Cabotte: Raise your glass to Burgundy

A classic approach to both food and wine charms Fay at this city spot
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Fay Maschler31 January 2018

One of the posse of friends with whom I regularly eat out is as much a fan of white Burgundies as I am. We take it in turns to buy. Last time when it was my treat I dealt him a Chassagne-Montrachet at Noble Rot. The week before last he upped the stakes slightly with a Puligny-Montrachet at Cabotte, the Burgundian restaurant that opened in the City towards the end of last year.

Cabotte, the word for the stone huts that shelter vineyard workers, has been opened by two once precocious Master Sommeliers, Xavier Rousset and Gearoid Devaney. A dozen Burgundy producers have invested. For those who share the passion for roaming the hills and valleys west of the Saône glass in hand the roughly 600-strong wine list is a map of rapture.

Classic French wines deserve a similar approach to the cooking. Fortunately, British chef Edward Boarland — who trained at The Waterside Inn in Bray and then worked with Clare Smyth at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay at Royal Hospital Road — provides it. A stint working as head chef at the Michelin-starred kosher restaurant Le Rafael in Paris (now closed) adds an interesting culinary sub-text in that, obeying dairy-free restrictions, meals can have a relationship with the healthy progressive style that is now mostly welcome and flourishing. But naturally we start our meal with robust sourdough spread enthusiastically with unsalted French butter and also large, light, lovely gougères (cheese puffs).

This is my second visit to Cabotte. First time in the first course an embrace of Burgundy is more strictly traditional, starting with jambon persillé and oeuf en meurette, where the poached egg in red wine sauce is a duck egg. On this occasion the ham in parsley aspic has been replaced with a game and smoked duck terrine but confit veal breast with sweet and sour cabbage and shiitake mushrooms sounds more intriguing.

Oscillating flavour: Confit veal breast with sweet and sour cabbage and shitake
Matt Writtle

It is assembled with an eye for vivid colour as well as oscillating flavour — sporting burnished fat on the coil of veal surrounded by a pool of orange squash purée with a bud of emerald green romanesco standing to attention beside the cabbage’s purplish hue. Potato gnocchi with native lobster, pak choi and lime dances skittishly away from the land of boeuf bourguignon but I dare say such goings-on are not unknown at, say, the restaurant Maison Lameloise in Chagny. Anyway, it is delectable.

Puligny-Montrachet Domaine Pernot-Belicard 2013 is being poured and, thanks to the invention of Coravin, we are offered a taste of the Meursault Village Vielles Vignes 2012 made by the same producer. Purely in the interests of enhanced wine knowledge of co urse, we accept — full disclosure here — what is an enlightening little gift.

'Handmade linguine topped with fresh black truffle and garlic emulsion points to true cheffy ability'

Grilled fillet of stone bass with a poached Maldon oyster perched on top served on sautéed slender leeks and lapped with a chive velouté and other languid herbs is beautifully executed and an ideal foil for the wine. The manner in which handmade linguine topped with fresh black truffle and a Parmesan and garlic emulsion resembles a loose skein of slippery wool points to true cheffy ability. The small (starter) size at £15 is plenty rich enough for my main course. Most full-size main courses scrape in under £20.

Our sparky French waitress recommends the dessert of the day of pear sponge cake with almonds and poached pear. Broken-up pieces of cake seem like a species of crumble and the poached fruit slices are perfectly balanced in sugar sweet and cinnamon spice. The assembly calls out for a glass of Burgundian pinot noir…

A drawback of City restaurants is often the suits that stuff them. I say to Kieran, “Look at that man in a suit over there eating alone with a whole bottle of wine on the table. I love seeing people do that”. He is then joined by another man in a suit and my reverie dissolves. However, I am not the only female customer and the air of enthusiasm around the project, décor evoking provincial France with a nod to burgundy in the upholstery and the affable knowledgeable waiting staff, go a long way to rebuffing Cabotte’s postcode.

Obviously thousands can be spent on just one bottle of wine but there is also a short list, which gets into gear at £25. All staff seem to possess the soul — and most of them the expertise — of a sommelier and are keen to advise. A proposal such as “I’ll pay for the food, you buy the wine” works particularly well here…

48 Gresham Street, EC2 (020 7600 1616, cabotte.co.uk). Mon-Fri noon-2.30pm & 6-10pm. A meal for two with wine, about £140 inc.12.5 per cent service.

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