At Lartizan, passion lingers on the palate
Johnlou Koa is the man synonymous with the very popular French Baker, a chain of bakeries around the metro serving up delicious breads and pastries. If you go early enough, you may be able to snag bread bowls for your soup. Me, apart from the baguettes, I cannot help but buy the chewy raisin bonnets which I so love. For my mom, we always have to pick up croissants.
But Johnlou wasn’t content with the French Baker, despite its queues and great sales.
“It’s not French enough,” he told himself as he stood in front of one of his branches one day. That discontent led to French lessons and an immersion in France to learn what French baking was really all about, including the making of 36-hour sourdough bread. Mastering this bread and other French specialties led to Lartizan (l’artizan means “the artisan”). Lartizan supplies Santi’s and opened its first restaurant slash salon de the slash boulangerie at BGC. I was pleased to come across a smaller outpost at Century Mall when I was taking a break from errands at the Makati City Hall.
When I attended the inauguration of Lartizan at S Maison this week, I had just arrived from Paris. This was for our daughter Hannah’s continuing fashion education, and it was one for the palate, too. We didn’t get to visit the Michelin-starred restaurant near us, yet the French food we ate at regular cafes, brasseries and seafood restaurants was invariably superb and very refined. So, imagine my great surprise to find that the wonderful dinner served at Lartizan’s inauguration far surpassed the meals I had in Paris itself!
“Wow!” That was the word my bunso and I said repeatedly over a magnificent multicourse dinner that began with such delicious bread, I could not stop eating it. We needed to restrain ourselves because the appetizers were already a whole universe of revelations unto themselves.
There was a martini glass of fresh seafood swimming in luscious olive oil. There was a pâté that made a believer out of someone who hates liver. There was a salmon mousse that sparkled with bright notes and had no fishy taste at all. There was raclette, the melted cheese paired with cornichons (small pickles) and one bright little tomato. Then there were giant oysters, raw and baked Rockefeller style with spinach and cheese, the latter elevated with truffle.
“Just four ingredients—flour, water, yeast and salt—go into this bread,” explained Johnlou as he held up a loaf of his delectable sourdough. But actually, he omitted a vital ingredient—passion. That is what you taste with any mouthful of his bread with its tender crumb, a crust that is crisp yet easy to eat. You taste that passion in the appetizer course that almost made a complete meal paired with that incomparable bread. You can taste that someone took the trouble to learn a foreign language and live in France to make the bread and the other dishes perfect. There is no substitute for this kind of dedication.
It was no surprise that the seafood bisque that followed with chunks of lobster, prawn and shellfish, was heavenly. A bread bowl became the vessel for an arrangement of Caesar salad that looked like a bouquet. I wanted to eat the bowl, too! As in Paris, the dressing is just right for the romaine leaves, parmesan crisps and bacon. There was not too much or too little, with enough acidity to make it zing.
We continued to marvel with the turbot on risoni (rice-shaped pasta) and the roast beef tenderloin mains, punctuated with a limoncello sorbet. Dessert began with the best Crêpes Suzette I have ever eaten, a perfectly cooked crêpe in a buttery sauce tinged with orange and liqueur. The silky crème caramel was not your typical leche flan though they look similar, because the French version uses only fresh milk. We also happily polished off our cheese platter with dried fruit and nuts.
Champagnes along with white and red wines had been thoughtfully paired with the food. There were mocktails and sparkling water for those who preferred it. Deeply flavorful coffee and tea concluded a meal that ran from seven till eleven.
But no one felt the time passing, not with the company, Johnlou’s entertaining speeches and that terrific food. We came away feeling happy, comforted and full of new memories and friendships. And in essence, that’s what a true French meal is all about.
