Massimo Bottura

After three days of bliss staying at L’Andana, a small hotel owned by the wonderful Alain Ducasse, situated near the little town of Grosseto in Tuscany, where I spent my time relaxing by the pool, reading, visiting an Eco-clever vineyard which uses gravity rather than pumps for carrying the wine through the maturation process, and dining at Trattoria Toscana, Ducasse’s only restaurant in Italy, where head-chef Christophe Martin conjured up some fabulous dishes with local produce, including an intense fish stew called Cacciucco, I didn’t think my holiday could get much better. It did.

A four-hour train journey later, aching after squatting on some tiny fold-down seats, we arrived in Modena, home to balsamic vinegar, Ferrari and Massimo Bottura. His home was like an art gallery with modern furniture and cool art, including a model rubbish bag which we embarrassingly mistook for a real one! Osteria Francescana, his Michelin-starred restaurant reflected Massimo’s love of art and music with both the room and the food.

It was the finest, most original, inventive, artistic, crazy, cool and amazing food I’ve ever tasted. Every dish was something to remember and treasure for the rest of my life. I’d like to try to describe some of my favourite dishes.

Raw prawns, lobster and citarri resting on a floor of ice looks and tastes great as it is, but as I broke through the ice bed and smoke of oyster juice engulfed the fish I really didn't know what to say. This was something completely different to anything I had experienced before.

This might look like an ordinary plate of pasta and fish, but the pasta was actually cooked as a risotto would be and the fish was almost raw, just slightly licked by a flame.

I seem to have a shared obsession with Massimo for ice, because I also really liked this dish. Mussel shells filled with a mussel jelly poked out of lemon ice like rabbit ears. The jelly had a fantastic flavour of the sea and the ice had a great fragrance.

I love clever food, and I thought this was really inventive, ingenious and artistic: the three stages of sweetcorn. From the green stem to a field full of bright yellow to burnt corn. Simple, but effective.

Now here's something unique - one day old parmesanm, deep fried. We had visited the parmesan production earlier in the day, which was really fascinatiing - we saw the new batch being turned over, the parmesan in salt water and the stacks of cheese lining the shelves. (Of course the best part was eating the finest parmesan made from the milk of a breed of white cows.)

Following the cheese trend, one of the dishes the Bottura is renowned for, the 5 textures and tastes of parmesan. Five different ages of parmesan were presented in five different ways. Most bizzarely and ironically, the 36 month was 'air', a kind of foam, which was rich in umami flavour. There was a 40 month wafer and an 18 month cream. Combined, and we begin to taste what Parmeggiano Reggiano is all about!

This was Massimo's take on a caesar salad, with different herbs and various mustard leaves as the base. Then drops of anchovy, cubes of jelly, crisps of parmesan, and, of course some balsamic!

This was the weirdest dish, and I'm still not sure whether I liked it. 'The potato who want to be a truffle'. This was a dessert, and a strange one at that. A sweet potato with vanilla, hazelnuts and black truffle. And I certainly agree with Massimo that it's very much a dish about optimism.

We also were extremely lucky to have the chance to visit the Balsamic vinegar museum. I learnt about the process of transferring the vinegar from barrel to barrel through different woods until it resulted in the deeply intense dark and viscous Balsamic vinegar that we know.

It was the most amazing foodie experience I could hope for, and I'd like to thank my mum, Massimo and his family, chefs and waiters for making it possible. Grazie e arrivederci!

Alain Ducasse - Le Louis XV

Now that I'm back into blogging and it's my summer holidays, and I'm feeling guilty that I haven't already, thought I might as well write a bit about my visit to France, and eating at Ducasse's 'Le Louis XV' in Monaco.

So...I was on holiday in Nice, with my mum, staying in a friend of my mum's apartment with almost a skyscraper's amount of stairs. We were having a great time, shopping in the market, enjoying fresh courgette flowers and fantastic strawberries, then some volcano somewhere decided to erupt - ARGH! So, flight cancelled, start missing school, work coming in by email, feeling pretty annoyed. And then, the silver lining on the clouds, we were asked to one of the best restaurants in the world. Let's just say we weren't in a rush to get back any more...

Going into Monaco was like a dream world. Preparation for the Grand Prix was being set up, and although we were being transported on the 100 bus, not a stretch limo, and had to stand all the way, so our legs were about to give way, I was still amazed by the beauty of the town. We found our way to Hotel de Paris, through the park, after admiring the square and the massive, grand casino opposite.

We were welcomed in, and introduced to Anaïs, Alain's PR. First we were presented with some strange-looking ravioli-type parcels, filled with spring vegetables, and wrapped with filo pastry. They were slightly warm and absolutely divine. All of the flavours worked in perfect harmony, and even though it was a long time ago, I can still remember the wonderful taste.

We were taken through the elaborate dining room, past the waiters and waitresses being briefed by the head waiter, and the huge chandeliers, and gold leaf. However, the best news was yet to come...we would be eating at the chef's table, in the kitchen! I say in the kitchen, but it's just by the kitchen, so that we could see in, past the cool sliding glass doors to the frantic action inside. It was also a bit like a museum, because the television screens that Ducasse used to use to watch his chefs in the kitchen were still up and running!

First up on the menu was 'Légumes de nos paysans à cru, sauce aux olives de Nice, barbagiuan." These were beautifully prepared, fresh vegetables, bought in the local market, on the day, all raw, as you can see in my little picture. We dipped them in the sauce made from Nicoise olives, although I have no idea what that strange metal implement was for...
This, strangely enough, was one of my favourite dishes. It's the new trend in gastronomy to use lots of raw food, so that the flavour of really fresh, great tasting food can be appreciated in its natural form. It's simple, but a great idea, and is delicious!

Next, I had 'Fines feuilles de pâte aux herbes pilées et Fiore Sardo, asperges vertes et morilles à peine crémées.' This was a delicate green-coloured pasta with asparagus and morel mushrooms. They are the most amazing mushrooms with a superbly intense, almost indescribable flavour, which was highlighted by the sauce which they were in.

After that I had 'Dans une cookpot lutée: Carottes, navets, artichauts, cébettes, petits pos, févettes et cœur de salade.' This cookpot is something new that the chef has developed. It is a pastry casing, filled with vegetables, and cooked. The pastry is only broken just before you eat it to keep the great flavour and aroma in!

Then 'Loup de Méditerranée piqué d'olives, primeurs en marinade croquante, sucs basilic/citron de Menton.' Beautifully cooked Mediterranean sea bass, on fresh vegetables which were marinaded in the juices of the fish. And it was all surrounded by a moat of juices from local lemon and basil.

Following this, and I was wondering if the meal would go on for ever...'Primeurs des jardins de Provence à la truffe noire, huile d'olives taggiasche de terre Bormane, aceto balsamico et fleur de sel." The best vegetables from gardens in Provence, with truffle grated over them. Black truffles are an expensive and rich delicacy, and gave the vegetables a rich, earthy taste. Everything was drizzled in special olive oil, which enhanced the flavours.

Next, we had a selection of fromages (that's cheese in French), specially chosen for us by the chef (I felt so privileged!). We had fresh goats cheese, which I really enjoyed - it was light and creamy and went well with the raw broad beans. I wasn't very keen on the richer, more runny and gooey cheeses, but they were interesting. The harder one was more my kind of cheese, it had a good bite to it.

For dessert, I chose 'Ravioles à la passion, fruits exotiques en brunoise, infusion d'herbes fraîches.' These were ravioli pasta filled with passion fruit, and were crispy on the outside because of caramelised sugar. They were the perfect texture, and were great for me, because of my love of exotic fruits! Talking of exotic fruits, they were piled underneath. You name it: kiwi, pineapple, melon, mango...bliss.

And as if that wasn't enough, we were indulged with some chocolates and mini-desserts - a sugary, nutty crisp; rich chocolate and lovely lemon tarts; and canelés, which are sort of custardy, but caramelised - really tasty.

Déjeuner du jeudi 22 avril 2010 - une journée que je n'oublierai jamais. Merci bien Alain Ducasse!