Autour de l’Âtre

Deep in the Jura countryside, there’s a Franc-Comtois valley. Listen closely and you can hear the La Sonnette River as you come upon a rocky road, at the end of which stands a venerable building crafted from local stone. Inside, you’ll find the ardent hearth of jack-of-all-trades Gabriel Guinnebault, who assumes the roles of owner, chef, sommelier and host, and who left Agapé in Paris for this country paradise. In the old barn that’s been given a simple makeover, there are four tables, each more pampered than a last-born son. Dreamily bucolic tasting menus are prepared in the open kitchen or over the barbecue’s open flames: turnip carpaccio dressed in rice vinegar and mirin, decorated with trout roe and pomelo; heady white asparagus cooked over a wood fire, paired with toasted hazelnuts and an incredible miso vinaigrette; melt-in-the-mouth veal surrounded by carrots and spring onions (cooked over the embers), plus a black garlic condiment and chermoula; before a chocolate tart made with strong Amazonian cocoa, Ethiopian coffee roasted by Café Clandestin in Poligny, hazelnuts and vanilla, plus a scoop of orange sorbet. The little country fairy enchanting our days is this man!  // Ana Kirpad 

FEELING THIRSTY? : Wines from the region and beyond: a 2018 Jura crémant produced by Guillaume Overnoy (€10 a glass), Frankstein, a 2019 Alsace grand cru from Mathilde and Florian Beck-Hartweg (€9), Les Trouillots, a Trousseau from Valentin Morel (€63 a bottle)… 
PRICE: : Tasting menus €53-71 (4-6 courses).