Early birthday dinner

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It's been quite some time since Pinky Foursheets was last at Caprice, and I also wanted to have a taste of the seasonal dishes from the Hairy Chevalier, so I got us a table for dinner tonight - just the two of us. We told Hairy Chevalier that it's just a simple dinner, and while we didn't want a very short menu, we also didn't need a big, epic meal. Well...

Floriane very kindly started us off with a glass of Champagne. I don't recall seeing this producer on the list, but I'm always happy to sip on some Henri Giraud...

Henri Giraud Blanc de Craie - a nice blanc de blancs with good acidity, with some ripeness on the palate so that it wasn't completely lean. The nose was very toasty, flinty, mineral, and rather fragrant and almost floral. So nice.

As always, we get the boîte à bijoux with 3 little bites to start:

Foie gras tartlet - we had a ball of duck foie gras mousse on top of a crispy biscuit, garnished with a dab of balsamico and a tiny piece of hazelnut. The flavors of the foie gras were pretty smoky and definitely heavier-handed than expected.

Lobster tartlet - with lemon gel that gave it fruity acidity to go with the umami from the shellfish sauce. This was such a nice little bite.

Crispy anchovy roll - I have always loved this for the great combination of anchovies and onions, and tonight the anchovy flavors were stronger than usual, and again well-complemented by the sweet onions. Topped with a little piece of green olive and also anchovy.

Asperges blanches de la Vallée de la Loire, Caviar Kristal et sauce Champagne - the white asparagus from Loire Valley was very sweet, as were the razor clams, and they worked well with the caviar. Of course, I preferred the Champagne sauce over the classic hollandaise. Really nice to start with a refreshing dish.

Seiche à la carbonara et truffe noire Australienne - Hairy Chevalier has now gone through a number of variations of his "carbonara", and tonight we have cuttlefish with the usual quail egg yolk, jamón and truffle chiffonade. Oh and I finally got some gold from the stingy chevalier, so for one night only, he has shown himself to be my friend...

Then came some shavings of the black truffle from Aussieland.

The cuttlefish were cut into extra wide ribbons tonight for a different texture. Still love the interplay between the jamón and caramelized onions.

Homard bleu Breton, textures d'aubergines et sauce ruby - the familiar blue lobster with Hairy Chevalier's famous ruby sauce made with raspberry vinegar. On the side there was a "gâteau" made of lobster mousse topped with eggplant caviar and strips of eggplant. That ruby sauce brought a dose of lovely acidity... and the eggplant thingy also came with raspberry vinegar along with a blend of spices.

The lobster, of course, was perfect. Mi-cuit and so bouncy. As expected, the combination with the ruby sauce's fruity acidity was pretty smazing.

Pigeon de Bretagne rôti, ragoût de petits pois et sauce au wasabi-safran - the bird came on a bed of petits pois lightly tinted with mint. This was surrounded by Hairy Chevalier's saffron sauce, which broke through the containment ring of little dots of lemon gel and wild garlic sauce. A bold combination of flavors.

The texture of the bird was soooo amazing, as it came thick cut and with this amount of jus, it was really satisfying as I chomped. I found myself relishing the flavors as the bird tasted more bloody and rare than usual, with a slight kick at the end from some wasabi.

Sélection de fromages affinés - we were pretty restrained as we were getting a little full... and I asked Adrien for his recommendations.

Brillat-Savarin - this is always a good idea. Same creamy texture, salty with a nice dose of acidity on the back end, along with savory, alkaline flavors.

Tomme de Chartreuse - creamy but denser... although still soft. Nutty with a somewhat bitter finish, this reminded me of a young Gruyère or Cheddar.

Galet de Chartreuse - a goat cheese that was pretty gamey, with higher acidity. Pretty dense texture.

Geisster - this relatively new Alsatian produce was very strong and pungent, and close to Époisse. This was really, really nutty, especially when one takes a sip of the savagnin.

Our pre-dessert was all about strawberries, and on top we see strawberry mousse with yogurt and strawberry pop rocks.

Inside we had strawberries and strawberry sorbet, along with cut slices of almonds and what I thought were candied citrus rind. This made me so happy.

Soufflé aux amandes, glace vanille - I love me some soufflé, and almond is a good choice.

Putting the vanilla ice cream into the sorbet for the chaud-froid experience.

As it was a simple dinner, I brought a relatively "simple" bottle of white wine tonight:

2021 Labet Savagnin En Chalasse - there was a huge nose of toast, which also showed up on the palate so I felt like I was chewing on a piece of plywood... The nose was pretty reductive, mineral, and savory. So intense, but really nice.

Well, this was another wonderful meal here with the Hairy Chevalier. They know me well enough that they treated this as an early birthday dinner - even though I never said anything to any of them. I even got a candle with my soufflé and everything! And the team was too kind to have made the bill magically disappear. I will always be grateful for the hospitality and the friendship.