Promenade Claude-Lévi-Strauss… The address promises a journey, a discovery, a journey! However, once in this alley of the new districts of the 13e arrondissement of Paris, the adventure seems nowhere to be found. The norm seems to be the lunches of office colleagues who would hesitate between a gigantic sushi restaurant and an express sandwich shop.
Nosso does not change in this neo-neighborhood. The smooth facade and the terrace on which are stacked tables and chairs announce a closed restaurant. Fault. Two cheerful ladies push open the door and enter Alessandra Montagne’s new restaurant. Brazilian by origin, she had already opened, in the same district, Tempero, a small restaurant which was a delight for those in the know. All her team followed her to set up this place, much larger than the previous one. As a tribute to her employees, and as if to support her stance against mistreatment in the restaurant industry, the chef baptized this restaurant Nosso, “us” in her native language.
Indeed, once the famous door has been crossed, a united and complementary team welcomes customers. One cleans the table which will be set by another while a third guides the hosts to the tasting place. It’s simple, everything is written on the slate, with no frills or complicated names.
Carrot, bottarga and wild herb focaccia
The plate is laid in the same way. A carrot focaccia with an orange crumb is placed on a gray ceramic plate. Slices of bottarga and leaves of oxalis planted in a carrot purée give a funny hat to this bread that has nothing Italian about it. These edges golden by the butter scorched during cooking and the sugar of the carrot give it the taste of a cake that would like to have another name. Certainly, the bitterness of bottarga and the mischief of oxalis transform this bewitching crumb into a ship sailing towards unknown territories.
The risotto that follows is also a mystery to be discovered. The brown grains of small spelled shine when cooked al dente. In their center, a hash brown medallion suggests that the emulsion crowning the dish comes from the same vegetable. A few white and purple dice complete the riddle. The brunoise of onions and sautéed carrots is the only tangible element of the dish.
The first bite is full of questions. A note of coconut escapes from the creamy eggplant emulsion whipped in milk. The grated black brie underlines it. A garlic oil carries the composition towards the Mediterranean, while the small spelled, which snaps in the mouth, recalls the drought of the Sault plateau, near Mont Ventoux.
The clafoutis of mirabelles brings back to more rural regions, where the skirts of the grandmothers smell both of the hot oven (the paste of the clafoutis), the grass yellowed by the late summer sun (the queen cream). des-Prés) and the fruit still wet from the morning dew (the mirabelle plum). The trip is total.
The address Nosso, 22, promenade Claude-Levi-Strauss, Paris 13e. Phone. : 01-40-01-95-17. Open for lunch Monday to Friday from noon to 2:30 p.m. and for dinner Wednesday to Friday from 7:30 p.m. to 10 p.m.
The essential Carrot focaccia.
The detail that is not a detail Thanks to the large glass roofs, the room appears bright even when it is raining.
The bill Lunch menu: between € 27 and € 34. Tasting menu: 65 €.
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