Salon Saint Michel - Promos

The past few weeks have brought on some promotional activity at Salon Saint Michel.

Salon Saint Michel is one beautiful, 19th century Haussmannian-style apartment in the heart of historic Paris. It's privately leased, but it has authorizations for commercial-purpose uses. Therefore, its three beautiful and attaching rooms are available to be rented for small executive board meetings, or private events such as dinners, lunches, cocktails, etc. (from 4 to 32 people for dining and up to 35 people for cocktails). With wrap-around views overlooking the Seine River and Place Saint Michel, it feels very special indeed. It's a true, hidden gem in the city, if ever there was one.

It also contains the office of CCN (Chef Culinary Network), from which owner Michel Cloes operates. Michel and I have been working together, on and off since last November, trying to develop our mutual interests. He has these three beautiful rooms he'd like to rent out and I have a bunch of desire to provide a high-quality food service for his guests when he rents out these rooms.

Michel started up a website: Salon Saint Michel. Check it out to see some really nice pictures of the place. (BTW, I would totally agree with you if you said you've seen better pictures of me! But c'est comme ça (that's the way it goes)!

We've developed some printed promotional materials to explain the service concept and menu ideas. So, in the past couple of weeks, it was time to start opening up the place to prospective clients. And just that was done with an open-house breakfast and cocktail. There is one more breakfast scheduled next week.

I only have a few photos of the breakfast & none of the cocktail, but I can tell you we put a good little effort into these events so far. Over 200 macarons were made (pistachio, lemon and caramel with salted butter), several bottles of champagne were opened, and lots of nibbling and chatting went on. Soon it's time to see if we'll bear any fruit from these labors.

If anyone is interested in using this space, or would like more information, please do not hesitate to contact me. Feel free to also contact Olivier (+33) 01.56.81.22.60 - just let him know I sent you!

:/dma

Michel Roth said he liked my poched egg!

I got a phone call late last week asking if I'd be interested in doing a breakfast. It would be for about 12 people. A sit-down. I said yes. We settled on a simple menu. A day later, the twelve people turned into six who would "trickle in" instead of dining together. And then a 2nd cuisinier (cook) was added to help do coffee and such. So my motivation went from OK to low in the course of a few days that this thing evolved. Finally, the day of the event....it turned out to be a very slow trickle....of just 3 people. However, one of the three was Michel Roth! Suddenly, all the mise-en-place became somehow worthwhile.

Michel Roth is the chef at L'Espadon, the restaurant gastronomique of the l'Hôtel Ritz, and with Monday's release of the 2009 Michelin Guide, his two-star status was officially announced. I still hold a high regard for those who have achieved the Michelin mark, despite some of the controversy that surrounds the Guide. I was pleased to meet Chef Roth (as brief as it was) and even more pleased to prepare something for him to taste. He arrived around 10:30am, much too late for breakfast, and yet he still kindly sampled my "oeuf poché façon Bragance, mediterannée" (poched egg in a half-tomato with a ratatouille). Me simply bringing it out to him with a "voila" might have had something to do with this! Guess what. He said he liked it! It pleased me to hear such words from a two-star chef. He seems to be a genuinely nice guy, and that's probably all it is, but still, it's not everyday that a chef etoilée samples your food. Pretty cool.

Somebody please remind me next time to take a picture of the chef! Even if the encounter is brief. I'll have to get some advice from Ulla on how to do this better...
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