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At Vaisseau, you’ll find a UFO-like space with the feel of a twilight space base – a little dark and gloomy, but oozing cool and chic. At the back, the crew bustle beneath a vast, cathedral-like extractor hood – the stainless-steel cockpit of this culinary Death Star. It’s a slightly strange, chilly setting that initially disorients, but then wins you over, much like the 17 small plates that arrive incognito in the (g)astronomical menu (see what we did there?).
Adrien plays it secretive, sending out his dishes blind. Where this guessing game can irritate elsewhere, here you’re drawn in – there’s real mystery to unravel. A seemingly simple quail broth, sharply vinegared, jolts your taste buds into life from the outset; the silver meringue is in fact blazing with pepper; the purple cabbage ‘cork’ hides an explosive sphere… There’s wild intensity from the amuse-bouches, which shake up the palate’s conformity before dazzling with their precision, even when they flirt with sensory overload.
The chef pushes the boundaries of this playful, sophisticated cuisine. His fondness for offal is well known, and it reappears here in a memorable trilogy centred on veal: tongue with kimchi; scallop with ‘beef strawberry’ and XO sauce; brain karaage with mapo sauce. This carnivorous ‘hideout’ also showcases vegetables brilliantly, with a striking spicy sweet potato dish, or sensational lentils with anise and spider crab. These are small dishes for humans, but seriously big flavours for the umami-obsessed.
Desserts are equally dazzling: a Mont d’Or siphon (an ultra-light cheese foam), with apple sorbet – the strength of which will certainly clear the sinuses – or a fiery eggnog spiked with jalapeño. There’s also the famous crumpled sugar cup on a bed of chocolate ‘soil’. In short, the chef’s sci-fi gastronomy soars high without collapsing into nonsense, delivered with precision that commands admiration. You leave smiling (if Christmas has emptied your wallet, lunch is just €60). No doubt about it – something powerful is happening at this exact point in the galaxy.