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chef disturb its well-honed brilliance? Even
in 1996, the Restaurant de l'Hôtel de Ville
was harkening back to timeless epicurean
tradition. All Rochet had to do was step
into the shoes of a master—and become a
master in his own right.
1 rue d'Yverdon-Crissier (
&
41/21/634
0505;
www.philippe-rochet.ch).
0
Lausanne (20 min. from Geneva).
L
$$$
Hotel Angleterre
(
&
41/21/
613-34-34;
www.angleterre-residence.ch).
Temples of Gastronomy
137
Le Gavroche
A Second Act
London, England
When the Roux brothers (Michel and
Albert) first opened Le Gavroche in 1966,
Swinging London was
the
place to be for
rock music, fashion, and film—but it was a
culinary wasteland. Just emerging from
the food shortages of postwar austerity,
the city seemed stuck between old-school
hotel restaurants and fish-and-chips shops
with a flood of cheap Italian, Chinese, and
Indian restaurants filling in the gaps. Now
here came suave Michel to preside over
the clubby yet formal dining room, and
brilliant Albert working wonders at the
stove. Le Gavroche brought haute French
cuisine at last to the British capital, and
immediately became the
ne plus ultra
of
London dining. When it won its third
Michelin star in 1982, it was the first U.K.
restaurant ever to hit that height.
Flash forward to the 1990s. A cheeky
crop of British chefs—many of them
trained under Albert Roux—were opening
hot restaurants all over town, reclaiming
London for British cookery. As Michel
Roux, Jr., who had taken over the kitchen
at Le Gavroche in 1991, began to intro-
duce lighter, more modern dishes to uncle
Albert's menu, the restaurant hit a bad
patch (if you call being demoted from
three Michelin stars to two “a bad patch”).
Many critics wrote off Le Gavroche, saying
it was past its prime.
But in the past few years, Michel's cook-
ing has become a force to contend with,
and Le Gavroche is sizzling again. With an
ever-changing menu, reflecting the day's
market produce, Michel finds cunning
ways to preserve and yet update French
culinary traditions. Signature dishes
include warm foie gras with crispy, cinna-
mon-flavored crepes; the town's grandest
cheese soufflé
(soufflé Suissesse);
and
Scottish filet of beef with port wine sauce
and truffled macaroni. Truly Gallic dishes
include the langoustines and snails with
hollandaise sauce, or the lobster mousse
in champagne sauce. But after so many
years in London, the menu can be forgiven
for showing a British side as well, with
items like stuffed pig's feet with roasted
vegetables, or a roast suckling pig with a
confit of golden raisins and shallots.
With so many other fantastic restau-
rants in London these days, why pay a
fortune to dine at Le Gavroche? (At one
time, the
Guinness Book of World Records
listed it as the world's most expensive
restaurant, although the set lunch menu is
surprisingly reasonable, at under £50/$31)
You come because this hushed and gra-
cious dining room, with its green leather
walls and tufted banquettes, still scintil-
lates with old-world elegance. Service is
faultless without being stuffy; men are
required to wear jackets; only the host of
the dining party gets a menu that lists
prices. It's one of the last of a vanishing
breed, but a dinosaur? No way.
