August 2008 - Restaurant Cheval Blanc, Basel

The Cheval Blanc Restaurant in the Hotel Les Trois Rois in Basel is a fine place to eat. The day that chef Thomas Knogl gets a bit more adventurous, it will be fun too.

Published in FT Weekend 16th August 2008

In 2004 local entrepreneur Thomas Straumann rescued Basel’s Hotel Les Trois Rois, closed it down for 18 months and restored it to a blaze of neo-Byzantine glory. Part of Straumann’s grand plan was to add a fine dining restaurant. The name – Le Cheval Blanc – reflected the owner’s penchant for the wines of the legendary Bordeaux château, but it also hinted at his aspirations for the restaurant: classy, distinctive and with an unmistakeably French accent.
   
There were a few teething troubles. Chef Jean-Claude Wicky, who made his name at top Basel restaurant Stucki, was recruited with great fanfare, cooked up a storm and left prematurely. In spring 2007 Peter Knogl, a native Bavarian and disciple of Heinz Winkler of Tantris fame, with subsequent stints at Las Dunas in Estepona and Le Mirador in Montreux, took over.

Within months of Knogl’s arrival, news broke of the Cheval Blanc’s freshly bestowed Michelin star and sprits were high. [Stop press, November 2008: Knogl just got hissecond star, after only two years in operation] A celebratory autumn Menu des Rois ranged widely over quail breast with foie gras, lobster ravioli with a pumpkin sauce, steamed fillet of beef with a red wine sauce, pear and plum sorbets – no fireworks, just top-class ingredients, correctly prepared and served with care.

A recent summer lunch menu opened with a crab/vichyssoise/caviar combo. The caviar pearls provided a nice salty, popping counterpunch to the sweetly dressed, lightly gelled crab flesh, which floated over a foaming vichyssoise. Fillet of sole in a champagne sauce was mooted next.

Now sole, especially if (as in Knogl’s kitchen) it’s line-caught and comes from Brittany, is one of my favourite foods and I’m also partial to a bit of fizz. But I think sole probably works best on the bone (and preferably just off the grill), while champagne belongs in a tall tulip glass, not in a sauce where its ‘foaming whirls, as fine as Cleopatra’s pearls’ are wasted.

We moved instead into pinkly poached veal fillet with finger nail-sized chanterelles and slivers of artichoke – light, beautiful, seasonal, all flavours in place. Pudding was a summery tribute to the delights of elderflowers and raspberries: ice cream and a tiny two-tiered mousse the size of a 5-franc Swiss coin with redcurrant sprays, an intense smear of raspberry coulis and some twizzles of crunchy caramelised elderflower.

We pored over the eye-watering wine list (Cheval Blanc vintages from 1978 to 2003, five Petrus millésimes and sundry offerings of Yquem, Romanée-Conti and Châteauneuf-du-Pape) and settled contentedly for an Austrian Sauvignon (Peter Koff) with the crab and caviar, followed by a Nebbiolo-Barbera d’Alba blend from Angelo Gaja for the veal fillet.

If we’re talking grand, classy and distinctively French, the Cheval Blanc undoubtedly does the business. The riverside dining room is hushed and elegant, with its jaw-dropping chandeliers, swagged curtains and dove grey décor. The tables (on the terrace for fine days, with the Rhine sliding by beneath you) are discreetly spaced, the service is superbly orchestrated by Maitre d’ Gregory Rohmer and sommelier Philippe Bouffey.

The food has impeccable breeding, it’s beautifully groomed and perfectly well-mannered. I can’t help wishing it had a bit more of a twinkle in its eye, the tiniest hint of silk knicker beneath the fur coat. Opening up cans of caviar and cracking lobster claws is the easy bit. I’m dying for the chef to do something terribly risqué with pig’s trotters, live a little dangerously with wings of skate or show a bit of leg with some lamb shanks. Then dining at the Cheval Blanc will be not just fine, but fun too.

Restaurant Cheval Blanc, Hotel Les Trois Rois, Blumenrain 8, Basel, Switzerland.
Tel. +41 61 260 50 50, www.lestroisrois.ch
3-course lunch menu, weekdays, SFr. 78/£38
Menu des Rois: 6 courses SFr. 165/£80 , 5 courses SFr. 140/£68