Senderens (9 Place de la Madeleine, Paris 8e, 0142652290): what hope is there of finding a last-minute table at super-chef Alain Senderens’ fabulously redecorated and voluntarily de-starred restaurant on a Tuesday night during the busy Batimat building material exhibition here in Paris? Crise-oblige, it was not a problem, and so on the spur of the moment we returned to this grand establishment, which I visited over ten years ago, when my friend Harry generously invited us here for his birthday; back then it was called Lucas Carton, the cooking was superb, Alain Senderens was still in the kitchen, and it was incredibly pricy the way only Parisian 3-star restaurants can be.

Senderens, Paris

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Getting a reservation at the Sant Pau (c/Nou, 10 – E-08395 Sant Pol de Mar – Catalunya, Spain – T: +34-93-7600662) is not an easy matter, this three-star dining room only has 9 tables. Catherine and I travel frequently to Catalunya, my parents live in the Baix Empordà area; the region is also one of the earth’s true hot spots for star chefs: within 120km of Sant Feliu de Guíxols, that useful tyrant known as the Red Guide has identified 38 one-star eateries, 2 two-stars and 3 three-stars! While I can only describe my experience at super-legendary elBulli as “interesting”, a recent visit to El Celler de Can Roca proved to be one the most memorable and perfect lunches of my life. Sant Pau is very different from Can Roca, and yet both share the same extremely high level of taste, precision, service as well as culinary culture and intelligence.

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by Martin Field
Yeah I know you high flyers are doing it hard and don’t know where the next magnum of Krug is coming from.
Public sympathy for scammers and skimmers is in even shorter supply than usual but we lower socio-economic dwellers are charitable, so I’ve decided to share a few tips on alcoholic cost cutting to ameliorate your pain. I have assumed none of the following tips will breach your bail conditions.
Make your own wine. Buy some grapes, put them in a large garbage bag and have the home help trample them on the marble kitchen floor. Bung some yeast in the drained off juice and, when fermented, store in a barrel. Bottle and drink when ready. (True, this is how a friend does it every year.)
Brew your own beer. Buy a can of Coopers home brew stout mix (the best of them all) follow the instructions (or ask your PA to do it). Drink.
Drink more cask (bag in box) wines and cleanskins. Dollar for dollar, cask whites always taste better than the reds – don’t know why.

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by Martin Field
The kind folk at Granite Belt Wine and Tourism invited us to look around the Granite Belt wine region. ‘Take the scenic route to the Granite Belt,’ they said. We did, it was mid-summer, and on the five-hour drive from Noosa the scenic route was off, it rained all the way. In Stanthorpe, it was about fifteen degrees. Luckily, log fires were commonplace and we were happy to find one in our B&B at Heather’s Cottage.
The coolish weather was due no doubt to the Granite Belt’s elevation, some 1,000 metres above sea level – making it the only Queensland region with four seasons. The altitude has created a grape growing climate similar to that of South Australia’s Clare Valley and has made the area unarguably Queensland’s premium wine region.
We couldn’t visit all of the 60 or so cellar doors but on a madcap two-day trip, we grazed on a fine selection of regional wines and tucker. Here are some of the highlights.
At Summit Estate, Argentinean winemaker Paola Cabezas, poured me a barrel sample of her 2007 petit verdot. An inky dark drop with concentrated fruit and a very firm finish. John Handy, winemaker at Heritage Estate had an impressive 2008 reserve chardonnay: a big, dry, perfumed style showing musk and apricot nectar.

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by Martin Field
A bunch of New Zealand winemakers were in town recently as part of their Australian roadshow – the occasion was a grand dinner with NZ wines at Berardo’s Restaurant.
I rang the restaurant well in advance to request a no-meat, no-seafood meal. The person who answered asked if I realised that this was a seven course degustation menu with wines carefully matched to courses. I said that I’d be well satisfied with a couple of vego dishes and asked her not to drive the chef mad.
On the night, every guest was presented with a menu describing the wines and food. To my surprise, I was given my own menu, each dish a variation on the seven-course omnivore’s banquet. My meal was cleverly constructed to mirror the main menu and at the same time to harmonise with the wines. This is what I call true professionalism.
The wines were top notch, the list without any undue emphasis on the expected theme of sauvignon blanc. One of the winemakers asked me for my pick of the night and I chose the 2007 Marlborough Staete Landt Chardonnay: elegant and light-bodied, with elements of newly picked nectarine, understated oak and a crisp tangy finish.

My last visit dates back to October 2007, at the time I had sent my friend Eric Sapet to the Istrian Truffle Festival in Croatia, and on his return he had prepared a meal inspired by white truffles in his then new Petite Maison. I have since tried several times to book a table, mission impossible! No wonder, when a restaurant serves such “passionate” cuisine at affordable prices, success is guaranteed.
This Saturday, I was lucky to find a table for 4. We headed for the Luberon with our friends Michael and Marie Rose, about 1.5 hours’ drive, to the village of Cucuron, one of the most beautiful in Provence, with its clock tower, its walls and the immense pond on the main square surrounded by old plane trees. La Petite Maison de Cucuron (Place de l’Etang, Cucuron, 04 90 68 21 99) is right next to the pond. It is Saturday noon and Eric is conducting a cooking class on the ground floor, we happen to arrive during the preparation of a soufflé pancake.
The restaurant is small, the kitchen is only 4m2 … It is well known that to make good wine you need to keep yields low in the vineyard, but in restaurants yields can be very high, this minuscule kitchen is sufficient to treat 40 guests to a cuisine as generous, honest, tasty, creative and cheerful as its author, the dishes are always perfectly cooked and well presented, the service, thanks to Patrick and Camille, is friendly and competent.

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On Wednesday evening February 18 I met Joan Gómez Pallarès to discover this incredible laboratory of wine and taste sensations, certainly unique in this world, called Mon Vínic (c / Diputació 249 Barcelona – Eixample, +34-932726187) – in Catalan, “The World of Wine”. Surprisingly not very well known, despite the level of ambition of the project and the huge investment required, it is a sensational place for wine lovers, made magical by:
• its rich collection of wines, thousands of bottles from all over the world, including some very old Malaga bottles reaching back to 1795, all available for tasting or meals at prices barely above what you pay for them at a wine merchant’s, even those that have rested in the cellar for a few years (aging is free!).
• its incredible architecture all in wood, concrete and stainless steel signed Alfons Tost,
• the documentation center, a library of books and magazines about wine from around the world, with several terminals to connect to the internet or the place’s wine database.
• the extraordinary competence and kindness of its sommeliers under the leadership of César Cánovas and Isabelle Brunet,
• the creativity strongly rooted in terroir and tradition of chef Sergi De Meià, whose dishes may be enjoyed in the “culinary space”, where some forty guests can be seated at two long white tables to enjoy their meal, with wines selected for this incredible cellar by means of touch screens on tablet PCs that provide access to the cellar’s database, including photos of the labels, information on the winery, etc..
• the selection of wines by the glass or half-glass: every day fifty labels are available in the restaurant or at the wine bar for ridiculously low prices.
• the class or conference room, used as a tasting workshop space
• the wine bar, a relaxing place for tasting wine

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Tuesday evening 17 February 2009 is the second gastronomic stop of my stay in Barcelona. Rosal34 (c/ del Roser 34, Barcelona – Poble Sec, +34-933249046) is the contemporary and refined tapas restaurant of Oscar Adelantado and chef Josep Nicolau. The restaurant is closed Sunday, Monday noon and holidays.
Sitting in this beautiful modern room, we start with a series of three tapas to share:
Tàrtar de tonyina amb soja, mostassa Antigua, ous de salmó i fulls verds – a tuna tartare with soy, mustard and salmon caviar, spicy and tasty
Mozzarella i tomàquet sec italià – mozzarella and sundried tomatoes, fairly simple and lightweight
Cecina de Lleó amb formatge Idiazàbal – dried smoked beef from the hind quarters, a delicacy from the province of León, beautiful dark red thin slices served with basque Idiazábal ewe’s cheese, which I find similar to Pecorino di Pienza.

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Last week I was back in the Catalan capital for the annual Mobile World Congress. The evenings become an opportunity for magic culinary discoveries in this city so rich in food culture. Once again I am guided by the advice of my friend Joan Gómez Pallarès, linguist and author of the blog De Vinis and connoisseur of all things good in Catalonia (and elsewhere…) .
It is not easy to find a table on Monday evenings in Barcelona, but on Monday 16 February 2009 I found a table at Gresca (c/ Provença 230, Barcelona – Eixample, +34-934516193). The minimalist website does not mention opening days, but it seems that the place closes on Saturday noon and Sunday. The chef Rafael Peña presents a very interesting combination of traditional and contemporary cuisine, focused on the accuracy of the cooking and presentation rather than on molecular techniques … The beauty of the dishes is impressive, especially entries like “Anec fumaţ amb llagostins “, a lobster wrapped in thin slices of smoked duck in order to imitate the shell of the crustacean, delicious and well presented. Another is the “Carpaccio de Pop amb butifarra negra “, a mosaic of white slices of octopus on a background of black pudding with a frame of herbs. For the photos I “borrowed” some images from the excellent photo-blog Encatadisimo because my Blackberry decided to empty its batteries for the day…

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El Celler de Can Roca is one of my most memorable dining experiences, up there with Troisgros. At 279€ for 2 people with 19 courses and 9 wines by the glass, one could also call it a bargain (the top menu is 100€ per person).

To read more about this experience, please visit Vinix, the wine social network site run by my friend Filippo Ronco. My complete article is there with some pictures taken on the cell phone.