Le Comptoir Kokagué

At the Château de Germigney, Raoul Habar and Chiakai Koge developed a crush on one another. He was working as front-of-house manager, and she was a chef, following four years at Maison Jeunet, the fine dining breeding ground of local culinary hot shots. After getting married, they set up shop in Mouchard, better known for its TVG Paris-Lausanne stop than for its culinary feats. Suffice it to say, there was an opening for a fine dining bistro focused on Japanese-style locavore cuisine in a modest, floral space. The food? Diaphanous raw amberjack (killed ikejime style), sprinkled with radish, seaweed and an impertinent spicy vinaigrette; a surf ’n’ turf combo of tender rabbit ballotine stuffed with its offal, all in a subtle shellfish and red miso jus, in a full-on botanic orgy (snow peas, carrots, green and white asparagus, celery purée, all from the house garden and local markets), with delicious rice; and for the explosive finale, some extremely creamy homemade ginger ice cream with a pear poached in citrus, atop a green tea cookie moistened by sugar cane (kuromitsu) syrup. The same care is taken with the lunch menu, featuring things like tuna and cabbage salad with mustard and shungiku (spring chrysanthemum); skate and seasonal vegetables, sweet and vinegary sauce; orange and grapefruit slices with white chocolate cream and red kuri squash ice cream… // Adrien Nouviaire