Home Report My Food Reports: “Cointreau Cuisine” !

My Food Reports: “Cointreau Cuisine” !

Catégorie : Report

Invited to come and discover the new product of the Cointreau range, “Cointreau Cuisine”, which will be on the market in June, I give you the report of this “press lunch”! I was indeed invited to a real lunch in a place that I did not know and that charmed me a lot, the concept store “Un Dimanche à Paris”. On the menu: aperitif and small salted cabbage with cocoa nibs with a “Cointreau Sauer”, then variations on this new Cointreau spray: “duck aiguillettes with celery purée”, “gambas with orange risotto”, as many dishes that I will soon propose on my website. I’ll take you with me to discover the meal and the ideas, as the chefs were with us to teach us how to make the delicious dishes! 

So here I am this time invited by Cointreau, in the restaurant “Un Dimanche à Paris” at 4-6-8 Cour du Commerce Saint André in the 6th district of Paris. The day will go from surprise to surprise and I still don’t know what to expect! 

This new restaurant is in fact a “concept store”, a very complicated name for a place where chocolate is in the spotlight. It is indeed the son of Michel Cluizel, a famous chocolate maker, Pierre Cluizel, also a chocolate maker, who opened this friendly place where you can taste chocolates and drink cocktails in the lounge upstairs, take cooking classes, eat with a varied and appetizing menu and then leave with small cakes or chocolates to please our loved ones …! 

I strongly advise you to take a close look at all the little cakes, macaroons, and original utensils, like this “monk’s head” grater.

The most interesting (and probably the most pleasant for those who work there!) is the large bay window that looks directly into the pastry shop. 

Of course, I couldn’t resist asking to take a look at it. Especially when there are little caramel tarts in the mix!!!

The Easter eggs are very original and made me want to bite them, with all those roasted nuts! 

But here we are upstairs in the “lounge” where Cointreau invites us. We will be only four guests and the two organizers for this particularly tasty lunch.

This is where you can come to drink cocktails, while chatting with a small plate of chocolates.

Everywhere transparency, light.

You can even see the restaurant below.

Anyway, it’s time for us to get to the heart of the matter, i.e. Cointreau which launches its new product “Cointreau Cuisine”. While discussing the origins of this prestigious brand (which dates back to 1849 in Angers), we are served a fresh “Cointreau Sauer”. A dash of cointreau, tonic, a bit of yellow and lime and you’re done! I will definitely be making these again at home!

Small cabbages are waiting for us with their salt and cocoa nibs. In this restaurant, many variations on cocoa and chocolate. But as Mr. Pierre Cluizel pointed out to us, everything is done here with nuance and subtlety. 

After this refreshing aperitif (my head is already spinning a bit at this point!) we head to a room where a real cooking class is waiting for us! With of course, the star of the day: the “Cointreau Cuisine”. Because the whole meal will revolve around a delicate cloud of Cointreau. Orange and cocoa, the meal looks enchanting. 

Our two chefs of the day are here to receive us. So we find ourselves with 4 guests, 2 chefs and 2 organizers. A rare and privileged moment.

We will cook with our chefs and then go to the table to devour everything.

Our Cointreau organizer poses here with our chef du jour in the large upstairs kitchen.

Since my camera is everywhere, I followed the recipe of our starter: the “chic and shocking salad”! I will of course give you the recipe in the site soon. Although it can easily be reproduced at home.  A little corn, lamb’s lettuce, crushed toasted hazelnuts, small balls of melon and a balsamic vinegar and olive oil dressing. 

Simply thinly slice raw mushrooms and a williams pear, then arrange a rosette of each on the plate.

A bit of corn, then salad previously mixed with the vinaigrette…

We finish with hazelnuts, duck breast, some croutons with cocoa nibs, melon and a dash of vinaigrette. And to finish, a few drops of Cointreau Cuisine on the salad!
And here is the result! A fresh and light salad, crispy and melting, which smells like a perfume.

After the chief, we realize each one our salad. We go to the table, we discuss, we laugh and we drink wine and then we leave with the chef for the continuation! 
On the menu, two dishes are proposed. 
Skewers of duck aiguillettes on a crushed celery and turnip purée. Always with our Cointreau cloud. 

And an orange and carrot risotto, served with grilled prawns with cocoa powder!

Let’s just say right away that both dishes are total successes! And the Cointreau Cuisine brings shine and fragrance to the whole and adds a cloud of mystery. Because if you don’t know there are any, the subtlety of the fragrance is intoxicating but disconcerting. We know the fragrance, but we don’t identify it immediately. 
It’s time for dessert and our young pastry chef joins us to add his little touch. 

First some gariguettes in a circle. One wonders if the building is not doomed to collapse…

But no, it’s a miracle, the whole thing holds, and even very well! Because even with a dollop of vanilla ice cream, the strawberries hold up. A few shards of gold leaf and a dash of Cointreau Cuisine and we are in seventh heaven!

But for me the most delicious part is at the end… Absolutely divine lemon financiers! I haven’t been this cheerful in a long time, but there’s something witchy about these financiers. They are on sale in the store and surpass (by far) all those I knew until now! But there were two financiers… One with lemon, then another with roasted hazelnuts and orange peel…

Filled with a chocolatey praline ! The two of them bewitch us with the cloud of Cointreau… And for all those who are still wondering… YES I have the recipe for the praline financier, and YES I have the recipe for the orange and carrot risotto and duck aiguillettes… 
So be patient, because I have a lot of work to do and moreover the Cointreau Cuisine will only be available in June at Lafayette Gourmet in Paris, maybe at the Épicerie du Bon marché. With a little hope of finding it in mail order, but in the meantime, Cointreau has been available for over 160 years…!

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