Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
attract slug-eating frogs. Each morning,
workers load produce onto the 10am TGV
train to Paris so it reaches the restaurant
garden fresh. Garbage is then shipped
back to the garden for composting.
The epicurean world was skeptical at
first, but most diners have been won over
by dishes such as a couscous of vegeta-
bles and shellfish, sage-filled ravioli, a fric-
assee of tiny peas with ginger and red
grapefruit, lobster braised in the yellow
wine of the Jura, braised monkfish in a
mustard sauce, pigeon roasted with
almonds and honey-flavored mead, or car-
paccio of crayfish with caviar-flavored
cream sauce. His signature dessert is a
candied tomato stuffed with 12 kinds of
dried and fresh fruit, served with anise-
flavored ice cream.
If you have any doubt about Passard's
passion, look at the spare, serene restau-
rant's decorative centerpieces—sculp-
tural arrangements of vegetables rather
than standard-issue fresh flowers. He's a
true believer, that's for sure.
84 rue de Varenne, 7e (
&
33/1/47-05-
09-06;
www.alain-passard.com).
(
De Gaulle (23km/14 miles); Orly
(14km/8
2
/
3
miles).
L
$$$
Hôtel Luxembourg Parc,
42
rue de Vaugirard, 6e (
&
33/1/53-10-36-
50;
www.luxembourg-paris-hotel.com).
$$
Hôtel Saintonge,
16 rue Saintonge, 3e
(
&
33/1/42-77-91-13
; www.saintonge-
marais.com).
Straight from the Farm
182
Manresa
The Modernista & His Farm
Los Gatos, California
Tucked away in the brown Santa Cruz hills
south of San Jose, Manresa still looks a lit-
tle like the ranch-style tea room it was
back in the 1940s—dark wood beams
cross the low ceilings, wide casement
windows run the length of the room, and
the thick plaster walls are painted in solid,
soothing colors like deep mustard yellow.
Despite the crisp white tablecloths and
pristine place settings, Manresa has the
mellow patina of old Spain, or at least the
California mission era.
David Kinch's cuisine has one foot in
classical European cuisine (which is to say
French), but the other foot is squarely in
modern culinary innovation, the sort of
wizardry that has made Catalonia a foodie
mecca. Kinch calls it Modernista cooking,
whatever that means (mosaic tile details
and a curved wall in the dining room recall
Barcelona's great Modernista architect
Gaudí). Since he opened Manresa in 2002,
the cornerstone of Kinch's culinary philos-
ophy has been something so radical, it
sounds old-fashioned: Use lots of vegeta-
bles, biodynamic if possible. To make sure
you have a ready supply, cut an exclusive
deal with a like-minded local farmer—in
this case, nearby Love Apple Farm.
Naturally, the daily menu depends
on what Love Apple has harvested that
morning. Depending on the season, you
may find dishes such as delicate stuffed
squash blossoms with a squash-blossom
velouté
, served with robust dark bread
croquant and duck ham; a summery Gold
Dust peach and basil salad with almonds
and soft shell crab; marinated shellfish
with golden raspberries; or a roast lamb
with garden squashes with preserved
Meyer lemon and beet tartare. Like the
Catalan innovators (read Ferran Adrià),
