Virtual Gourmet

Mads Mikkelsen as Dr. Hannibal Lecter

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

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IN THIS ISSUE
PUR in PARIS
By John Mariani

NEW YORK CORNER
ROCCO STEAKHOUSE
By John Mariani

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ANNOUNCEMENT!

Mariani's Virtual Gourmet Newsletter will not be published next week, November 1because Mariani will be sailing on Canada's Saint Lawrence River Valley. Publication will
resume on Nov. 8.

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PUR' IN PARIS
By John Mariani

    There are arguments both pro and con about where one finds the best food in Paris. Is it at the classic bistro/brasserie level? The three-star Michelin firmament? Or the places no one will tell you about (which don’t actually exist)?
    As a frequent visitor to Paris I take no sides, for I am just as happy to dig into a pig’s trotter at an old bistro or a helping of cassoulet at a brasserie as I am to dine on haute cuisine. Still, to those who do not wish to spend half their budget on one meal, I often recommend the pleasures of those one-star restaurants verging on getting a second one. In this category I always recommend Pur' at the Park Hyatt Paris, just off the glorious Place Vendȏme.
    Opened about five years ago—when it was first dubbed Pur Grill, which emphasized items from that piece of kitchen equipment and introduced Paris to Japanese wagyu beef—Pur’ has evolved in step with modern French cuisine under the consistent presence of Chef Jean-François Rouquette (right, with pastry chef Fabien Berteau), whom I once called “one of the brightest young lights in Paris” but who has become one of the city’s finest. His very exuberance is evident in and out of the kitchen, which is sleek, brightly lighted space facing the dining room, whose elegant colonnade is built around a rotunda; the room is done is shades of chocolate brown and cream, with excellent lighting. There is also a Table du Chef, a four-seat counter they call the "Aquarium" smack up against the open kitchen.
    Rouquette's résumé includes stints at the Crillon, Le Grand Véfour, and six years at Taillevent, and his guiding philosophy, based on wide travels and procurement of ingredients from small producers, is, “I love starting from contradictory elements and achieving a moving and powerful result." His command of technique is bred into every member of the kitchen brigade and, since the hotel gets a large international clientele, the service staff is as fluent in various languages as it is in catering to particular requests. “No” does not seem to be part of their vocabulary.
    Sommelier Lionel Schneider has refined the excellent cellar at Pur’, admirably focusing on more affordable young French regional wines along with the big labels.
    Among so many marvelous dishes I enjoyed on my last meal with friends was a starter of Dublin Bay prawns carpaccio with osetra caviar, a creamy panna cotta made with fennel, cucumber jelly and dill oil (left)—every ingredient adding a new way to show off classic pairings.   Sweet, fat white asparagus had just come into season (this was May), and they were matched with tuna and smoked anchovies in a preserved lemon broth, a mélange whose seafood I feared would overpower the vegetable but they were very, very subtle flavors. Beautifully seasoned.
    Glistening seabass was served with tender cuttlefish, spring’s zucchini flowers, parsley juice, and a reduction of razor clams and cockles with celery. One—and only one—crispy veal sweetbread was perfumed with sorrel, wild garlic, morel mushrooms and green asparagus; I only wish there had been more. The grilled wagyu beef, the real thing from a Japanese Prefecture, was beautifully fatted, almost a mosaic of rich marbling, with soft grilled eggplant, scallions and buttery soufflé potatoes, and, to gild the lily, oxcheek ravioli in a buckwheat broth.
    There is a splendid cheese trolley, as you’d expect in a restaurant of this caliber, selected from a fourth-generation fromagerie named Marie Quatrehomme, which has been among the city’s finest since 1953.
    Desserts, by Fabien Berteau, who was awarded 'Pastry Chef of the Year' for 2015 by Gault Millau, are happily extravagant without being silly in design. Wild strawberries are so difficult to find outside of Europe, so the soufflé (right) made from them along with Damascus rose water, white cheese and iced hibiscus was an enchantment. The Grand Cru Croc’ chocolate dessert comes with crunchy caramel pieces and a dark chocolate sorbet. I’ve yet to figure out what exactly made up a delicious sweet of “jasmine flower velvet almond kazoo” with macerated wild blackberries, but it was very good.
    Pur’ is not inexpensive, even with a stronger U.S. dollar, but there is a reasonable six-course tasting menu at 135€ (with wine 195€) or eight courses at 175€ (with wine 255€). Otherwise current first courses run from 37€ to 89€ and main courses 42€ to 105€.
    This is, after all, a Park Hyatt, the brand’s highest claim to competing with the finest in Paris (the soon-to-be-opened Ritz is right around the corner), so everything in terms of design, décor and service is of the highest quality but at a somewhat lower price than at its competitors. The a la carte first courses at the three-star restaurant at the Meurice, for example, begin at 85€ and go up to 130€, and main courses run 110€ to 130€; the six-course menu there is a whopping 380€.
    The latter prices are rough on the average tourist’s budget, but for a true taste of a very personalized haute cuisine, Pur’ is as fine a restaurant as the city has to offer.

Pur’
Park Hyatt Paris-Vendôme
5 Rue de la Paix
331-58-71-1060
http://paris.vendome.hyatt.com

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NEW YORK CORNER
By John Mariani

ROCCO STEAKHOUSE
72 Madison Avenue (near 27^th Streets)
212-696-9660
www.roccosteakhouse.com

    I liked Rocco. I liked Rocco a lot.
   My friends and I had what men like to call a rollicking good time, in large part due to the warm welcome from general manager Pete Pjetrovic (previously GM at Wolfgang’s for ten years) and the entire staff. Our waiter could not have been more helpful, paying close attention to our specific requests, and delivering the goods at just the right pace.
    This new steakhouse in the Flatiron District, which is curiously devoid of such restaurants, is the work of Rocco Trotta, co-founder and chairman of the board of The LiRo Group, a big name construction management and engineering firm. In choosing his staff, the rubric was that everyone had to have worked at a top NYC steakhouse for at least a decade, including Exec Chef Johnny Jevric and head waiter and sommelier Henry Doda, both also Wolfgang alumni.
    There’s a comfortable U-shaped bar up front, with the requisite TV screen, and during the day light pours in through floor-to-ceiling windows, and the ceiling lighting falls from large picture frames. The evening lighting is a bit flat and there isn’t much color in the main dining room, but you can readily see everyone coming and going, which adds vibrancy to the evening. Tablecloths absorb the sound, which is a bonus because the floors are wood.
    Rocco’s is not a trophy wine list, though there are some major bottles on it, including California cult wines like Shafer Hillside Select 2012 ($675), Screaming Eagle Second Flight 2012 ($1495), and Harlan Estate 2011 ($1,995), with mark-ups of about 125 percent. Others, like Nickel & Nickel 2012, at $185 have a whopping mark-up, more like 400 percent.
    The menu doesn’t stray far from the NYC steakhouse template, but in a fiercely competitive and satiated market Rocco belongs among the top ranks for the impeccable quality of ingredients and the care with which they are prepared. There is a seafood tower available at market price, while jumbo lump crabmeat cocktail ($22.95) is a very generous portion of the whitest, fattest crab lumps I've had in a while. So, too, the lobster cocktail ($21.95) and jumbo shrimp ($19.95) are of top-notch quality. The now ubiquitous Canadian bacon slab ($5.95 per slice) has a fine exterior and good, chewy interior, not too salty; one slice will serve two.
    The beef here is said to be USDA Prime and dry-aged in Rocco’s own aging box, so you get that ideal balance of marbling and minerality in the porterhouse for two or more ($49.95 per person); I asked for it to be cooked well charred on the outside and medium-rare within, and it came to our table perfectly rendered and still sizzling. The sirloin ($49.95) and ribeye ($52.95) were as impressive, and, in line with all the other largess here, the American lamb chops numbered a hefty six (below). The goodness is in the details here: They take your order seriously.
    The usual sides were good, from mashed potatoes ($7.95) and creamed spinach ($10.95) to Rocco's Signature Fries ($8.95).
    It’s tough to assess dessert when you're so full, but you’ll very much enjoy sharing the cheesecake, a fine crème brȗlée, or the delicious, moist carrot cake, everything lavished with a mountain of whipped cream. Ask for four forks.
    If you like any of the other upscale steakhouses in NYC, you probably have your favorites and stick with them. But for the size of the crowd at Rocco when I dined there, this new kid on the block is making friends quickly and with good reason. The food is excellent and the service—not always a given in Rocco’s brash competitors’—is out to win you over. Its location also makes it an easy taxi ride from Madison Square Garden, Grand Central, or Greenwich Village.
No one's going to wait ten minutes for his confirmed reservation, no one's going to find a hostess, captain or waiter who is not happy to listen to you, and no one's going to leave hungry. You'll be back.

Hours of operation: Mon.‑Sat. daily for lunch and dinner. Sunday for private parties only.

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MARIANI'S VIRTUAL GOURMET NEWSLETTER is published weekly. Editor/Publisher: John Mariani. Editor: Walter Bagley. Contributing Writers: Christopher Mariani, Robert Mariani, Misha Mariani, John A. Curtas, Edward Brivio, Mort Hochstein, Andrew Chalk, Dotty Griffith and Brian Freedman. Contributing Photographers: Galina Dargery, Bobby Pirillo. Technical Advisor: Gerry McLoughlin.