Gastronomy invites itself to the Palais Royal with the opening, a stone's throw from the verdant gardens, of chef Matan Zaken 's first restaurant: Nhome. Trained by the greats - Greg Marchand in London, Christian Le Squer at Le Cinq - where he learned the basics of contemporary, inventive gastronomic cuisine, the chef is taking the plunge with the opening of his first Parisian table, two years after the creation of his Nhomade event gastronomy service. And what an intriguing one it is!
Accompanied by designer Guillaume Terver, the chef has set up a vaulted room with exposed stonework, conceived as the setting for a private dinner, featuring a single 20-top table, custom-designed and impressive in its size and curves from the moment you enter the premises. Here, there's no ceremony: the chefs cook and serve their creations directly to the table, and who better to describe and depict their dishes down to the smallest detail than the chefs themselves, from sourcing the produce to the cooking methods used to magnify it, not forgetting the explanation of the sauce, which just happens to be placed in the center of the plate.
Meticulous, Matan Zaken has thought out his restaurant down to the last detail, going so far as to design the tableware himself, with the help of ceramist Amande Haegen. It's in this gastronomic ambience that Chef Zaken unveils his bold, masterful cuisine, through an 8-course blind tasting menu (€105, €164 with food and wine pairings), which changes daily, depending on the chef's whims and the arrival of fine produce. 8 astonishing dishes, like so many riddles to be solved throughout the dinner.
There are so many beautiful surprises at this table, like the carefully buttered salsify, ennobled by coffee, the deer back married to a bevy of wild mushrooms, the airy and powerful "Norman dessert", less alcoholic than the traditional trou, or the breaded parsnips that are original in name only. Chef Matan Zaken succeeds in imposing a strong, distinctive signature on all his dishes, relying on the finest seasonal produce, of course, but also seeking to flatter them with a well-thought-out pairing, an unexpected sauce or flawless cooking.
Fried Jerusalem artichoke, crab stuffing, granny smith, Jerusalem artichoke jelly
Shiso leaf tempura, bouquet of fresh wild herbs, broccoli cream
Carrot tartlet, carrot pickles, bottarga, clementine segments
Sun-dried and marinated bell bell pepper, candied water yolk, cumin
Oysters marinated in pomegranate juice, crème brûlée, lovage oil
Eel, foie gras, onion-eel broth, baby onions cooked in broth, thin slices of turnip, Agastache oil
Salsify with buckwheat butter and coffee, mushroom and coffee siphon, coffee and buckwheat crumble
Monkfish, crosnes, chestnut gnocchi, raw kohlrabi, caviar, yarrow shoots, miso-koji sauce
Puff pastry on rye bread
Back of venison, porcini purée with condiment, trumpets of death, taco of green cabbage and celeriac, fresh walnuts
Condiment griotines
Le 'dessert normand'
Raw apple brunoise, warm camembert syphon, apple peel powder and tonka
Apple-Calvados sorbet, seed crackers
Pre-dessert
Celeryconfit in honey syrup, pine nut paste, celery and honey
Bread nut milkpearled with celery leaf oil
The already cult dessert, the Cereal Bowl
Dulcede leche with date syrup and muscovado sugar, black rice, spelt, buckwheat and puffed quinoa
Fresh pollen ice cream and cornflake milk
Parsnips candied in butter and breaded with peelings and polen, parsnip cream and raw cream
Olive oil condiment,lemon thyme, crispy honey, parsnip chips and pollen ice cream
Chocolate bar
'Tiramichou' mascarpone cream, coffee cracker
Quince and cardamom tartlet
And the restaurant's unusual opening hours - open only for dinner, 4 evenings a week- add to the idea that you're in a unique place, where to get in, you have to earn your place. And when you get there, you're sure to find something really nice.
Location
Nhome
41 Rue de Montpensier
75001 Paris 1
Official website
www.nhomeparis.com
