First thing, your amuse-bouche is an ice cream cone. Looks like vanilla, but it's flavored with mustard. Clearly not in Kansas anymore. Wow!
When Roland Chanliaud opened Jardin des Remparts in Beaune some 15 years ago, he shocked the staid Burgundians with surprising combinations of flavors and unusual presentations. Harder to do today, but not impossible.
Consider his signature appetizer of raw, chopped Charolais beef: everywhere else, it's just steak tartar. At first, Chanliaud simply topped it with an oyster, essentially providing salt for the seasoned beef.
Since those early days, it's developed into something even more sophisticated. The beef is now surrounded with chunks of Gillardeau oysters in a tart mignonette (shallots and white wine vinegar) and topped with a foam of seawater, the oyster liquor and lightly whipped cream. The effect is mesmerizing as the briney, creamy topping oozes into the meat; every spoonful gets seasoned with the oysters and mignonette.
Not an inexpensive dish, mind you; at about $30, it's as costly as the foie gras. Still, very pretty surroundings (yellow hues inside a 1930s manor house filled with modern artifacts) and an excellent wine list. Service not at the same level, however (well-meaning but unpolished), always a problem for country restaurants without a solid, year-round clientele. Roland Chanliaud's cooking deserves a second Michelin star; first, though, he and his wife, Emanuelle, need to hire waitsfaff who'll stick around long enough to become as professional as the wizards in the kitchen.
www.le-jardin-des-remparts.com, Beaune.
