In the ceviche from Donna, in Paris, “we like the balance of ingredients which never compete with the taste of raw amberjack”

Dn the city center of Paris, near the Center Pompidou, you don’t expect to eat well in the evening. Addresses abound in this very busy, rather festive and touristy area. But they are not always of quality. However, since June, the Donna restaurant has changed the situation. Sometimes all it takes is a thirty-year-old who has succeeded in finance (Marc Le Berre) and a Japanese chef (Masahide Ikuta) to inspire us to want to meet up with a few friends here, after a reading at the neighboring House of Poetry or a cinema screening at MK2 Beaubourg.

This pocket-sized venue is named in honor of Donna Summer. Fortunately, the musical atmosphere is not intrusive. Behind the horseshoe counter, “Masa” is on stage. He has everything at his fingertips. The battery of woks and saucepans, the sauces and condiments, the magnificent matured beef, the harvest of autumn mushrooms (porcini mushrooms, chanterelles, trumpets of death, coumelles) for the fricassees… Even the dessert makes us to the eye: a very beautiful lemon tart.

Active and imperturbable, the chef cuts, sears, seasons and arranges. He creates perfect plates in no time. Trained in Kobe then in Paris, at L’Ami Jean, at Agapé and finally with Bruno Verjus, the two-star chef of the Table restaurant, he has a job. Marc Le Berre discreetly exchanges with each guest. He accepts the absence of a wine list. “I am sometimes attracted by an appellation or a winemaker… and sometimes disappointed. I prefer to suggest it myself based on each dish. » Since we chose a ceviche, it brings a pét’nat’ (natural sparkling) color of onion skin, very little sweet. All the wines here are natural. This one comes from Saumur, a blend of Gamay, Grolleau gris and Grolleau noir.

Appears the ceviche of amberjack, stracciatella, pomelos and salicornia. It’s beautiful and colorful. Immediately, the taste of yuzu is present, this Japanese citrus fruit that we recognize among thousands. Going beyond its characteristic flavor, we take a slice of radish and a few orange trout eggs. The amberjack arrived yesterday from Shizuoka, Japan, we are told. It is an oily fish, with a pleasant blandness. It’s not marinated like ceviche at all, the bite is more reminiscent of sashimi. In fact, the acidity is very well dosed. The pomelo pieces are small so as not to kill the flavor of the fish.

On a creamy and stringy bed of stracciatella, we like the balance of ingredients which never compete with the taste of raw amberjack, with really generous pieces. “Masa learned that from Bruno Verjus, confides Marc Le Berre. It is not an assembly kitchen that creates new flavors, but a work where each food expresses its taste. » Like samphire, sometimes iodized. And always the creamy, compact and firm flesh of this voracious amberjack on the high seas, but this time devoured in Paris.