Unauthorized

Jean Ducloux opened this extraordinary 2-star Michelin restaurant, known for its 19th century cooking, in 1947. Ducloux has retired, but he spends time at the restaurant greeting his legion of loyal clients. The new chef has added a few winkles to the menu, but he is intelligent enough not to abandon the great classics created by Ducloux. To pay homage to him as well as to great French cooking, we ordered two of his classics. Ducloux literally put pike fish quenelles, or dumplings, on the map. While the new chef's were not quite as memorable as Ducloux's, they were still exquisite quenelles with an extraordinary crayfish sauce. That was followed by one of the new chef's specialties, a beautiful Provençal dish of baby rougets (basically miniature red snappers) served in an olive oil and vegetable sauce. The piece de resistence was Ducloux's famous galette of truffles, a pie filled excessively with black truffles and foie gras, served in a deep, rich brown sauce made from brown truffles and reduced meat essences. The pie crust has gotten a bit thinner under the new chef (he's probably trying to lighten this dish), but it retains the great flavors created by Ducloux.

The wines included a delicious bottle of Henri Boillot's 2000 Puligny Montrachet Premier Cru, and a complex yet fully mature, elegant, fragrant, but light 1997 Dujac Bonnes Mares.