We have always been drawn to Joël Robuchon, a clairvoyant and methodical man who became the most perfect chef in the world. He made history with a never-surpassed archangelic virtuosity; for having developed his unmistakable style of circular preparations on the plate; for having given the world great recipes that have been expanded upon by hundreds of gourmet restaurants…and for so much more.
One day, he decided to free himself from the pressure of having to achieve a 9.75 table after table, something always expected of the master. After a time of reflection, of focusing on TV shows and writing books, on evaluations and consulting, etc., he returned some years ago to create something new: L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon (5, rue de Montalembert - 75007 Paris. Phone: 00.33.0142225656. €100-150.
Well into the spring of 2004, Joël took another step in his “prêt-à- porter” formula for classical, updated and up-to-date haute cuisine. Inspired in L’Atelier, La Table, a contemporary upscale bistro, was born: a stylish and functional establishment that serves elaborate cuisine that is practical and compelling. What stands out above all is know-how: intelligence in the approach, great professionalism in the kitchen and in service, meticulous work… a Joël Robuchon organization. Rigor, wisdom and enough ambition to make this famous chef the world’s number one for a decade. From these establishments, he has developed a chain that brings them to major cities worldwide, each with its own identity.
Now the restaurant has been operating for a few years, La Table de Joël Robuchon has reached its gastronomic fulfilment. Here you will find an utterly virtuous timeless cuisine.
To start with, the grapefruit gelatin served with an avocado cream and some coriander leaves gives you interesting palatal and tactile counterpoints. A notable high point is the fresh foie gras cooked au torchon, which, like all of the other dishes, benefits from painstaking ingredient selection and impeccable technique, accompanied by this or that depending on the season, such as white peach compote and Szechuan pepper. In the same utterly erudite, honourable and unshakably exquisite line, do not miss the poached egg topped with a majestic caviar and a pastry brick julienne (like potato threads) laid upon a sour cream with smoked salmon cubes. To confirm the style and the perfection of the house, there is nothing like the morels, splendid, jubilant, stewed with Arbois wine and accompanied with farfalle (bow tie shaped pasta), al dente green asparagus from Provence and a foamy and creamy sauce that transmits the taste and the treatment of the mushroom. The grilled foie gras with peeled beans, artichoke, rugula and two textures of bacon (crunchy slices and stewed julienne) is definitely superb.
Among the fish options are two well executed dishes that are sufficiently thought out and prepared: the super famous red mullet filets with olive oil and eggplant-cilantro caviar, and the St. Pierre, cooked in the pan with the light acidity of lime along with tomato, shallot and basil.
The meats are masterful: the beef sweetbreads are tender and sybaritic, aromatized with laurel and served with a stuffed chard leaf; the buttery Pyrenees suckling lamb chops are exquisite with thyme flowers and the famous mashed potatoes with caramelized garlic and meat broth; and the quail shows great character and contrast, served with caramelized foie gras and famed mash potatoes, in this case with truffles.
We can also mention other very substantial proposals that have been successful for years, like the spider crab laid on a fennel cream with fine shellfish gelatin; or like the crunchy crayfish en papillote with basil.
Do not miss the very technical and utterly refined red fruit meringue stuffed with strawberries and accompanied with yoghurt!
In short, a practical, urban and timeless haute cuisine, with the seal and guarantee of the great Robuchon, in a state of culinary grace.
 

Riccardo y Claudia han hecho de su amor al terruño y de su opción por la calidad de vida razones de ser. Hasta el punto que se han retirado a un paraje, alejado de la civilización urbana, en plena montaña, para montar su restaurante, al que es en verdad difícil llegar. Con su esfuerzo, con su capacidad profesional, con sus precios, baratos, y tanto que baratos, van atrayendo una clientela, que boca a boca va pregonando las excelencias de la cocina y el encanto del establecimiento, ubicado en un edificio ancestral y típico.
Riccardo Agostini, antes de tomar las riendas empresariales de este proyecto, triunfó en Il Povero Diavolo, en Torriana, al que llegó tras trabajar 10 años junto a un chef tan legendario como Gianfranco Vissani, con quién ocupó puestos de máxima responsabilidad. Por tanto, sus conocimientos y su experiencia están más que probados. Ahora está demostrando que sabe lo que quiere y que tiene coraje para conseguirlo. Sus propuestas, eminentemente italianas y muy en consonancia con el paisaje, un tanto rústicas, hacen gala de criterio y personalidad. Y también de sensibilidad, suculencia refinada no exenta de imaginación y belleza, expuestas con criterios evolutivos.
La ensalada de alcachofas crudas con mollejas de ternera a las hierbas aromaticas es una propuesta que aúna frescor con intensidad, liviandad con apetitosidad, deparando sobremanera mucha satisfacción. La croqueta de gallina de Guinea con crema de alubias al romero y vinagre balsámico reafirma el carácter de la casa y sus cualidades: ¡Qué ricura! El tartar de ternera, como si fuera una masa, forrado en un polvo de pistachos junto a un hojaldre relleno de parmesano fundente es otra formula que llega directa al paladar, conquista con sencilla efectividad. El canelón cobijando en su seno cabrito y ricotta, juntos pero no revueltos dentro de la pasta, preservando la inmaculabilidad de ambos elementos, nadando en una sopa de cebolla con cerveza cruda por encima es una construcción magistral con un toque mágico. Y como es norma inalterable: llena la boca de gusto sin saturar. El risotto de Carnaroli con alcachofas fritas, crema de salchicha y tomate es otro paseo por la idiosincrasia nacional refrendando el saber hacer el chef y su tendencia a la sabrosura racional; no quedó ni un grano de arroz. Apoteósico el pichón, criado en libertad en la zona, atlético, que se ofrece asado al carbón, lo que acrecenta su sustanciosidad y aporta aromas, pechugas rellenas de amapola al ajo, que se presentan con una patata chafada y montada con aceite de oliva virgen extra que cuenta con un último aliciente: unas láminas de trufa blanca. La reposteria pone la guinda al festín. Basta como testimonio el cannolo crocante de tiramisú con sopa de lentejas a la vainilla; la enésima mezcla de tradición e innovación en consumado equilibrio.

In the restaurant of my dear and admired friend Aimo, now run by his daughter Stefania, has taken the reins and clearly defined the future. After being one of the great delights of product cuisine within the realm of traditional popular Italian restaurants, always created with cultural depth and refinement, they have decided to pair this identity, for which they have attained so much glory, with an evolution towards more contemporary concept. They are doing it carefully, intelligently, in a reflective way, maintaining their identity (which all seems phenomenal to us) while impregnating it with a different spirit, and for that we congratulate them. In other words, the most recent creations are showing a higher influence of haute cuisine, a superior level of articulation, with integral structures in many cases such as the well thought out introduction on various occasions of more modern flavours within the purity and idiosyncrasy that has so distinguished the house. The result is that if you always dined magnificently here, now it’s even better, with more culinary merit, and it is winning over the gastronomic clientele quickly.
A first and sublime testimony is the small spring salad with peeled broad beans – cooked in an instant –, Noto roman almonds and a generous julienne of raw squid, ratified by a clairvoyant, beautiful lemon marmalade… immaculate in flavour and texture: natural, light, complex and colourful, it is a fiercely contemporary and virtuosic creation. We began with two legendary, delightful hors d’oeuvres. The first inspired by bruschetta: a mountain of peeled, chopped tomato mixed with capers and breadcrumbs, adorned with basil leaves and a ribbon of olive oil – sublime in its simplicity. Then on to a few slices of fresh Cinta Senese sausage. The next course was another culinary summit which we were as fascinated by as the aforementioned version of bruschetta: an essential and consummate, really perfect pigeon and duck liver pâté with white truffle cream lain onto a spongy and hot brioche: magnanimous. Depth, distinction, harmony, academism, personality, magic… These are the characteristics of the Saluzzo chicken consommé, served very clear, completely degreased, perfumed with verbena, and garnished with bottonis (kind of raviolis) filled with Squacquerone cheese, smoked ham and balsamic vinegar. Other impressive dish: the bitter vegetables (“Verdure (da) amare”), whose flavours expressed themselves in all their splendor: late red radish, Puntarelle chicory, Grape hyacinth bulb, red turnip, celery, … lain on a substantial and melting Taleggio cheese and raw radish milk. The chapters on rice and pastas were superb, and seem to be experiencing a similar push towards different accompaniments. Like the vegetal and very spirited Carnaroli risotto with Cervera leek, Niza Monferrato thistle, Piedmont hazelnuts and Pantelleria capers; almost nothing… Or the handmade fusilli with white truffle cream, Liguria anchovies and crunchy emmer bread aromatized with herbs. Among the main dishes, the pigeon takes the prize, regardless of the accompaniment: for example, with lightly smoked Venezuelan cacao beans, black truffle and chestnut puree. And we mustn’t forget the lamb – what quality! what superb doneness! – perfumed with caraway, fresh ginger, radicchio trevisano and blanched spring onions… and the crispy Cinta Senese suckling pig with rosemary honey as well as other attractive counterpoints that vary with the seasons: fruit and legume mustard, potato toast, fennel and ham.

As we said before of his dish ‘the ocean within’: “From the creative hands of Jordi Vilà we have a dish that is so colorful, so attractive, with such impact… like the ocean itself.” One year later he has progressively reformed himself, substituting the oyster, cockles, barnacles and sea snails with red mullet filets, contrasting with the blue oceanic background. This is a testimony to two things: one, that these aren’t the times to be footing the bill for sumptuous shellfish feasts and, two, that the chef has taken a reformist line in his current work. Undoubtedly Jordi practices a more tempered cuisine, losing something in artistic showmanship but gaining in solidity. The formulas are less involved than before, still in keeping with the innovative personality that distinguishes the chef, but they are easier and better developed. The guest, in general, appreciates this while the gourmets understand, among other reasons, why it produces this growing satisfaction. To convince, without seeking to astonish, is the goal that is aimed for and met here. Of course this semblance is somewhat “biased”, being that the menu still includes such mind-boggling recipes as the raw oysters with spicy coconut soup, ink sauce and lime with cauliflower couscous, which is now called ‘Barcelona’. He has also incorporated fascinating ideas like the hand-made red prawn, barely cooked and hot, served over a bed of Guérande grey salt, boldly perfumed with lime and bay leaf (see Great Artistic Dishes of the Year), among other aromas. Without inspiring quite the same strength of sensation, though not far off, the marinated oyster with spicy pig cheek, both elements being served over two separate layers, one of sautéed spinach and the other of horn of plenty mushrooms. Another climactic moment, if perhaps calmer than the others, arrived with the appetizing cintas de presa of Iberian cured ham with potato and cheese puree, breadcrumbs and truffles, an articulation that seems to have been inspired by roast beef, or at least is reminiscent of it. The Jerusalem artichoke cream with Iberian pork sweetbreads combines elegance and harmony, with a mutual goal. Amidst such novelty on the menu we mustn’t forget the classics of the house, like the rice with saffron, spicy peppers and Norway lobster, the free-range chicken cannelloni with almond béchamel and fresh salad, the soy steak tartare with potato soufflé and spiced butter or the partridge with emulsified stock from the same bird perfumed with truffles. The rating has risen for one simple reason: this is the best cuisine in Barcelona.