July 2016 France “Impressionism and Gourmet Travel” Chapter 2-2: Stéphane Derbord, a Michelin 1-star restaurant in Dijon

Visit Date: July 19, 2016

We will be spending two nights in Dijon, the capital of the Duchy of Burgundy, and have reservations for both nights at one of the city’s prominent restaurants.

Online booking: via the Michelin website

Each restaurant is located separately from the hotel, so we made reservations for both online. Both restaurants were bookable through Michelin’s website: ViaMichelin. The screenshot is taken from French version, but English version is also available.

In the reservation form, you can choose the date and the number of people, but other options (course or a la carte) are different from restaurant to restaurant. I decided to do both a la carte.

For some restaurants it is not possible to make a reservation via the ViaMichelin website. In that case, you need to go directly to the restaurant’s website and make a reservation or call them. We experienced both cases on this trip and I will tell you how it happened later.

The restaurant was a bit out of the way from Old Town Dijon!

Originally from the Poitou-Charentes region, he studied cooking in Dijon as a young man, then worked in restaurants in Moulins and Paris, and since 1991 has worked as a chef in restaurants in the Loire. In 1991, he started working as a chef in a restaurant in the Loire region, where he unfortunately missed a Michelin star, but in 2001, he returned to Dijon and reopened the restaurant Thibert, which had a good reputation in the region (is this the prototype of the present restaurant?). He returned to Dijon in 2001 and reopened the restaurant Thibert, which had a good reputation in his hometown (was this the original restaurant? I didn’t know that much), and became the chef of the restaurant. Since then, the restaurant’s reputation has grown, and it has been awarded one star so far.

The food is basically traditional Burgundian cuisine, although some of it has an Asian touch.

We had booked a table for 8pm. It is still light time in Dijon in this season. It was very hot during the day with nice weather in Dijon, but it was a little cooler in the evening. And we arrived at the restaurant as scheduled. I think it was about 15 minutes walk from the hotel. It was a weekday and there were not so many customers. Including us, there were maybe 3 groups at most.

Tell them your reservation name and you will be shown to your seat. First of all, you choose your menu with an aperitif on this day. For the aperitif, we ordered a pair of champagne, “Taittinger Brut”.

I chose “Gourmet Gourmand” from among several courses, and “2plats 69 Euros” which is meat only as main course.

I don’t know, but there are many things including amuse-bouche in French cuisine. Because it is not written in the menu, I receive an explanation on the spot, but because I do not take notes, I cannot remember what it is. It’s been half a year since this time…. (I really thought that I should update my travelogue as soon as possible.

However, it is a very important time to get to know the taste and direction of the restaurant. I strongly feel that they are trying to do something new. From a layman’s point of view, I can only mention the fact that they try to fuse oriental elements, but I felt that this restaurant uses many Indian spices in their dishes. Overall, the flavors were great, but on the other hand, there were a few things that I didn’t like.

And after all this preliminaries, the appetizers finally arrived. My starter was “Les Escalopes de Fois Gras de Canard Poêlées” (thinly sliced duck foie gras). The sauce was mainly duck, and it was served with a yuzu jelly. This yuzu jelly and foie gras go very well together.

But as for the foie gras, I thought it was better to have it at Dordogne. The foie gras was more refreshing and there was a lot of it there. But still, the degree of cooking and the taste of the ingredients were wonderful.

For the main course, we had a local Bourbon lamb (is that right?) The main course was a filet roti of a local Bourbon lamb (is it right?) (L’Agneau du Bourbonnais, Le Filet Rôti aus Condiments). I remember very well that the meat was very tender and without any habits. The sauce was excellent. The sauce was excellent.

Both the starter and the main course were a bit dense overall, but perhaps this is the Burgundian way. Compared to the Loire restaurant of the day before, this was a stark contrast. Also, I felt that there were no Asian spices, especially Indian spices applied to the dishes and sauces that I felt at the amuse. At most, yuzu was used. Yuzu seems to be a good match for French cuisine. It may be a popular ingredient in French cuisine nowadays.

As much fromage as you want on the wagon!

The Burgundy region is also famous for its fromage. It is one of the pleasures after dinner. And here comes the wagon again! I think all of them are from Burgundy or Franche-Comté next door.

I chose hard type, white mold type, wash type, and blue mold type evenly. I wonder how much the average French person eats…

The dessert is a mousse au chocolat base.

Of course there are desserts (desserts). Mousse au chocolat and banana gateau (cake), I think. I think it was mango. It was a supreme taste. This might have been the best among today’s courses.

And just when I thought it was over, we were served with Petits Fours.

All of these were also delicious. I was very full.

And for the true end, an espresso. But there was a little pastry with it here too.

Wine, of course, Burgundy.

Of course, I can’t forget to mention the wine, this time I ordered MARSANNAY 12 CLOS ROY PATAILLE.

This is a very elegant Burgundy Pinot Noir, typical of Cotes du Nuits. The wine was relatively young (the vintage was 2012), so it was not quite ready to age.

By the way, there were two things that surprised me when I received the wine.

まずひとつめは[highlight]「膨大なワインのリスト」[/highlight]です。

What surprised me especially was the weight, the list itself was very heavy and surprising. As you would expect from a restaurant located in the heart of Burgundy, the world’s leading wine producing region, the amount of wine on the list was staggering! However, I accidentally forgot to take a photo of the list itself at this restaurant. However, we did take photos of the list at the next restaurant in Dijon, so we will be able to show you how huge the list is.

続いて[highlight]「テイスティング時に注いでもられるワインの量が結構多い」[/highlight]こと。

I think this was also the case in another restaurant in France, but in this restaurant, even though it was a tasting, they poured almost 1cm in a Burgundy glass. I thought it was quite a lot. I was a little confused at first. After tasting, I never asked them to change the glass because I was not satisfied. I can’t say that lol.

The price was about 15,000 yen per person.

So, compared to Maison d’à Cöté in the Loire the day before, the food was a little less impressive, but still, there were many dishes that I thought were worthy of being selected for a star.

The price is about 15,000 yen per person including drinks for two people.

I’ll take you to the shop’s website one last time.

それにしてもお腹いっぱい。しかし、まだまだグルメ編は続きます。