Le Louis XV – Monte-Carlo (Rating: 19/20)
The Gastroville Review: February 20, 2005
Le Louis XV is one of the most difficult restaurants
to have a first meal in. The dining room must be one of
the most blasé in the world. The service is almost
always over the edge and the seating is spacious in the
extraordinary bell décor dining room or on the marvelous
terrace overlooking the famous square in Monte-Carlo.
When sitting on the terrace a warm July evening it is
easy to feel like an animal in the zoo with all the
people standing on the Square trying to get a glimpse of
a celebrity, but they are rarely found there. At dinner
the dress code is formal with tie and jacket compulsory
for men. At lunchtime a more casual dress code can be
applied.
Beyond all the glitterati, this restaurant serves
some of the purest food to be found prepared with the
most exceptional ingredients to be found in the world.
The food at Le Louis XV is often dismissed as too
simple, too traditional, too sterile or as lacking soul.
I disagree. I disagree because if you eat the food
several times, you will find an enormous soul, and you
will find that the dishes change and never taste the
same and they are a true expression of the daily form of
the kitchen staff and most importantly of the "daily
tastes" of the used ingredients. Of course, as with many
of the Michelin 3-star restaurants with large kitchens
certain preparations are perhaps plated with an
attention to detail that to some people may be a bit
overdone and thereby lacking spontaneity.
Le Louis XV is often intimately connected to the
globetrotting super-Chef Alain Ducasse. Indeed it was
Ducasse who brought Le Louis XV to its three star rating
in the Michelin guide and at the same time propelled
himself into the status as one of the big super Chefs of
the world. From that position Ducasse has shown enormous
talents in building a successful and fast-growing
business empire. Ducasse’s empire has grown enormously,
with three high-end dining venues and several auberges,
bistros and other restaurants owned or overseen by him.
On top of that he has important consulting assignments,
book projects etc. When eating at some of his other
establishments, scepticism could certainly arise whether
his empire has not grown too big and whether the level
of quality has not slipped in his top restaurants.
Recent meals including a dismal meal at his auberge de
la Celle outside Brignols, very shaky meals at his one
star restaurant Bar & Boeuf in Monaco and a so-so
performance by his Aux Lyonnais bistro in Paris,
certainly suggest that the level of quality and
admirable professionalism that used to be the hallmark
of all Ducasse’s restaurants is now history. However, at
Le Louis XV there is an extraordinary executive Chef in
Franck Cerutti who is a bit in the shadow of Ducasse.
There is also very professional and friendly dining room
staff making sure service is always impeccable. Ducasse
is said to be in the kitchen regularly. From what I have
heard it would translate into a few days every two
weeks. But that does not hinder Le Louis XV or rather
Cerutti from delivering a cuisine that is on the
pinnacle of haute cuisine. Cerutti is a Chef with a
completely unique understanding of the Mediterranean
ingredients and flavours in general and the local
ingredients and flavours in particular.
In my opinion, Le Louis XV is one of a little more
than a handful of restaurants that are capable of on a
fairly regular basis deliver a meal close to perfection
or on the rare occasion deliver the perfect meal. One of
few perfect meals I have ever experienced anywhere was
served to me a year ago when I had a meal that was so
good that it could have been the last meal. I am not
kidding, it was that good.
Understanding the cuisine at Le Louis XV is a lot
about appreciating and understanding the exceptional
ingredients that the cuisine is based on and the perfect
execution that brings out and enhances the impression of
the pure flavours of these ingredients.
Le Louis XV benefits from an exceptional local supply
of world-class seafood, meat, poultry, game, vegetables,
fruits etc. It is almost impossible to comprehend the
quality of the ingredients that are available on the
markets between San Remo and Cannes. Le Louis XV serves
the top of what can be found on the Riviera and is for
example one place where it is possible to off and on
sample the amongst connoisseurs almost mythic and
extraordinary gamberi from San Remo. This gamberi is a
large shrimp that is dark red to purple red in colour
and that has a very particular texture that is firm yet
very tender, a very complex taste that borders towards
sweetness and it is, along with other similar red
gamberis, one of the most beautiful creatures from the
sea when it is fresh. It is very important that it is
fresh. When fresh its eyes are so bright that it looks
like there is a light inside them. After a little more
than a day and a half from they were caught, they start
to take on an iodine taste that gets sharper and
sharper. It happens that food journalists write that
they ate these gamberis and they praised the nice iodine
flavour of them. They were not aware they were eating
not so fresh or poorly stored gamberis. It is also
important not to put them on ice. The ice “burns” them
and the texture changes and the taste may change too.
The menu at Le Louis XV is divided in several
sections; The Vegetable Garden, The Sea, A seasonal
theme such as Black Truffles, Alba Truffles or Asparagus
and Morels and finally The Farm. There is a dégustation
menu, with nicely calibrated portions and a vegetable
menu with almost only vegetables. The three course plus
cheese and amuse bouche menu served at lunch is a steal
at the current price of 90 euros including simple but
correct wine, water and coffee. At many three star
restaurants there is a very big difference between what
is served on a less expensive lunch menu and what is on
the a la carte menus. This is less obvious at Le Louis
XV and occasionally it is virtually the same
preparations.
The most exceptional dishes at Le Louis XV include in
my opinion, the sea bass with Italian artichokes (raw
and cooked and with a sauce from the artichokes), an
often unbelievable squab pigeon with offal sauce and
foie gras, one of the hardest to get bored of desserts
in the world, the wild strawberries with mascarpone
sorbet and an incredibly rich yet never over-powering
chocolate cake; le Louis XV au croustillant de pralin.
All of the said dishes are tributes to their main
ingredients. The sea bass dish offers an ingenious
composition of Mediterranean flavours and ingredients.
The filet of sea bass, usually cut from a sea bass of at
least 3 kilos is cooked a la plancha to perfection and
paired with a sauce made of cooked artichokes and olive
oil with some acidity. It is paired with finely sliced
artichokes and artichokes seared to softness in olive
oil. The squab pigeon always of exceptional quality is
grilled and accompanied with grilled potatoes and
grilled duck’s liver. However, on a few occasions the
potatoes have been ingeniously replaced with pears,
giving the squab pigeon, with its one foot in the game
meat world, a perfect sweet component with fresh
acidity. The wild strawberries dish pairs cold sorbet
with wild strawberries in a warm sauce of strawberries.
It is simple yet the flavours are so simply obviously
great. The chocolate dish is a very sophisticated, rich
but never cloying chocolate preparation that blends dark
chocolate with a lighter chocolate ganache and
crispiness of hazelnuts and pastry dough. The mentioned
dishes regularly reaches scores between 18,5-19,5/20
Other important dishes to look out for are soups or
veloutés of the vegetables in season, for example white
beans, courgettes, asparagus, chestnuts e t c. During
the spring, divine asparaguses from Robert Blanc in
Villelaure are often on the menu together with small
morels from the mountains. Game in season is always very
good and last but not least I have yet to try a risotto
that surpasses or even rivals the risotto prepared at Le
Louis XV.
There is a level of sophistication in many of the
dishes on a good day that is difficult to find anywhere.
Yes, I said on a good day. There is a slight consistency
problem with Le Louis XV. It is rare that anything
really bad is served but the distance between their
highs and lows can be a little bit disturbing. On the
other hand, this is perhaps the price one has to pay in
the restaurants offering a more artisan approach to
cooking and ingredient sourcing rather than at the
assembly line approach of many Michelin 3-stars that
turn out exactly the same dishes all the time with
little emotion. Also, nights when Ducasse is around can
mean very slow service if there are too many new in the
kitchen. It is very easy to spot if Ducasse sits in his
small aquarium across the kitchens, since at about 9.30
pm it is as if the tempo slows considerably.
One of the single best dishes I have ever had was at
Le Louis XV a few years ago. After we had ordered the
maître d’ came back to our table and told that Ducasse
had received two woodcocks and that we could have one of
them while he would have the other in his office. It is
illegal to commercialise woodcocks in France and in
Monaco too. And indeed we never paid for the woodcock,
only for the relatively expensive garnish. I have eaten
woodcocks several times but the precision with which it
was cooked and the garniture of beets, turnips, potatoes
e t c giving the gamey flavour and the offal tasting
sauce components of acidity, sweetness and depth, that
came with it was on such a level of perfection that I -
in the state of the shock I was - almost rated it 21/20.
A bottle of Chave Hermitage 90 was a perfect match for
this dish.
The bread selection at this restaurant deserves its
own review. The bread trolley beats the selection
available at most bakeries and it is not only complete,
but also extremely intelligent and virtually any taste
preference will be satisfied.
With the high level of ambition displayed by the
kitchen and the service staff it should come as no
surprise that the cheese trolley has one of the most
extraordinary selections to be found. Le Louis XV gets
their cheeses from not only one but several leading
suppliers, most notably, Bernard Antony in Vieux
Ferrette and Aleosse in Paris. Always on the cheese
table is the divine usually around 4-5 years old vieux
comté refined by Antony. Despite its age it is never dry
or too marked by ageing. The taste is complex, long and
refined. It is an extremely nice expression of comté and
one of the greatest cheeses to be found.
Finally a few words about the wine cellars: The wine
cellars underneath the Monte-Carlo Square and Hotel de
Paris are some of the most impressive restaurant cellars
and wine collections in the world. The cellars hold
approximately 400 000 bottles and are spread out on a
very large surface. I have had the honour to visit the
cellars and it is just mind-blowing to walk around and
discover the treasures they have put away there. A large
part of the cellars were barricaded during WWII to
hinder the Germans from consuming all the goodies. There
is a small locked room called the museum, which contains
impressive vertical selections of all great wines. I
cannot think of a more difficult decision making
situation than being locked up in the museum for the
night and have the choice to take one bottle wine – no
more- to taste.
The wine list used to contain many bargains but these
have become fewer with time.
Is Le Louis XV a must go? In my opinion it is. It is
one of the best educations in terms of ingredients one
is likely to find. I would even recommend someone to go
here and eat five dishes and come back a few days later
and eat the same preparations. The educational value of
this exercise is significant.
Gastroville Rating: 19/20
/ MJ
© 2005 Gastroville.com. Used by
permission. All rights reserved. "Gastroville – A Refuge for Foodies"
www.Gastroville.com
The
10 Best French Restaurants in the World 
