Paris, Helene Darroze

Okay, where was I? Oh yes, shooting the messenger. Well, nothing that sort happened, I was just being melodramatic. Birthday girl was all gracious and brave about the pont affair and was none the worse when we next saw her at Restaurant Hélène Darroze for her birthday dinner. I have to say I love her (birthday girl) Murano glass earrings, which has these tiny black speckles floating in it, very fetching.

What can I tell you about Hélène? To start, at the time of this post, there are no Michelin 3-stars female chefs in France but there are two 2-stars, Hélène Darroze is one of them. Like me, her two great past-times are food and sex, and that's where the similarity ends. While Darroze went on to write a cookbook combining both, I have till today, no idea how to get either right.

Anyway, there we were, the nine of us turning up at Darroze's namesake restaurant at rue d'Assas, all ready to help the birthday girl usher in her "special year". The facade of the restaurant is deliberately understated in black, flanked by two willowy bamboos in pots. As you enter, you get a sense of mystery exuding from the predominantly black and purple colour palette, with dashes of orange providing accents. Heaps of objet d'Daum crystal dotted the walls and table tops, and I struggled to keep my hand from fondling the beautiful Daum crystal orchid on our table. The service staff are of course, dressed in black, and spoke no English but at least they were wearing clean shoes.

Although the restaurant carries her name, naturally Darroze is nowhere to be seen. This I suppose is to deepen the air of mystery and in the process perpetuate her kitchen goddess-like status? Doesn't matter, our focus was on birthday girl, and the food. We just wanted to eat and be merry.

The 8-course degustation took us slightly over three hours to finish. I may be carried away by sentimentality, but I thought the food were all wonderful. My favourite is the Landes duck foie gras. In case you missed it, Darroze herself hails from Landaise stock.

My only regret of the evening was not seeing Darroze's creme brulee au foie gras on our menu. Legend has it Darroze invented that dish after a wild night of passion. Truly, by the fifth course I was ready to slip under the table for a snooze, I was that satiated.

Was eating with Darroze all worth it?

You bet.

amuse bouche of freshly shaved jambon and asparagus soup

Ajo-blanco of vegetables

my favourite - Landes duck foie gras on Bergeron apricot chutney, very rich, very delicious

Carnaroli Acquarello rice cake with chorizo slivers in an emulsion of Reggiano parmesan cheese

fish pocket with radiccio, artichoke heart, olives, in a lemon/thyme bouillon

roast lamb with zucchini flower stuffed with eggplant and caviar

smorgasbord of cheese from South-West France

sorbet of fresh goat cheese on jelly of peach with pistachio spaghetti

birthday cake - dark chocolate served with raspberry and chocolate sauce

Oh, by the way, John and I will be hitting Tetsuya's for a meal this evening so do look out for my post on the experience; let's see if it will beat the one we had back in 2006.

Restaurant Hélène Darroze

4 rue d'Assas

75006 Paris

France

tel: +33 (01) 42 44 00 11