This trendy bistro is challenging Trouville’s traditional Norman gastronomy – with resounding and delicious success.
The wilder side of French gastronomy is rarely encountered in this contentedly tradition-bound Norman seaside town with a literary pedigree. This is mostly because both the locals and visitors know that simplicity is always the best approach to the excellence of just-landed fish and shellfish.
With the recent arrival of chef Scott Jarvis, however, the little port has gained a trendy bistro with an irritating name, Turbulent (the chef says that this word was often used to describe him on the report cards he’d bring home from school), where the contemporary French bistro cooking is actually rather good.
Scott Jarvis © Turbulent
Jarvis emerged as a fledgling culinary star after a stint on the celebrity-minting French food show Top Chef, and after a stint cooking at Liquide in Paris, he opened in Trouville in a spare dining room with what he calls ‘a rock-and-roll atmosphere’ last June.
Stopping by recently for lunch on my own, I loved my starter of frog’s legs with merguez and the scallops in a silken sabayon spiked with vin jaune, an audacious but very successful pairing of tastes. The sea snails escabeche with spicy mayonnaise were outstanding as well, and I look forward to returning very soon, because the menu changes weekly.
Turbulent, I rue Durand Couyère, Trouville-sur-Mer. Tel. (33) 02 31 88 56 24
Average €65.
From France Today Magazine
Alexander Lobrano grew up in Connecticut, and lived in Boston, New York and London before moving to Paris, his home today, in 1986. He was European Correspondent for Gourmet magazine from 1999 until its closing, and has written about food and travel for Saveur, Bon Appetit, Food & Wine, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Guardian, Travel & Leisure, Departures, Conde Nast Traveler, and many other publications in the United States and the United Kingdom. He is the author of HUNGRY FOR PARIS, 2nd Edition (Random House, 4/2014), HUNGRY FOR FRANCE (Rizzoli, 4/2014), and MY PLACE AT THE TABLE, newly published in June 2021.
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Dining and Cooking