French Restaurant Review: Monique, Calvisson

Drawing inspiration and bountiful fresh produce from his home region of the Gard, chef Julien Caligo has opened a restaurant that serves its menus blind, adding an element of surprise to the meal for diners.

After 13 years of working in some of the most prestigious kitchens of France, including two years as head chef at Pierre Gagnaire’s acclaimed Duende at the L’Imperator hotel in Nîmes, Julien Caligo was yearning to open a restaurant of his own. Caligo won two Michelin stars for Duende, which is one of the best restaurants in Nîmes, but he was eager to go out on his own.

“I wanted to cook a modern Mediterranean cuisine inspired by the region where I grew up,” he says, referring to Le Gard, a vine-leaf-shaped departement of southern France bound by the Cévennes mountains in the north and west, the River Rhône in the east and the Mediterranean in the south. “Beautiful and fertile, Le Gard has one of the best larders in France. It changes constantly with the seasons, too, which makes it a pleasure to cook here. In spring, we have beautiful asparagus and new potatoes from the Camargue; then stone fruits, melon, tomatoes, courgettes and other vegetables in the summer; followed by wild mushrooms and truffles during winter. Le Grau-du-Roi is one of the best small-boat fishing ports in France, and there are superb wild oysters from the Camargue as well.”

Caligo, who named his restaurant after his grandmother, who shared her passion for cooking and good food with him as a boy, found an old stone stables in the handsome village of Calvisson 20km west of Nîmes, and converted it into a striking contemporary space with exposed stone walls and Scandinavian-style blond wood chairs and tables. All three of the prix-fixe menus Caligo serves three courses at lunch and five or seven at dinner are served blind, ie, with no explanation of the dishes to come until they arrive at the table.

“We believe that an element of surprise is vital to the pleasure of any restaurant meal,” says Bastien Tricoire, who runs the dining room at Monique. A recent five-course menu debuted with a dazzling three-part presentation of hors d’oeuvres: tiny cubes of raw sardine with baby peas in an escabeche sauce; a granite of cucumber and beets; and a brioche roll imbibed with homemade garum (fermented fish sauce) and topped with stracciatella. The contrast between the chlorophyll-rich vegetables and the strong, umami tastes of the sea was delicately elegant but invigorating. Similarly, a tender slice of monkfish was dressed with a ramp (wild garlic) sabayon and crispy, flash-fried leaves of baby kale, a soothing, suave and deeply satisfying dish.

Next came the dish that most impressively showed off Caligo’s talent, a stunning mousse of boned red mullet between two very thin toasted slices of bread on a bed of vegetables that included fava beans, peas and asparagus, the whole composition dressed with a light golden sauce made from the fish’s bones and trimmings. The combination of textures and flavours in this dish achieved a gastronomic lyricism that was nothing short of mesmerising. Lamb with spring vegetables and prune paste was lush but light, and the three desserts that concluded the meal were charming. Strawberries, black olives and rhubarb were an unexpected combination of ingredients that worked for the different tones of acidity from the two fruits moderated by the salt in the olives, while panes of crispy flatbread on freshly-made salt caramel ice cream was the perfect segue to the finale of coffee and miso-flavoured chocolates.

Service at Monique is intriguing for being at once warm, relaxed and flawless. The wine list, highlighting many organic and natural bottles of locally-made quaffs, shows off the impressive quality of Le Gard’s still little known wines (most of them are Indication Géographique Protégée, rather than Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée, a less prestigious government rating that explains why they’re also very good value for the money).

Monique, Iter impasse du Charron, Calvisson, Tel. (+33) 04 66 68 05 41

www.monique-restaurant. com

From France Today Magazine