Fulgurances, l'Adresse, Paris

For our January 2017 visit, Sam Miller (former sous-chef at Noma) was the chef.

Since for once there was a legible printed menu with details, I don’t have to type them in again.

Except this was not on the printed menu. It is malt flatbread spread with crème fraiche and sprinkled with a kind of bottarga made from the eggs of Mediterranean sea bass (bar).

I should probably have rearranged the plating or tried different angles if I wanted my pictures to be informative.

I appreciated the visual pun, and the parsnip granita was better than I expected it to be.

Also not listed on the menu: sablés spread with dulce de leche and sprinkled with powdered fennel.

Pleasant atmosphere, not too loud even though the room was full, good service, and it was nice to be able to see into the kitchen. (There were bar stools, which would allow for an even better view.)

4 Likes

Wow, only 24€ for all these dishes? Good value meal!

Yes, it was a good deal. On CH someone posted a dinner menu from about the same time, and there was considerable overlap, but of course at a higher price.

Tremendously good quality/price ratio. I would be pretty certain this is the lunch price. Nevertheless…

Lunch was 19/24 for two/three courses plus extras. Dinner is 46/58, more courses, but it is not clear how they count!

Céline Pham will be the next chef that starts on 8 march. Franco-Vietnamien chef, she starts her career first working in music, but her interest in cooking led her to the cooking school l’Ecole Ferrandi. She has worked in Ze Kitchen Gallerie with William Ledeuil, Saturne with Sven Chartier, Septime with Bertrand Grébaut and Chez Aline with Delphine Zampetti.

You can grab an idea of her cooking here. http://celinepham.com

I like a lot of Vietnamese food, I think this will be interesting since she mixes street food with French cooking.

Peeter Pihel, chef from Muhu island in Estonia, the ex sous chef at Faviken, Sweden, will be cooking at Fulgurances on 28 August, 2017, more info here:

http://fulgurances.com/fr/peeter-pihel/

My take on it.

1 Like

Thanks. I was think of reserving for lunch, but the restaurant is closed now and reopen at the end of August. From your review it seems the chef’s style is Asian + French fusion. Maybe the sweet sour taste is an influence in Vietnamese cooking.

You’re welcome. Before reserving, check to see who featured Chef is. They switch out.

New chef in residence, Mariana Villegas, from 28 August - late December 2018.

A short introduction, born in Monterrey Mexico, she studied at the Culinary Institute of America, a few month internship at Chicago’s Blackbird, after graduation she worked at the Union Square Café under the team of Danny Meyer and eventually went back to Mexico and worked under chef Enrique Olvera’s Pujol.

Saturday menu 35 € - 2 entries, 1 main and 1 dessert

Amuse bouche - Clam with Tabasco, coriander, avocat oil, shallot and lemon juice

Equilibrium in flavours, the heat was subtle.

Entry 1: lettuce with herbal vinaigrette, coppa and figs with green salsa

A bit on the acid side.

Entry 2: tomato salad, smoked aubergine puree and burnt onion powder

I like the aubergine puree, smoke flavour matched well with the onion powder. Tomatoes were good (these days we were too spoil by our home growth tomatoes)

Main: Fish - Black mullet fish, potatoes confit (ratte), bo choy and tomato consommé - tasted the consommé, was delicious

Main: Meat - Arrachera with herbs, charos bean stew with bacon, with avocado and borracha salsa

Dessert: Tres leches cake, 3 types of milk, burnt vanilla mascarpone and lemon zest

Since I am not an expert in Mexican fine dining, I have a feeling that certain dishes, the Mexican touch was too minimal, it could be a modern French dish, like the tomato salad and the fish. On the whole, dishes were well executed, they were not spicy and had subtle flavours (except the lettuce salad). A satisfactory meal but it lacked that wow effect. My favourite dish was the clam.

We had a glass of Chardonnay and Muscat, 7,50€. With an additional café and carbonated water offered, 86,50 € for both of us. A good meal, will I rush back? Not so fast.

The chef Mariana Villegas was on the right, behind the counter.


Cook books and magazines next to our table.

5 Likes

Why not?

Hmmm, I feel the dishes were a bit “international”, maybe lacking an identity of the chef, if you know what I mean. Some dishes like the 2 salads were quite simple, things that I am kind of making at home, so for me, they weren’t that special. But don’t get me wrong, they were fine.

Ok. There are so many places I want to go to when we visit in November, and there’s no way to fit all of them in. But I won’t be focussing on Fulgurances.

I bet the menu changes with the seasons. In November, you won’t be eating fresh tomatoes, for sure.

I’m sure you’re right. But if someone whose opinion I respect is doubtful about a restaurant, then I wouldn’t run there to check it our.

Repeating what i wrote in another thread, the durrent chef (nov '18), Mariana Villegos, is superb. Combines her native flavors with those she picked up in her international posts. She will be in house “until late December” and is well worth a visit. I only wish we’d be here for another meal.

Good to know you had a great meal. Mind sharing a bit more detail, what did you have?

The current chef will be leaving in June, and he’s been changing up the menu regularly while he’s been in the kitchen, so food details are probably not too helpful in reviewing this place. However, the experience of the place itself was excellent, with the partner/owner patrolling the tables getting feedback and doing some waitressing herself. Reports from friends & noted food bloggers indicate that Fulgurances keeps getting very good chefs to rotate thru & this one was an example of that. Some conversation with the staff, chef and partner suggested that the other partner was currently in NYC looking for a site to open an offshoot & that this current chef was, at the end of his rotation, going to move there to helm the kitchen. Brooklyn will be a possibility and we look forward to going if that’s the case.

1 Like

So, 3 ½ years later, we’re back in Paris and intend to return to Fulgurances, probably next week. In the interim, they opened the Brooklyn location last year and we’ve been there 5 or 6 times, with only once being a repeat of the same chef. Winning dinners each time and Hugo, who moved to Brooklyn to do this, has brought the Paris style with him. So, tonight, needing. to eat again (seems like every day this happens) we decided on a small dinner and went to their new (to us) Wine Bar across the street. Its a very limited menu of 5 or so small plates and, from our experience eating most of them, this is a great addition. Lots of wine to choose from & Pierre took his time to help us determine what we’d like. As a result, both my wife and I had 2 glasses each of different wines - white for me, red for her - and really liked all 4. Seems like some regulars of all age groups come in, hang out before their dinner reservations across the street or to have a small meal, and socialize. Perfect for us. I’d recommend going.