CHEZ VOISLAV

If you find yourself in Nice and feel like driving one hour to the town of Lourges visit Bruno's for what could only be described as a transformative gustatory experience. If you are unable to fly to France for dinner perhaps we can recreate the homage to Bruno's that Un et Deux experienced at Chez Voislav's on New Year's Day. We all have formative events that inform our passions. For our chef, the event that dominoed forward into the future of last night was an episode of Julie Child's The French Chef. Julia and vicariously her viewers visited a restaurant in France that specialized in the use of truffles...Brunos (uttered with a light sigh if the speaker has been there.) Later, while driving in France, Voislav and his wife Stephanie literally stumbled into the same restaurant that had captivated Voislav at the age of twelve while sitting in the family living room in Rochester, New York. They charmed their way into a lunch reservation the next day and eventually held their wedding at Bruno's. Un had the pleasure to attend. Deux has yet to have the pleasure, but was treated to a truffle dinner at Chez Voislav's last night.

Our first course was Brouilllard de Truffles Noir. The eggs had been nestled in the truffle box overnight so that their flavor was infused with the essence of the truffles. The eggs were then cooked with butter, truffle oil, and cream while being constantly whisked until they achieved a somewhat curd like texture. These eggs are more stroked than scrambled. Served in a lovely china cup on a matching saucer, these creamy eggs had an elegance that was beautifully balanced with the rustic earthiness of the grated truffles in the eggs and the shaved truffles that lay on the top. Deux ate hers slowly, guarding her cup while Un tried to lick his cup.

Next to arrive were the Pommes de Terre avec les Truffes Noir. Biting into a baked tuber was a nice contrast to the prior liquid consistency of the eggs. Each baked potato half rested in a light truffle cream sauce with truffle oil. Shaved truffles completed the dish. If excellence is to be achieved in any form of expression, one's experience of the result of the artistic endeavor should be multisensory. Bury your face in a potato engaged with a truffle and you bury your face in the earth of France. And if you have been there it will trigger memory. If not perhaps it will excite you to the point of buying a plane ticket. These potatoes were a mini flight to the soil of France. Bread was a must to soak up any lingering sauce on the plate.

The 1982 Chateau Margaux was a wonderful compliment to the leg of lamb infused with fresh oregano, Dijon mustard, and truffle extract. The chef's method of infusing the lamb with these flavors is his secret and testament to his creativity. The strong flavor of the lamb, whose center was perfectly medium rare, pushed the truffle back into a position of accompanist for the main course. Chef Alex created a delightfully earthy porcini, fresh pea, and Parmesan risotto with shaved truffles that was served with the lamb. Hercules, the resident chien at Chez Voislav, lovingly cleaned the remaining lamb from the bone.

Un et Deux agreed that a simple salad of mixed greens between the potato and the lamb courses would have been a welcome respite to the wintery weight of the menu. Were we sick of truffles by the end of our truffle dinner? Mais non! Duex suspects that truffles may have an addictive quality. The more we ate of them the more we wanted. Shaved, grated, and infused in oil these little black nuggets danced across our palettes until we rose from the table and loosened our belts once again.