Daily Archives: September 4, 2013
Luncheon inspired by Tender is the Night
Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Cap d’Antibes
F. Scott Fitzgerald was my favorite author in high school. His novels, as well as his short stories, took me to romantic places and introduced me to fascinating characters. I lived vicariously through Fitzgerald and knew that I absolutely wanted to visit the hotel described in the first line of my favorite Fitzgerald novel, Tender is the Night. In fact, I even planned on naming my first daughter after the main character in that novel, the alluring but complex Nicole Diver. Years later when our first daughter was born, I had to give up on the “Nicole” fantasy because we already had a close relative with that name. But I remained faithful to my first dream to make a pilgrimage to the hotel where the story unfolds …“On the pleasant shore of the French Riviera, about halfway between Marseilles and the Italian border, stands a large, proud, rose-colored hotel.”
View from restaurant of the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Cap d’Antibes
The Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc that inspired Fitzgerald’s “Hotel des Étrangers“ isn’t “rose-colored” any more, but it still is a magnet for the rich, famous and powerful – and by “rich”, I mean “Rich!” So once again, we decided to sample the good life with a luncheon at the hotel’s restaurant, the Eden-Roc, which the hotel’s splendid brochure describes as “”famed for its gastronomic cuisine”. Ambiance the Eden-Roc has in spades. The restaurant is sublimely elegant. The blue and white décor, with a touch of purple and pink, is the perfect backdrop for the Mediterranean sea which is really the star player in the view as it is visible for as far as the eye can see. Peppered with fabulous 200+ foot yachts along with a variety of other smaller sailing vessels and enhanced with a backdrop of the curvilinear coastline of Cannes and the Maritime Alpes rising in the background, the view is quite simply spectacular. The service is also first-class – a small army of servers were at our beck and call, sensing our needs before we even realized we had them, whisking away a plate or refilling a glass or offering to carry a platter from the buffet table to our table, and the sommelier impressed us with his expertise, selecting the perfect wines to accompany both our food and dessert. Awesome indeed, just like the view.
As over-the-top as the quality of the décor, service and view were, I regret to say that the food – the actual cuisine – was lacking in comparison. Don’t get me wrong — our meal was delicious and highly satisfying, but given the other three components of the meal, and the over-the-top price for each item on the extensive à la carte menu, we ended our meal concluding that the Chef wasn’t quite up to snuff and that we had paid princely for the name and the view. Still, the meal was exquisitely memorable and I’d like to share what we ate.
Platter from the Buffet Eden-Roc
We began with the restaurant’s formidable Buffet Eden-Roc comprised of mainly traditional classics prepared from the finest of the finest ingredients and presented on the buffet table to please the eye as much as to please the palette. Among the many selections was a superb gazpacho, a very thinly sliced prosciutto and an unctuous buratta cheese laced with olive oil and herbs — a nod to the Italian neighbors -, gigantesque shrimp, fresh local oysters, the largest escargots I’ve ever seen and the first time I’ve seen them cooked in their shells (but I found them a bit rubbery and tasteless), an impressive selection of cured sausages and meats, a variety of salads from lentil to pasta to quinoa, an assortment of cold steamed vegetables from asparagus to French haricots, heirloom tomato salad and bowls of assorted greens, tapenades, sauce bowls of mayonnaise in pink (flavored with tomato), green (flavored with herbs) and traditional white, assorted Niçoise accompaniments such as black olives and sun dried tomatoes, and more to be sure. After filling our platters and consuming them with a delightfully refreshing Cotes de Provence 2012 Chateau de Selle Domaine Ott Rosé, you might think we would be satiated … but you would be wrong.
Sea bream grilled “en portefeuille” with mousseline and tomates a la provencale
We moved on to the chef’s specialty of Sea Bream grilled “en portefeuille” (literally “in wallet”), an elegant way to signify that the fish is de-boned and grilled open face with an airy light mousseline and tomatoes à la Provencale.
Sea bream with pommes Pont-Neuf
The fish was served with potato purée but that was not enough for Denis. Monsieur also ordered the Eden-Roc’s Pommes Pont-Neuf, aka thick rectangle blocks of crispy flash-fried potatoes that melt in your mouth. The superbly tender and delicious sea bream simply disappeared off our plates … and all that rested was a bit of purée.
Dessert Le Citron accompanied by Moscato d’Asti
Dessert Millefeuille with “fraises des bois”
The dessert trolley arrived with a magnificent spread of classic French patisserie, but we decided to venture away from the “known” which we love and instead to sample the pastry chef’s creativity. We ordered Le citron, described as “lemon crunchy, tangy and iced ‘cloud’ grown in Menton”, and a Millefeuille, “revisited wild strawberries millefeuille with mascarpone cream”. When we inquired about a digestif the sommelier brilliantly suggested an Italian Moscato d’Asti Bricco Squaglia La Spinetta 2011 which he described as “fresh, light, with little acidity, and lightly sparkling”. It was a superb choice but the creative “unknown” pastries were lacking in flavor and the mignardises were unexciting. The Moscato saved the day for the dessert course.
The philosophy of the Eden-Roc Restaurant is utterly on point …
“De tous les sens, il n’y en a de plus délicieux, ni de plus nécessaire à la vie que celui du gout.” (“Of all the senses, there is not one more delicious, or more necessary to life than the one of taste.”) To truly abide by that philosophy, the Chef and his team must improve their mastery of the art of French cooking so that the flavors and textures create a feeling of heavenly satisfaction in the mouth, and perhaps they should offer the traditional amuse-bouches, as is the tendency of great French restaurants,’ to awaken and excite the palate before the “meal” is served. Not too surprisingly, Michelin gives the Eden-Roc Restaurant its top rating for service and ambience — five knives and forks in “red” for ultimate “ambiance” … but no star for the cuisine.
Still, we had a glorious meal and afternoon, and experienced another masterful and memorable French luncheon. Plus, I’ve finally achieved one of my youthful dreams … I visited the Hotel that inspired Tender is the Night and I walked in the footsteps of F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Antibes, Cap d’Antibes, Juan Les Pins, France ~ In memory of F. Scott Fitzgerald
A mega yacht outside the Hotel Cap Eden Roc restaurant in Cap d’Antibes
Having substantially recovered from my somewhat stressful first experience with the electric car sharing service, Auto Bleue, we elected to try it again today for our trip to the Cap d’Antibes peninsula, about 15 miles southwest of Nice. That is the area made famous by F. Scott Fitzgerald, which explains why we have lunch reserved at the Hotel Cap Eden Roc of Gerald and Sara Murphy fame (see our posting of August 2nd 2013) . The peninsula also includes Antibes, where we plan to visit the Picasso museum, and Juan Les Pins along the coast, where F. Scott Fitzgerald rented a villa for a couple of years, Villa Picolette (currently up for sale at an asking price of 27.5 million euros, or about US$33 million). Juan Les Pins is also known for Rudolf Valentino and Charlie Chaplin who used to party there in the good old days, as well as for the King of Saudi Arabia, who owns a large estate there.
Auto Bleue Peugeot IOn electric car
The Auto Bleue Peugeot IOn electric car looks minuscule from the outside, but, I assure you, once you are on the road, you feel on an equal footing with the other seemingly minuscule cars on the road. It is only when you pull up at the valet entrance to the Hotel Cap Eden Roc behind a lamborghini that you feel your car does not quite measure up!
The electric car has a 100km (about 60 miles) range so we must be aware of the distances driven, although large displays on the dashboard make sure one knows the remaining range. We are afraid to put the air conditioning on in the car since we found out that it runs down the battery and reduces our range; on the positive side, however, having the windows open is not really an issue since the weather outside is picture perfect. Another day of a cloudless azur blue sky with a temperature between 75 and 80 degrees.
View of Cannes from the beach in Juan Les Pins
Our first stop is Juan Les Pins, just west of Cap d’Antibes. The town is a bit out of the way of the main roads and as a result is pretty much a self contained beach resort with a sand beach (vs a pebbles beach as in Nice) and all the services to cater to beach vacationers. There seemed to be lots of restaurants along the beach as well as in town, and dozens of shops and boutiques catering not only to French but also to foreign tourists.
Our Auto Bleue electric car on the beachfront in Juan Les Pins
If one did not wish to travel to other locations on the French Riviera, and merely wanted an excellent French Riviera beach resort, Juan Les PIns would nicely fit the bill, much better than Cannes could. Rick Steves’ characterization of Cannes as “superficial” is so much on the mark.
Hotel Restaurant Cap Eden Roc in Cap d’Antibes
We drove along the shoreline to the Hotel Cap Eden Roc restaurant situated at the tip of the Cap d’Antibes peninsula. For some reason, I remembered the hotel as pink-washed. In fact, neither the main hotel building nor the restaurant building were pink-washed, they were more like pale yellow-washed.
There were a couple of mega yachts anchored just off the restaurant, providing an added touch (as if it needed it!) of opulence to this retreat of the super rich.
Restaurant of the Hotel Cap Eden Roc in Cap d’Antibes
We sat down to a decadent two and a half hour lunch, which we thoroughly enjoyed as we admired the superb views around us.
Port Vauban marina right outside the walls of old Antibes
We then drove up to Antibes, the old part of Antibes, and found a parking spot in Port Vauban, right outside the walls of the old town. Port Vauban is the largest yacht marina in Europe (possibly the world?) and includes the well-known Quai des Milliardaires (Pier of the Billionnaires), where the mega yachts are docked.
old Antibes
We walked the old town of Antibes, which seemed quite attractive with lots of cafes, restaurants and boutiques. I suspect the area is quite lively in the evenings. However, the whole area impressed me as being heavily traffic congested and I suspect is a lot harder to get around in than either Nice or Cannes.
Musee Picasso in old Antibes
We ended up at the Musee Picasso, housed in what used to be the Grimaldi Museum. The change of name was apparently justified by the fact that the museum lent a room to Picasso for two months back in 1946 (someone clever organized that one; they now can attract more people and charge a higher entrance fee). At the entrance, I noticed a phrase from Pablo Picasso which I found interesting: J’ai mis toute ma vie a savoir dessiner comme un enfant (I took all my life to learn to draw like a child).
Essentially all of the Picasso drawings, paintings and sculptures are on a few rooms on the top floor. Two in particular attracted my attention.
Faune Agenouille jouant de la diaule, Nymphe debout au Tambourin by Pablo Picasso (1946)
The first one is a Picasso drawing called Faune agenouille jouant de la diaule, Nymphe debout au tambourin (Faune kneeling down playing the diaule, Nymphe standing up with a tambourine).
La Joie de Vivre by Pablo Picasso (1946)
The second one is a 1946 Picasso painting called La Joie de Vivre! Since Joie de Vivre is central to my philosophy of life, I found myself studying the painting for clues as to Picasso’s own views on the subject. I have to agree with him that a happy dancing naked woman is central to joie de vivre, and I also agree with Picasso that music and animals are essential contributors.
A view from the terrasse of the Musee Picasso in Antibes
After relaxing for a while on the beautiful terrasse of the museum, we departed back to Nice, driving along the sea to provide us with views of the beaches and the Mediterranean along the way.
Did You Know?
Did you know that water skiing was invented in Antibes in the 1920s?
