foam a la minute to each of our plates. As the foam is spooned over the hot langoustine it sizzles and slowly melts a glaze. The fresh tartness of the emulsion was a perfect contrast to the sweet almost delicate flavor of the langoustine. A trickle of basil puree on the side of the plate gave an herbal and aromatic bouquet to what I consider to be by far one of the most delicious dishes I have tasted. I wanted to do back flips of joy.

Spider crab was served for our third course. This was an interesting dish. It was a deconstruction and a reconstruction of the spider crab. Sounds daft? Okay, let me explain. It's a spider crab shell filled with crab meat, crab aspic (gelatin) and caviar; topped with crab essence foam and garnished with crab fat "chips" and seaweed sprouts. It was both beautiful and delicious. From a chef's point of view this is not the easiest thing to do. The fourth course was lobster from Brittany (like the langoustines) with sweet pea custard and jurancon wine sauce. The flavors were subdued and clean. The lobster was delicious.

An interesting green apple sorbet with cauliflower foam was served next. By this time we were ready for our sixth course, dessert! Warm plates were served, but instead of a souffle we had a beautiful and perfectly sliced sea bass with fresh almonds, girolle mushrooms and a green herb jus. The fish was almost airy, light and flaky. The sauce was grassy and fresh in flavor. The perks of knowing the chef has its advantages, and Cyrille knew chef le Squer very well.

On our seventh course we weren't surprised when chef Le Squer sent out one of Ledoyen's signature specialties. Braised turbot on crushed ratte potatoes and a truffle butter sauce. It was indeed special. The turbot fillet was perfection marrying nicely into the luxurious sauce of truffles and the roughness of the potatoes for a subtle textural contrast. Genius.

Somehow when the red wine was being poured into our glasses, we knew chef Le Squer still had something to show us. Something meaty. I said duck and Cyrille said lamb. Cyrille won. Lamb loin from Limousin served with a navarin jus and a meticulous pasta gratin structure. The meat was tender and the sauce punchy with flavor worked well with the lamb.

Small mignardise (pre-dessert bites) were served and desserts followed. We had two desserts to try. One was a grapefruit sorbet served in between layers of crisp basil croquant with hot fried pastry puffs on the side and fresh grapefruit segments and another was a crispy chocolate souffle‚ with spun sugar and chocolate tuile cigarettes. I loved both desserts.

After a few moments we finally met the wizard, chef Christian Le Squer. He was very happy that we enjoyed the feast and he stayed and chatted with us for some time.

What an excellent meal. What an excellent experience. Christian Le Squer truly is a wizard and in a class all on his own.

Fiesta in Perigord

A fiesta was planned by Cyrille's brother, Thierry Soenen, in his home in Lamelette in the Perigord region. Thierry had lived in the Philippines a few years ago, working as a furniture designer in Cebu. He has come to visit Cyrille and Anna many times and knows our culture very well.

For this fiesta he really wanted to have Cebuano style lechon together with the typical regional fare of Perigord. Being true presentados, Cyrille and I convinced Thierry to go for gold and make it a true Filipino fiesta complete with a full Filipino menu to go with the lechon. Thierry was easily convinced and agreed.

We quickly made the menu and came up with a list of Pinoy specials. We had to be ready for substitutes because finding the right ingredients wouldn't be as easy.

So for appetizers we made fresh lumpia using Vietnamese rice paper as our wrapper. We made kinilaw na isda using salmon and monkfish. A salad of chopped vegetables with duck confit and spicy toyo vinaigrette. This was inspired by the Chop Chop Salad in Uva. For the main courses we cooked a beef short rib adobo complete with fried kamote as a garnish. Chicken inasal was also in the buffet and we even made sinamak-style cider vinegar. Sotanghon guisado was cooked with tenga ng daga and French mushrooms and patis. Ilonggo style garlic fried rice or kalo kalo was done using achuete oil for that "faux" saffron look.

The piece de resistance was of course the lechon. It was Cyrille's first time to do a lechon. For me, technically, I "watched" people do lechon since I was a boy in Negros. So that experience has made me become an "expert." We stuffed the pig with all red onions, garlic, green onions, lemongrass, bay leaves, black peppercorns and plenty of rock salt. Drove a long metal spike through and got ready to roast the pig. Jean Claude and his friend Michel Chevalier, whom we christened Le Chef de Lamelette, were in charge of the roasting pit. So there under the shade of the pear and apple trees, a French-born pig was lovingly roasted by a French chef to be served in a Pinoy dinner buffet. Funny. Really.

Sixty people came for dinner. Relatives from as far as Paris drove down for the fiesta. Old friends and new ones shared long tables filled with beautiful wild flowers, candles and capiz shell lanterns all done by Bernard. Like the food, the decor and feel of the party was a true Pinoy and French fusion.

And everybody had a grand time. For some it was the first time they tasted Filipino food and they loved it. Then it was time for the grand finale of Cyrille's masterpiece lechon. There was applause, oohs and aahs. We made three sauces for the lechon-sinamak, a fruit chutney and whole grain mustard. Everybody was thrilled to see and finally taste the lechon.

Cyrille, Anna, Thierry and I had a blast putting the dinner together. Just like here at home and everywhere else, food brings people together. Repasts grand or simple are always far more wonderful when shared with the company of friends and loved ones. Cooking then becomes an ultimate pleasure.



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