I first discovered young chef Julien Martin’s cooking when he was working as head chef in Collias in Le Gard, not far from the Pont du Gard. Here he’d won a Michelin star for his exquisitely refined but potent cooking, including two dishes I’ll always remember. First-of-season asparagus cooked in olive oil, a poached quail’s egg, crushed hazelnuts and a luscious hollandaise sauce made with hazelnut oil with a tartelette of caviar on the side was a symphony of flavours and textures, with the salinity of the caviar joining the unctuousness of the egg with the vegetal minerality of the asparagus to create a dish that thrilled by being both original and immediately gastronomically logical. The next head-spinner was a tiny mauve pigeon breast flanked by a miniature lake of its own luscious juices contained by an oval wall of puréed Cévennes onions, an intriguing declension of flavours, which included a dab of white miso seasoned with smoked pepper to add a refreshing ricochet to the richness.
Expect terroir-inspired dishes at Le Clos de la Tour in Gilly-lès Cîteaux
“CIDER-MARINATED VEAL WITH CHARRED GEM LETTUCE WAS AT ONCE DELICATE AND VIVACIOUS”
The Château de Collias, the hotel where Martin cooked, has ceased trading, but the chef has a new kitchen at the new Les Sources de Vougeot in his native Burgundy.
“I love French cooking that privileges terroir (the concept that produce is a distinctive reflection of the soil, climate, weather and history of every French region), including blanquette, beef tongue, tête de veau and œufs en meurette (the latter dish of poached eggs in a red-wine sauce made with onions, mushrooms and lardons being one of the most famous and appreciated dishes of the Burgundian culinary canon). And we’re going to make our own ham as well,” Martin declared.
I’ll be heading to Burgundy at the end of May, so a proper review will follow, but knowing how fantastic the food is likely to be, I wanted to call this place to your attention as soon as I could, because I think it’s going to be a big hit from a rising star of Gallic gastronomy.
Restaurant Le Clos de la Tour – Les Sources
de Vougeot, 2 Place du Château, Château de Gilly,
Gilly-lès-Cîteaux, Tel. +33 03 80 23 22 22,
www.sources-hotels.com.
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