Epicure

Epicure is a restaurant that fully deserves its three Michelin stars, epitomizing the art of simplifying complexity. The flavors of the dishes are clean and each dish expresses a singular taste. In a market that often confuses and dazzles, finding such a restaurant has taken too long: Pure, elegant, and professional.

Having a meal of this caliber as my first in Paris means I can forgive any subsequent dining missteps. After a week of dining at five Michelin three-star establishments, I still regard Epicure as the benchmark. L’Ambroisie casts a vision of Greek mythology with a dining atmosphere as solemn as a church, representing classical Paris. Le Pre Catelan, a manor in the forest with sterling silverware, porcelain, and screens, embodies the attitude of countryside leisure of the Western society at the height of its global influence, representing modern Paris. In contrast, Epicure symbolizes the contemporary Parisian lifestyle: a small villa with a garden, leisurely and elegantly enjoying the sun's dalliance. This is the Paris closest to us.

What I appreciate most is the restaurant's aesthetic direction in its dishes. Clean, succinct, and clear—each dish presents a single dominant flavor, expressed through different layers and textures without hedging, clashing, or muddling, subtracting amidst the complexity on the plate.

The meal begins with bread and an array of appetizers: warm goose liver pâté with vegetable foam, snail meat on rice crisps, and fig cheese crisps. These starters are nothing extraordinary.

The first course is "Mushroom." A mix of chopped mushrooms, mushroom purée, and mushroom gel, decorated with enoki mushrooms. It delivers a clear and elegant mushroom flavor, starkly different from the commonly heavy sauces. The plating is simple yet beautiful, with the food and plate complementing each other.

The second course is "Truffle." A mushroom roll accompanied by black truffle sauce, again with a clear and clean taste. In China, many excellent local ingredients exist, but when it comes to black truffles, they are better suited to feeding pigs. Epicure's black truffle sauce offers a scent and purity vastly different from domestic versions.

The third course, "Bresse Chicken," is the restaurant's signature dish, priced at the equivalent of 3,000 RMB. It's served in two parts: the first part is the breast, and the second part is the leg accompanied by a vegetable salad. The first part is cooked tableside. The restaurant's pursuit of the perfect temperature is evident. The male server is remarkably quick in processing the chicken, dissecting it smoothly and efficiently in seconds. Once the chicken breast is plated and sauced, it's immediately covered to retain heat. A second sauce warmed by a candle is brought to the table. I've always had a simple understanding of chefs and restaurants: those who care about the serving temperature of their food are the ones who truly respect and love their dishes.

On the plate, there are candy-shaped vegetable leaves enveloping chicken offal, chicken mushrooms, crayfish, French leeks, cream sauce, and the chicken breast is tender, far from the dry and tasteless experience often associated with chicken breast, surprisingly delicious.

In comparison, the second part of the dish is rather ordinary: roasted chicken leg with a crispy skin paired with a vegetable salad.

The fourth course, a palate cleanser, is raspberry ice cream with peach flesh and meringue, offering a light, sweet and sour taste.

The fifth course is "Vanilla Ice Cream." Recommended by the waiter, I wondered what could be so special about vanilla ice cream, but I trusted her recommendation. However, this dessert is likely to revolutionize most people's perception of vanilla ice cream. Madagascar vanilla seeds are sprinkled liberally, with an aroma that's intoxicatingly sweet. It has a rich taste almost like coffee, yet you can tell it's still vanilla ice cream. The flavor is so precise and intense, it's divine.

Post-meal sweets include rose jelly, as well as a selection of chocolates and macarons. After dining until three in the afternoon, I step out into the small garden for a cup of Earl Grey tea produced in Yunnan. My days in Paris are just beginning, and at this moment, I feel overwhelmingly happy.