Flocons de Sel - Megève
A view of Megève, just before we got lost on a hike
Rating: 19/20
Where: Megève, France
When: Dinner for 2 on 20 March 2022
Cost: Tasting menu 310 Euro, Wine pairing 115-160 Euro
Accolades: 3 Michelin Stars, #99 on Top 50 Restaurants list (2022)
Why: Cooking with a sensibility matching the mountain locale, while inventing entirely new, modern dishes
Flocons de Sel is located up the hill from the picturesque town of Megeve in the French Alps. It shares a building with a wonderful hotel of the same name. Downtown Megeve would be a rather long walk from the hotel, but a shuttle service is available and it's definitely worth a side-trip. The hotel corridors are decorated with black-and-white portraits of French chefs, the perfect setup for a food-nerdy game of "do you know who this is?".
Dinner begins either in a lounge/loft located above the dining room, or by going directly to the table. The dining room (like the rest of the building) is modern mountain hut style - lots of wood, clean lines, some antlers on the walls. That rustic/modern combination matches the food.
Possible dining choices are either a la carte, or a five or eight course tasting menu (the printed menu doesn't describe the actual courses, just their number and price). We went for the eight course tasting menu. Wine pairings were also available with two options, local wines only or French wines, and glasses were topped off generously.
Amuse bouches included leaf-shaped crackers of sunchoke (excellent taste and presentation 19), a sandwich cracker with mushrooms and nuts (having a somewhat sandy texture 15), a nutty tarte 16 and what looked like a cube of bread with jam (a bit of a head-scratcher, we weren't too enamored 13). As an introduction to what was to come, this set the scene: we were at a mountain hut in March, and were being served rustic, homey, local food. But instead of serving traditional rustic fare, the kitchen just takes "rusticness" as a jumping off point, and reinvents the dishes with a much more elegant and modern flair.
The first course were sliced raw mushrooms over a cooked, but still liquid, egg yolk under a sabayon with coffee grounds. This dish really needed to be mixed and eaten together, even if that destroyed the beautiful presentation. That's because the (initially hidden) egg yolk provided much of the flavor. I felt the coffee grounds were more of a distraction than a welcome flavor addition, but overall, this worked pretty well 17.
Next came parsnip gnocchi, with red beets and cheese in a horseradish infusion. This dish just exuded warmth, and with a touch of spiciness from the horseradish, it was truly magnificent. I would love to drink that horseradish infusion all day, it was so tasty. The dish served the purpose of a warming, rustic mountain-hut soup, but was totally reimagined to be more elegant and lighter 19. Here and in some of the following dishes, I used the flocons de sel (salt flakes) on table. Given the name of the restaurant, it'd be a shame not to.
The first asparagus of the season on an almond hazelnut tarte was course number three. When we first tried this dish, our two impressions were far apart (barely 1-star to clearly 3-star). It turned out that this difference was solely due to which part of the tarte we were served: I received an "end piece", while my wife had a cut from the middle of the tarte. The middle of the tarte was dominated by the elegant, spring-time taste of the asparagus, while the end piece mostly tasted of the crumbly tarte - the ratio of asparagus to tarte was dramatically different in these cases. So maybe 18, assuming you don't end up with an end piece.
A dish with a thin mushroom-shaped cracker over mushrooms and cheese was on the rustic side of preparations (well, except for the thin, airy cracker). This was an elegant take on a cheese fondue without being very heavy on the cheese. Overall very tasty 18. Mushrooms were clearly making several appearances on the menu, but given the season and preference for local ingredients, that's probably unavoidable. A menu in the summer might be quite different.
Rock lobster and caviar under a disk of frozen crustacean extract came next. Breaking the ice to get to the seafood dish might be an allusion to ice fishing. Flavors combined wonderfully, the ice adding both a temperature contrast and a concentrated seafood flavor 19.
The next course was arctic char with carrots, a red pepper sauce and beurre blanc. Perfectly cooked char, a touch of spice from the red pepper sauce - this was about as good as you can make a dish like this 19.
Next was a pike fish cake, with tapioca pearls, puffed buckwheat and an onion sauce. Given that we had pike fish cake the night before at Le 1947, we had to compare the two. The fish cake itself was a bit more rustic here, and I'd give the nod to Le 1947. Regarding the sauces, however, it was the other way around: this onion sauce was a much better, more down to earth accompaniment to the fish cake. I'm not entirely sure why there was boba on top of the dish, but overall this was delightful 19.
The main course for me was venison. In fact, when ordering the tasting menu, picking the main course was the only choice offered. The other options were sweetbreads and lamb, and I picked the venison at the recommendation of the waiter. The meat was surrounded by potatoes, a parsley tartlet, a perfectly cooked pearl onion and potatoes served in panipuri style - think of a potato chip in airy pillow shape. The meat had a touch of gaminess, and was cooked very nicely, but I found it to be good, not great. The side-dishes were very good, but I would have preferred the potato pillows to be served warmer 18.
The pescatarian alternative (unfortunately without photos) was a pike fish filet served with parsley sauce, beurre blanc and a side of smoked mini potatoes. The fish melted in your mouth, but the potatoes were maybe a tad underdone 19.
Cheese was local, but our selection was not too exciting, we liked only one out of the four choices made by our server. His selections were a bit odd: we asked for "strong, powerful cheeses", but only one of the four could be considered matching that description.
Desserts started with a cracker over ice cream and berries 18, an orange linzer torte 15, chocolate with hazelnuts 16, and liquid orange liquor in sugar cones 17. The two main desserts were a meringue with ice cream and orange 16 and a smoked chocolate dish 17 with buckwheat creme on the side 19.
Overall: I liked the inspiration from the mountain setting. But instead of just taking a local dish and amping it up (like the farmer's soup at Le 1947), here we saw dishes that were like replacements from an alternate universe, such as the horseradish infusion. Very creative and unique. Cooking was generally three-star level with only a few dips 19.
