Christophe Hay - Fleur de Loire

41000 BLOIS

18.5/20
Prestige Restaurant

BOOK

12 PHOTOS

Chef Christophe Hay

Cooking Gastronomic

Price Indicative price per person (excl. drinks)

110€ à 260€

Gault&Millau's review

18.5/20

Prestige Restaurant It's the Loire Valley's new top address. The setting? A former hospice purchased and renovated at great expense over a period of more than two years, in the same spirit as the Hôtel Dieu in Marseille or the Hôtel Dieu in Lyon, with a breathtaking view over the city and the château. Thanks to Caroline Tissier's spectacular metamorphosis, this historic building has become a multi-faceted art de vivre and gourmet venue, with two restaurants, a "kiosque à pâtisseries" and 44 rooms, and is poised to become a future Blésois heritage landmark. In this chic, beige-tinted restaurant, with waves on the walls echoing the river, Christophe Hay skilfully revisits the Loire region. For example, carp "à la Chambord", with melanosporum truffle, crayfish, peasant bacon and a Cheverny wine sauce, is his signature dish and well worth the trip. The chef knows how to refine a catfish with a smoky condiment and crispy bones, even if the juice of garden radish tops seemed a little harsh to us. But we loved the delicacy of the ocean mullet, which sailed up the Loire in March and which, in the words of the chef, "allows you to have iodine in a freshwater fish". Here, it's cooked in seaweed steam and enhanced by a fumet of rapeseed oil and spirulina. Very attached to his region, the chef also breeds wagyu beef, which he feeds with linseed. The melt-in-your-mouth meat, combined with bok choy cabbage, is another highlight. Chèvre de la ferme de Bréviande is an example of a cheese dish revisited to good effect for its frothy, airy texture. It has the taste of cheese without the heaviness, served with aged cheese shavings, a tapered pear condiment, beehive honey and wild flowers and herbs from the garden. The meal ends on a high note with a performance by the very young pastry chef, who comes to the table to present "Découverte de nos vanilles", or with a soufflé of parsley honey, violet vinegar and parsley sorbet. The menu is imposed, but we know the titles. The chef takes orders in person and can answer any questions. As for Hugo Vasseur, the sommelier, he goes off the beaten track and suggests some fine discoveries, notably in the Loire Valley with the superb Cheverny Argilo de Quenioux or Noëlla Morantin's cuvée "Chez Charles".