A month after the formal announcement that Gordon Ramsay was leaving town, his Prague restaurant, Maze, has been awarded a Michelin star. The Hilton hotel will contin
ue running Maze until the end of this month, when they will announce "a new concept and a new chef," according to Hilton Prague Old Town PR manager Marketa Šebková. Maze Prague's former head chef, Philip Carmichael, has already settled in to his new post at Maze Cape Town (pictured), set to open in early April.
In other Michelin news, Allegro at the Four Seasons held on to its star from last year, but this year's hot favorite, La Dégustation Bohême Bourgeoise, didn't gain a spot among Prague's top restaurants. Bib Michelins were again handed out to Aromi and Le Terroir, as well as to newcomer Le Cornichon. Brasserie M was (rightfully) denied a repeat Bib.
Three Michelin-starred chef Marc Veyrat reportedly wants to open a gastronomic complex near Beroun that will "bring meals in harmony with nature." Famous for his organic molecular cuisine, Veyrat plans to serve l
ocally-produced food in wooden houses set two meters above the ground. "Hobbit holes" in a nearby hillside will be available for overnight guests, and a cooking school will also be part of the complex. Whether the estimated 150 million-CZK project will be able to secure funding is still unclear.
Céleste, the new restaurant by the owners of Angel, is on the verge of its official opening on the seventh floor of Frank Gehry's Tančicí dům (a
lso known as the Fred and Ginger building), in the space formerly occupied by La Perle de Prague. April should also see the opening of a sister restaurant to Aromi, La Finestra on Platneřská in Old Town. According to owner Riccardo Lucque, his new spot will feature freshly-imported Italian meats to complement Aromi, which is more seafood-oriented.
images: gordonramsay.com, fourseasons.com, hospodarskenoviny.cz, celesterestaurant.cz
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Food news: Maze gets a Michelin star, Veyrat eyes Beroun, and Angel and Aromi branch out
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Restaurant Review: Brasserie M (CLOSED)
This review originally appeared in Czech translation in the 14/06/08 edition of Lidové Noviny.
There’s nothing like a little snobbery to greet you when you first walk into a French restaurant. It adds a certain authenticity, n’est-ce pas?
I guess that’s what owner Jean-Paul Manzac and his team of waiters were going for when I entered a graveyard-empty Brasserie M one lunch hour and approached the table of my choice.
“Are you expecting some other people?” they asked.
“Just one.”
“Do you have a reservation?”
I glanced around the restaurant. There were at least a hundred empty seats. “No.”
They asked me to sit at a table for two instead of the table for four I’d picked. Reluctantly, I did. My friend arrived. Soon after, a woman strolled into the restaurant, glanced around, sat at the very same table I’d just been booted from, and ordered a glass of wine. She clearly didn’t have a reservation, and she was eating alone.
When I pointed this out to the waiter, he gave me a look normally reserved for gum-chewing American tourists entering four-star Parisian restaurants in cargo shorts and flip-flops.
“That woman,” he sneered, “is a regular customer.” Cue my hasty exit – preceded, of course, by some pretty harsh words from yours truly.
I mean, come on now. Who cares if the woman was a regular? Shouldn’t they want to encourage me to be a regular, too? Service this careless would be embarrassing in any restaurant, but for an establishment in such obvious need of a boost in clientele, it’s downright moronic.
When Jean-Paul Manzac left his post as head chef at the Marriott hotel to open Brasserie M in 2005, his aim was to create a bustling restaurant that served French food more authentic than any to be found in Prague. He found a large, versatile space on Vladislavova street and handed over design duties to architect Václav Červenka, creator of the Potrefená Husa chain’s interiors, among others. The result is airy and pleasantly decorated, with a central open kitchen that allows patrons to observe the kitchen staff as they slice, dice, and deep-fry.
It should have been a winning concept. But there’s something about Brasserie M that’s keeping customers at a distance – and it’s not just the intermittently obnoxious service.
The price level definitely seems to be part of the problem. It’s hard to justify a French onion soup that costs 195 CZK, no matter how spectacular it is. And the one at Brasserie M wasn’t spectacular, just all right. The beef broth was very nice: rich, sweet, and a little boozy. But if the soup is served in a ramekin, the cheese on top should be broiled until it is slightly browned and crispy, not splotchy and white as this one was.
The story is similar with Brasserie M’s crème brûlée. 175 CZK is fairly steep for a dessert made of little more than cream, eggs, and sugar, although many restaurants are guilty of raising this simple dish to gourmet price points. Most of them do it badly, and for all its Frenchiness, Brasserie M is no exception. A good crème brûlée should have a lightly burnt, crispy crust of caramelized sugar on top – the kind of layer that Amélie Poulain famously liked to crack into with the tip of her spoon. Here, the top layer was crumbly, the grains of sugar still intact, and my spoon sunk into the cream below without a sound.
The coq au vin (545 CZK), another classic French dish, was more successful. Its meat was a little chewy, but roosters (if this was indeed a rooster) are notoriously tough birds and demand hours of cooking time to achieve any level of tenderness. It was a pleasure to eat the creamy mashed potatoes along with the thick, dark wine sauce. This is a fine dish, and a rare find in Prague restaurants.
Unfortunately, the fish entrée I tried at Brasserie M was downright terrible. The filet of John Dory arrived on a messy-looking plate covered in beet sauce, saffron, and balsamic vinegar, with four ugly little towers of celeriac puree and shamefully overcooked slices of zucchini. The fish itself was dry around the edges and had a distinct air of fishiness half-masked by a generous helping of salt. The John Dory may be an expensive little fish, but for 795 CZK, the kitchen might have come up with something a tiny bit more palatable. With higher-echelon restaurants like maze now serving stellar fish dishes in the 600-700 CZK range, places like Brasserie M should adjust either their prices or their product – or both at once, preferably.
For some reason, Brasserie M has been bestowed the Michelin Guide’s “Bib Michelin” ranking for two years in a row. The Bib is no Michelin star (it simply means “good food at good prices”), but why should this restaurant, with its decidedly not-all-that-good food and not-so-good prices, be one of only three Czech locales to receive the honor? The recognition speaks less to Brasserie M’s achievements than it does to the Michelin Guide’s well-publicized preference for all things French.
When it comes to Brasserie M, Michelin – and Mr. Manzac – may want to do some re-examining. Authentic or not, this place certainly needs a lot of work. What’s less clear is whether patrons will stick around long enough for Brasserie M to pull its act together.
I’m guessing they might not.
Brasserie M
Vladislavova 17
Praha 1 - New Town
map
Open Mon-Fri 11:00-23:00, Sat 12:00-24:00. Closed Sundays.
Tel.: +420 224 054 070
images: brasseriem.cz
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Food news: Prague gets its first Michelin star
As has been widely reported in the local press, the Czech Republic can now claim i
ts first Michelin star. The winner of the coveted French honor is Prague Four Seasons Hotel's Allegro, helmed by Italian chef Andrea Accordi. Michelin's lesser prize, the Bib Gourmand ("good food at good prices") was re-awarded to last years' honorees, Aromi, Brasserie M, and Le Terroir. For those who read Czech, my op-ed piece for Lidové Noviny about Michelin and its significance (or lack therof) for Czech gastronomy can be found here. The 2008 Michelin Red Guide: Main cities of Europe will be published in May.
Speaking of Michelin favorites, both Allegro and Brasserie M will have special Easter menus prepared for the holiday. Meanwhile, CzecHouse is to hol
d their lavish annual Easter brunch on Sunday, and Oliva will be serving up spring lamb specialties all weekend, starting today.
Jiří Štift has announced that he'll be leaving his executive chef position at the Radisson SAS (home of Alcron and La Rotonde) to open a restaurant of his own. La Rotonde will be running a fresh fish and seafood special until the end of the month.
And after months of rumors about its closure, Dinitz has indeed closed -- and reopened as Metropol Music Club / Oriental Restaurant, with a full kitchen running every night until 1 a.m. More on that once I check it out for myself.
