Above: A chilled, creamy edamame soup with a dash of St. Germaine elderflower liqueur and islands of burrata at L’Arome in Dijon.
As the historical capital of Burgundy, Dijon enjoys a reputation as the primary destination for experiencing its most prized regional products – comte cheese, charolais beef and wine. However, the restaurant scene no longer is about just the famed boeuf Bourguignon, as delicious as it is. This blog’s customary alphabetical format for focusing on places we ate means a flavorful detour to sample a couple of seafood and vegetarian offerings before hitting the boeuf Bourguignon.
The lunch menu at Azerole features a set trio of amuse-bouches and a choice of a featured fish or meat for your main course. The fusion restaurant lists the set selections of the week online so you know what’s cooking before making a reservation.
The trio featured on the afternoon we visited was comprised of a dense cauliflower soup; a green salad with seared foie gras; and barely cooked, tough-to-chew-your-way-through asparagus with truffles. Sous-vide sea bass bathing in a pureed vegetable sea was accompanied by Israeli couscous and broccolini – artfully balanced flavors perfect for allowing the mild tasting filet to shine.
Above: Azerole
L’Arome‘s prix-fixe offerings star market-fresh Bourgogne ingredients prepared using classic French techniques with a slight Japanese accent added by its Tokyo-trained chef. St. Germaine liqueur brought a fresh touch to a cold edamame soup enriched with burrata cheese. A spicy crust coated salmon, which had been tenderly cooked mi-cuit.
A dark ruby-red Madeira sauce complemented rosy slices of duck and rounds of polenta. A thin filet of mi-cuit sea bass with a light blanket of a langoustine cream sauce was perched between sweet roasted vegetables and wild baby asparagus. Time for desserts: A delightful cold apricot soup served as a sauce for strawberry sorbet, grapefruit, pineapple and sesame tuile. And a Cointreau-soaked baba arrived with mandarin orange sorbet, strawberries and kiwi.
Above: L’Arome
The prix-fixe menu at lunch time at La Menuiserie features one meat and one vegetarian choice as entrees and plats. We happened to be leaning vegetarian way that day. With cheese, please.
Chilled roasted beets were daubed with smoked goat cheese and chopped walnuts. Mont d’Or comte cheese transformed spelt with roasted vegetables into an ultra-rich version of risotto. For dessert: Acacia flower syrup dripped over a white-chocolate-glazed Lebanese flan; while roasted rhubarb topped a slice of clafoutis custard.
Above: La Menuiserie
This blogger imagines you asking:
Hey, what about Beef Bourguignon?”
Auguste Escoffier (1846-1935) is credited with elevating a common country stew, one frugal farmwives made from leftover cuts of Charolais beef, to haute cuisine. His recipe for “Piece de Boeuf a la Bourguigonne,” calling for a whole rump roast, appeared in his 1907 cookbook, A Guide to Modern Cookery – never envisioned for home cooks such as myself.
I definitely do not recommend even opening up the Escoffier tome, unless you have spent years in his chef school and memorized much of his cookbook. For the rest of us, his main recipe, No. 1146, requires constantly flipping back and forth through a multitude of sub- and sub-sub-recipes. To find out how to braise the beef, turn back to the manner described in No. 247.
Then you need to add veal gravy and Espagnole sauce. Wait, where’d they come from? Go to the index and first make and strain the gravy, No. 42, which requires brown veal stock, No. 9, an ingredient requiring eight hours to make. Best I can tell, Espagnole sauce might be the same as Escoffier Roberts Sauce, No. 53, which actually appears to be Robert Sauce, No. 52, with more gravy, No. 42.
Then Escoffier tells you to add a faggot. What? Where do I find that? AI defined a faggot as a British meatball made from offal wrapped in the lacy membrane of a pig’s stomach. Non, Chef, je refuse. But wait, unbeknownst to me, there’s a dictionary at the back of Modern Cookery that refers one to No. 176 where I discovered a faggot is a bouquet garni, herbs tied together.
Au revoir, Escoffier.
Moving on to a more approachable version of beef Burgundy shared by Julia Child (1912-2004) on the very first episode of The French Chef in 1963. The sad thing is that hers requires pouring a whole bottle of good Burgundy into the pot. Not even one glass for the cook? The good part is she calls for opening another bottle of a hearty French red to serve with the flavorful stew.
Fortunately, we were in Dijon, so I had no need to attempt to follow complicated recipes to experience the famous Beef Bourguignon. I was skeptical about crossing the threshold of Le 314, primarily because of of its location across from Les Halles, a must-see market for every tourist. Yet, restaurants open on Sundays are difficult to locate.
I was wrong to have hesitated. First of all, Le 314 is not a tourist-trap. The handsome glassed-in space up a floor was populated with families and groups of locals who seemed to regard its as their go-to Sunday lunch spot. Lamar’s order of tender beef Bourguignon was more than ample, with more vegetables than either of the classic cookbooks recommended. Carrots, mushrooms, pearl onions and potatoes soaked up the deep rich flavors of the broth. Plus, tapping a credit card on a handheld POS is a recipe even I can follow.
My generous portion of crispy-skinned trout came with a welcome side of sauteed spinach in its delicate accompanying sauce. Dessert delivered a creme de cassis flan, and a bowl with boules of chocolate and coffee ice cream. Le 314 focuses on a limited number of traditional dishes, all well-executed. And it totally works.
Above: Le 314
Le Nid offers hearty one-plate lunch fare, whether you opt for meat or vegetarian entrees. A mound of roasted vegetables, including carrots glazed with acacia honey, hid hummus made with black lentils, chickpeas and tahini. The cold dish also featured quinoa dukkah grains with dried fruit and dollops of Chantilly feta.
Some of the prized Charolais beef was simmered with baby vegetables and rosemary potatoes, with olive focaccia to sop up the flavorful juices. “Mama’s lasagna” layered beef confit with Emmental and mozzarella cheeses. Salads accompanied both of these. A selection of fresh cakes is always available; we sampled sliced lemon and sliced pistachio ones.
Above: Le Nid
Marco Polo does have some other offerings, but our quest was pizza. We tried a bresaola and pesto pizza, as well as a diablo with spicy njuda. With top-notch ingredients, both were delicious.
Above: Marco Polo
Masami drew us in for a sushi fix, well-satisfied by a platter boasting an assortment of maki and nigiri. Crispy garlic paired well with a plate of tender beef, and we ordered a side of tempura vegetables. Both a panna cotta and a fluffy cloud of white cheese with Okinawa sugar were refreshing desserts.
Above: Masami
Hope this helps you on your travels. Bon appetit!