All Natürlich
It has to be said that rue de la Coulouvrenière is not the most attractive thoroughfare in the City of Calvin. Still, it’s hard to define the architectural beauty (whatever the district) of a city too often disfigured by buildings dating from the 70s. In a nutshell! Apart from these general considerations, let’s get back to our subject. After a number of personnel-related ups and downs, the restaurant Natürlich opens a new chapter to focus on the essential: the kitchen. A young, dynamic and highly motivated team takes up the torch of this charming neo-bistro. With a short, concise menu, the culinary offer is reduced to its simplest expression, evolving every week according to seasonal produce.
Edouard Amoiel
Youth option
Free to fully express his gastronomic potential and with undisguised enthusiasm, chef Jonas Bolle officiates behind the stoves of his open kitchen, nestled at the back of a room whose pastel-colored ceiling fresco recalls Claude Monet’s skies. With his youthful air, this talented chef has more than one trick up his sleeve. Accompanied by his sidekick Abdoul Diao, the tandem promises to make sparks fly, as do the duo in the dining room, Margaux Meunier and Vincent Zannini, who bring brightness to a dark, subdued setting. It’s under these auspicious conditions that the Natürlich adventure begins with a few thin slices of Lard de Begnins. A quintessential Vaudois anthem from Philippe Grange‘s irreplaceable butcher shop.
Edouard Amoiel
By way of amuse-bouche, the chef offers us a fried potato croquette secretly encasing a piece of raclette cheese, topped with a garlic confit mayonnaise. A very patriotic introduction that would have deserved to be cooked more thoroughly, so that the cheese would run when cut. Jonas Bolle takes a fresh turn with stewed tomatoes on a carpet of thyme and rosemary, blanched and escorted by fennel and lovage, then paired with a crayfish bisque. A summery marriage between the earthy side of tomatoes and the seaside side of bisque.
Local produce
The revelation of the evening was the egg pasta and its longeole ragout, stewed for hours with a few aniseed and fennel seeds, a dash of parsley oil, topped generously with 24-month aged pecorino, grated just before serving; a divine creation for a pure moment of delectation. Even with the greatest willpower, it’s hard to remain moderate and reasonable. But what’s the point?
Edouard Amoiel
Natürlich enchants, Natürlich rejuvenates, Natürlich amazes. Let us be carried away by the committed, uninhibited enthusiasm of a team that favors a truly local approach, respecting the seasonality of products and the surrounding terroir. A striking paradox between their youth and, at the same time, their gastronomic maturity. What’s more, the L’Idéal grocery store joins the Natürlich restaurant directly from the shores of the Cité Phocéenne. But that’s for another episode…
