Our 3 Star Michelin experience - Maison Lameloise

Petits pois & morilles
ètuvès au persil - langoustine croustillante - infusion de crustacès - jeunes pousses

In the middle of last year we confirmed our itinerary for France, based on the locations of the houses we were to rent for the six month stay here. At this time, we also looked at booking just a couple of major things...we looked at things like the Tour de France dates, the French Open dates and of course some of the restaurants that we wanted to try. We had a three Michelin star restaurant in mind that we really wanted to go to and it happened to be in Burgundy, which just happened to be where we would be staying when our 10th anniversary fell. Our planets were aligning!! They aligned even more perfectly when we found that the restaurant was part of a hotel (although the word 'hotel' doesn't quite seem to fit the 'chateau' that we found) that we could stay in; they had room for us in the restaurant - we were booking nearly 12 months in advance! - and we could organise a baby sitter through the hotel (even if she could only speak French) - it all seemed too perfect!!!

So on Saturday, we headed out nice and early, wanting to make the most of our weekend. We drove from our village of Varzy to a beautiful village called Chagny, where Maison Lameloise is situated. It is at the southern end of the Côte d'Or - the amazing route of the famous Burgundian wines. After we checked in we headed out to explore. It is just a hop, skip and a jump from the village of Beaune which is a delightful little town that houses Hôtel Dieu - "a palace for the poor" was a hospital that was built in the 1443 and by chance has a market on a Saturday morning! Yay!

So after strolling around the market, picking up a couple of truffles to take back home with us and a nice lunch in a small local restaurant, we headed back to our lodgings for the night, and to prepare the kids for the babysitter that didn't speak English!

A glass of champagne was definitely in order! Pizza from the local take away and the kids were happy...a nice relaxing bath for me and I was happy...choosing which wineries we were going to look at tomorrow and Michael was happy...not a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon!






Then it was time for dinner...where to begin...

We had aperitif in the bar first, of course some champagne...pink I think will be perfect... and a selection of bite sized morsels that let us know that we were in for a treat that night...they were all simply divine, but particularly the tartare was superb, as were the quail eggs - got to love that oozy yolk when it pops in your mouth, and the pea spheres with langoustine pictured last were an absolute taste explosion - it was a pea 'mousse' inside a slightly gelatinous shell which exploded when it hit your tongue...heaven is...and we hadn't even gotten into the restaurant yet!!

Pickled garlic, green olives and a salmon rilette with mini toasts 

Popcorn crisps with escargot essence, quail eggs dusted in truffle, beef tartare and toasted baguette with saucisson and radish

Pea sphere with langoustine

Once inside the restaurant, there was a plethora of staff. Sometimes this can be a bit off putting, but not tonight. We knew who our waiter was, who our sommelier was and who was in charge of the small section we were in. The restaurant was full, as one would expect of a three Michelin star restaurant in Burgundy on a Saturday night, but it didn't feel busy, the atmosphere was one of sophistication and grace with small dining rooms within the restaurant.

So, for the menu.
Amuse bouche was a melange of mushrooms on a small disc of foie gras, on mushroom foam and served with a small meringue - such an interesting flavour and texture combination. The purpose of the amuse bouche is to amuse the mouth and this certainly did that!

This was followed by foie gras de canard. I must admit I'm a bit of a fan of foie gras. And when it's served with quinoa (a grain that I absolutely adore when I'm at home, but haven't seen since being in France), strawberries and artichokes, it is truly amazing.

Marble of foie gras with duck thigh confit, under a veil of red wine with juices, artichokes and acidulated strawberries and quinoa

Next on the menu was the fish course. We dined on Turbot with white and green asparagus with a mustard sabayon. The sabayon was so delicate in flavour that it just melted alongside the turbot, instead of overpowering it as I thought it would. The asparagus was presented so beautifully, the stems had been finely peeled as you can see in the below photo, which just added to the delicateness of this dish. Needless to say that by this course, I was actually ready to stop eating...but of course there was still more to come.

Turbot sauvage & couteau

The dish of the evening in both Michael and my opinion came next. It is pictured at the beginning of this post - Petits pois and morilles with langoustine. We have been looking for langoustines in every market we go to - and the only times we have seen it have been when we are not in the vicinity of a fridge in the immediate future so we have been unable to buy it. We were extremely pleased that it was featuring on tonights menu. The little pea discs to the side were a beautiful little touch that reminded me of an event I managed which used agar agar to set lots of different foods. If used correctly, you can't actually taste the agar agar, and I believe that is what was used here. The morilles (mushrooms) are absolutely sublime in flavour. I had never seen these fresh in a market before coming to France and now I am looking for them in every market! The langoustines themselves had crunchy 'rice bubbles' on top which completed the textural experience of this dish perfectly!

And finally for our last course before dessert was served. Agneau de lait des Pyrénées - ribs and saddle of lamb, caramelised garlic, fresh baby vegetables, a carrot puree and Japanese onion with black olive. Wow. This had a side of baby potatoes and sweetbreads to go with it but by this stage of the night, I was not going to waste the tiny amount of room I had left on potatoes, as next was going to be cheese and dessert...

We had spotted the cheese trolley making its way around the room and each time it passed by and we got a whiff of some of the stinky stuff on there, we got more excited! No photo of this one unfortunately, but you can see a selection of what we got in the next couple of photos. Everything from Comtè, to Epoisses (favourite cheese of the moment by a long shot!), chèvre frais (fresh goats), fourme d'Ambert, Roquefort, Livarot, camembert etc. etc. etc.

And then the procession of desserts came...not just the dessert that we had ordered but first palette cleanser, then a platter of tiny tastes, then our dessert, and then some petit fours! The kids loved the fact that they got to have petit fours before breakfast as mummy and daddy really couldn't fit them in!

Snow eggs with vanilla creme and a raspberry biscuit

our platter of miniatures 

Michael had the pomme (apple) "tart" with mini donuts

And for me it was the salted caramel mousse with pear sorbet

Petit fours - donated to the kids! Enough is enough!!

Along with all of this food, we enjoyed wines to match, too many to name here, and to be honest, I can't remember them all! After all of this food we rolled ourselves upstairs and gladly went to bed! Breakfast was only a few hours away......

If it wasn't for the fact that the kids were super excited about going to the "fancy" restaurant for breakfast that we had been to for dinner, we really would have given it a miss. I felt like I was about to explode still but could hardly let the kids down. So down we went to the restaurant for petit dej. And it was all layed on once again. It was only a 'Continental Breakfast' - but look at the spread we received.

There was juice, fruit, yoghurt, chèvre frais, chocolate and pistachio bread, freshly sliced jambon, baguette, croissant, pain au chocolat, brioche, toast, pain au raison, confitures, poached eggs (for Kayla only!)...I don't want to eat for a week...but we are in Burgundy.... till next time...bon appétit! x