Dinner at Trois Mec (Los Angeles)

So, I had been reading and hearing a lot about a new L.A. restaurant called Trois Mec, with a French head chef named Ludo Lefebvre.  Now, foodies may recognize "Chef Ludo" from his Iron Chef America battle against Mario Batali, or more recently, as one of the four judges on the cooking reality show, "The Taste."  I had heard about Chef Ludo some time back, as a chef who was pioneering the idea of "pop-up" restaurants in L.A.  His LudoBites, "pop-up" restaurants would send out e-mails to subscribers advising them that he would be setting up a restaurant, usually for about a week or two at a time, in random locations around L.A. Given Chef Ludo's reputation, and the limited time each location would be open, the reservations were very difficult to obtain.  I subscribed to his LudoBites website, and received e-mails indicating each time reservations would be made available at the various pop-up locations.  Several times, I attempted to obtain one of these highly coveted reservations, but to no avail.

Therefore, when I heard that Chef Ludo was setting up shop in a more "permanent" location, I was intrigued.  Would these reservations be any easier to get?  Sadly, the answer is still no.  Reservations are only available through the website www.troismec.com, and they are only released to the public at exactly 8:00 a.m. every Friday morning.  If you don't get a reservation in the first five minutes, you're out of luck.  I tried this method a few times, but never managed to secure a reservation.

Then, luckily for me, fate intervened.  As I was driving in my car one morning, I heard one of those radio commercials for Mastercard.  Normally, I would just tune out these commercials, however, this one was talking about how having a Mastercard can allow you access to special "priceless" events around L.A.  As an example, the commercial stated that Mastercard holders could have access to the toughest restaurant reservation in L.A., which was Trois Mec!  My ears perked up, since I have a Mastercard, so I decided to investigate this matter further. I went on to Priceless.com, and low and behold, one of the "priceless" events that they were offering was a reservation for two people, at the chef's counter, at Trois Mec.  They offer one of these reservations to the public on Wednesday mornings each week, and I just happened to log on at the exact right time, and scored the coveted Friday night seats!  (Now that we've already eaten here, I decided to share this secret reservation tip with the public.)  We went for our dinner at Trois Mec on Friday, June 28th.

Now, the first thing diners must know, is that Trois Mec is situated in a small strip mall, in a space formerly occupied by Raffallo's Pizza.  Although the inside of the place was completely gutted and re-modeled, nothing was changed on the outside.  The Raffallo's Pizza sign still flashes it's lights, and there is absolutely zero signage indicating that Trois Mec is inside.  Further, all of the front windows are opaque so no one can look inside and see that the place is now an upscale restaurant.  The front looks like the photo below.  You really have to know Trois Mec is in there, otherwise, you'd never find it. 

The place is pretty small on the inside.  There are four tables against the wall, and an eight-seat kitchen counter where diners can watch all the magic unfold in the kitchen.  The total capacity of the restaurant is only 26 people, which allows for an intimate dining experience. When you first walk through the door, you are greeted with a friendly staff yelling "bon soir", in the same manner that they yell "irrashaimase" at a sushi restaurant.

The Trois Mec menu is pre-set each night, and includes five courses and a variety of "snacks."  Guests can also add on wine pairings for each course, which we decided to do.  We love to do the wine pairings, to see how the food enhances the wine and vice versa.  Once we were seated at the counter, we were provided with the menu for the evening.

We were first provided with an apertif, which I think had some ginger in it, and was basically meant to prepare our palates for what was to come.  The next item we were served was the first in an array of pre-meal "snacks."  The snack was called buckwheat popcorn, which was served in a small bowl, and meant to be eaten with your hands.

  

This "popcorn" was salty and crunchy, and reminded me of a combination of corn nuts and Grape Nuts cereal.  I wasn't so sure about it at first, but it became more and more addictive with every bite.  Along with the buckwheat popcorn, we were served a glass of Normandy apple cider.  The sweetness of the cider paired nicely with the saltiness of the popcorn.

The next "snack" was a brioche steamed bun topped with nori butter.  It was a bite-sized piece of bread with a salty, seaweed butter on top.  Because it was steamed, it was light and airy.  This snack also paired well with the cider.

The next tasty morsel was a tandoori madeline.  Imagine one of those buttery madeline cookies from Starbucks doused in tandoori powder with a spicy kick.  Sounds strange, but tasted great.

Our final "snack" was a tempura fried baby corn with mojo verde sauce.

Now, I have had my share of tempura, but never any using baby corn.  The tempura batter was light and crispy, and not too greasy, and the mojo sauce gave it just the right hint of spice.  It was really delicious.

We finally moved on to our actual first course which was a combination of avocado, sushi rice, salt cod cream, lime, and cilantro.  The salt cod was smooth and creamy, and not too fishy (which cod often tends to be).  Along with the thinly sliced avocado and sushi rice, it had all the flavors of a sushi roll, but it was much more delicate.  This course was paired with an unfiltered sake.  To be honest, I am not a big sake fan, however, this pairing worked very well together because of the Asian flavors in the dish. 

Our second course was peas in a bone marrow custard with crispy shallots.  It was presented like a soup, however, the bone marrow custard was more like a consomme than just a simple broth.  It had a very complex flavor and worked well with the crispy shallots.  I really enjoyed the fresh peas which tasted like they were just popped out of their shells and put on the plate.  Instead of pairing this course with a white wine, which is what I would have expected due to the lightness of the dish, it was paired with a Bandol Rose which worked surprisingly well.

Our third course was a dish of potato pulp, brown butter, bonito, onion soubise, and salers.  Potato "pulp" is basically a peeled and cooked potato which is put through a ricer, so that it comes out at fluffy little potato bits.  The "pulp" was put on the plate, then doused with a ladle of brown butter.  Crispy bonito, which are salty, dried flakes of fish often used in Japanese cuisine, were sprinkled on top.  I did not know what "onion soubise" was, but I have since looked it up and learned that it is an onion sauce which is based on a Béchamel sauce, with the addition of onion purée.  I also did not know what "salers" were, and it turns out that salers is a specific type of cheese from the south west part of France.  So, to recap, the plate had potatoes, butter, salt, onion, and cheese!  How could you go wrong?  It tasted like light and fluffy mashed potatoes, with some rich, intense added flavors.    The potatoes were paired with a gamay wine from the Loire Valley.  The light red wine paired nicely with the rich flavors of the dish.

The fourth course was the only protein of all the courses, and consisted of Iberico pork, clams, leeks, and parmesan.  Iberico pork is a free range pork from Spain, which is raised on acorns to produce meat with excellent marbling.  We watched as one of the cooks grilled the pork over a wood burning grill, and managed to achieve a perfect medium rare.  Then we watched as the meat was given time to rest, in order for the juices to reabsorb into the meat.  Next, it was sliced into thin pieces and passed down an "assembly-line" of three other cooks, who each had a specific role to play in the creation of the dish.

One cook carefully placed the clams around the pork.  The next had tweezers and gently placed each individual leek on to the plate.  The next covered the pork in the parmesan "foam" and finished garnishing the dish.  It was an expertly composed dish, and one of our favorites of the meal. It was paired with a muscadet, which is a white French wine, which is made at the western end of the Loire Valley.

As if we hadn't eaten enough already, the chef decided to add in an extra course for the evening, which was a truffle grilled cheese sandwich, with "campfire" ice cream.  With the words truffle, grilled cheese, and ice cream, how could we refuse?  The dish was a crustless piece of perfectly grilled cheese sandwich, with the added bonus of truffle, just in case it wasn't already decadent enough.   The grilled cheese was also cooked on the wood burning grill.  Interestingly, the grilled cheese was served with a quinelle of what they called "campfire" ice cream.  A "quinelle" is a technique used in many restaurants to present mousse, ice cream, sorbet, whipped cream, etc.  It is an elliptical shape made by passing the mixture back and forth between two spoons.  We were sitting directly in front of the lead chef as he took special care creating each individual quinelle.

The "campfire" ice cream had a unique sweet and smoky flavor which I had never tasted before in an ice cream.  The chef explained that they actually put wood chips in the ice cream mixture in order to infuse the really smoky flavor.  The ice cream paired well with the grilled richness of the sandwich.  This course was paired with a chenin blanc.  The acidity of the chenin blanc paired well with the incredible richness of the dish.

Our fifth course was dessert, which was a Napoleon with vanilla cream and berries. 
It was paired with a sweet, sparkling Gamay wine, which was a creative and successful pairing.

Finally, we were served a plate of mignardises, which are small sweet tid-bits served at the end of the meal (after dessert), usually with coffee.  We watched as the cooks carefully prepared these tiny morsels right in front of us.

We were treated to bite-sized dark chocolate squares finished with habanero salt, along with lemon-ginger tarts.  These little treats were an excellent way to round out a great meal.

Overall, we had a fantastic dining experience at Trois Mec.  The food was not only elegant and beautiful to look at, but also tasted great.  Each course was more imaginative and creative than the last.  Sitting at the counter afforded us a view of everything that was happening in the kitchen throughout the service, and watching the care and precision with which everything was prepared and presented was just amazing.  I would definitely recommend starting now to try and obtain a reservation at this new L.A. gem.