Recently, I was talking with a friend about overly beautiful food – plates that are so exquisitely crafted that not only do you hardly want to touch them, but when you do, the flavors fall flat of what the aestheticism promised. The artistic plates are, for me, a double-edged sword, and I faced this prejudice head on at a recent trip to A.T.
A.T. is an avant-garde establishment helmed by Japanese Chef Atsushi Tanaka. The food has far more in common with Nordic cuisine than either French or Japanese, but in honesty, A.T. is truly in a category of its own. In this, it is especially rare for the Latin Quarter, a neighborhood where you’re far more likely to find traditional (and, quite frankly, often low-quality) French restaurants. A.T. exists in full contrast of this.
I visited A.T. for its lunchtime prix fixe: no choices and no ordering, just a 55 euro price tag and an exploration of a variety of flavors, textures, and colors. It’s as much of a meal for the eyes as it is for the stomach – and sometimes, this latter category feels sacrificed in favor of the others (but we’ll get to that).
The meal started with that little morsel up top: marinated leek with brown butter. Not only visually arresting, it was bursting with flavor and gave me great hopes for what was to follow.
The next dish, while just as beautiful, just didn’t impress me in the same way. Maybe it’s because it was so similar to the first – a shallot, this time, but just as tender and sweet as the leek. While visually quite distinct, following one with the other flavor-wise fell a bit flat, for me.
The next dish was intriguing: calamari cut and served like noodles in a rich, flavorful broth with radishes. I only wish there had been a bit more of it!
This was a theme throughout the meal, for me. Each bite was flavorful, and each dish was beautiful, but especially in the case of courses like this, where the flavors were more subtle, I felt left wanting more… and not always in a pleasant way.
We stayed under the sea for the next course: scallops with celery root.
This simple carpaccio was topped with broth tableside. It was, once again, delicious, but at this point, I was starting to feel like I needed something with a bit more substance.
Maybe this is something that the chef intuits, as at this point, a plate of warm bread was delivered, along with a bowlful of fresh butter. Sated, I then felt ready to enjoy the next few courses.
This bright green dish was as visually arresting as it was tasty: a combination of broccoli, romanesco, and mussels, with the essence of pine. I really enjoyed this one.
Next came the most consequential dish of the day: roast venison with a beetroot ravioli. The flavors were on point here, with a nicely smoked essence that didn’t overpower the lean, perfectly cooked meat.
Dessert was composed of two elements, both based on quince: this creamy, frozen concoction combining several textures…
… and these fruit leather-esque rolls filled with quince jam.
It’s very odd to be in the process of eating a multi-course lunch and wondering if you’re going to leave the meal hungry. I’m often overly full after a tasting menu, but here, I was decidedly not – and had it not been for the bread in the middle, I might have left a bit peckish. It seems, at first, to defeat the whole point of lunch, and yet, this meal is more of an artistic experience than it is a way to fill your stomach.
Chef Tanaka has evoked his desire to keep his meals light before, even telling Vice that heaviness is one element of French cuisine he decidedly does not like. Keeping portions small and light allows you to continue to taste as you do on the very first bite of a meal throughout the experience.
And for what it’s worth, despite my fears, I did not leave hungry.
A.T. – 4, rue du Cardinal Lemoine, 75005