Sylvestre Awards

Sylvestre Restaurant Review:

Sylvestre Wahid faced the tough challenge of replacing Jean-François Piège as the executive chef of the hotel Thoumieux. This former disciple of Alain Ducasse, who worked at L’Oustau de Baumanière in the South of France and at Le Strato in Courchevel, is nonetheless talented enough to please guests like his predecessor. In a cozy setting clad with banquettes, plants and topped by a glass roof, patrons enjoy haute cuisine with creative recipes and topnotch ingredients. Wahid especially pays attention to perfect cooking, notably on stones, and lets diners decide how to season their dish, thanks to an array of salts set on the table, from the Hawaiian black salt to the rose one from the Himalayas. Furthermore, when prepared, dishes are not only low in salt but low in fat, too. Oyster comes in jelly with smoked beef and caviar. Soft-boiled egg is enhanced with celeriac and truffle sauce and served with bacon-coated toast. Cooked with seaweed, angled sea bass is drenched in red wine sauce, along with fried shrimps, lettuce and Swiss chard. Honey-lacquered pigeon stands out thanks to its tenderness, in salmis sauce made with offal. An assortment of cheeses from Marie-Anne Cantin is suggested before the dessert, a souffléd lemon tart with chocolate and Vietnamese pepper. Fine wines are present to go with the meal, such as a 2012 Vosne Romanée Arnoux-Lachaux and a 2011 Sauternes Château Rieussec, delivered diligently by staff.