Marché Moderne

Sophisticated restaurants at retail centers go against the average American’s sensibility. What it means, typically, to spend a day shopping is to indulge in everything that you know you probably shouldn’t but feel you deserve anyway – spending lots of money on things you really don’t need and eating food that originates from “food courts,” those concentrated eating places where one can indulge in hot dogs on sticks and chili-cheese-bacon fries for a quick lunch.

But South Coast Plaza is no ordinary retail center, and Marché Moderne is no ordinary restaurant.

Located in the Penthouse South Coast Plaza, above Tiffany & Co. and across a marble-lain hallway from Christian Louboutin, for all its pedigree, Marché Moderne comes across as understated and friendly, like an old friend you haven’t seen in a while that puts you at ease and reminds you why it’s so great to have old friends in the first place. The dining room is small and convivial, with a bar along one side and an open kitchen on another, the windows obscuring the view into the Penthouse – a plus, since those stilettos staring out from Christian Louboutin’s windows might cause distraction from the culinary mastery that issues forth from Florent and Amelia Marneau’s kitchen.

The husband-and-wife team behind Marché Moderne found a partnership not only in each other but also in their complementary talents. With Florent concentrating on the main menu, Amelia focuses on dessert, earning admiration as one of the best pastry chefs in the land (more on that later).

But it is also in the other juxtapositions that Marché Moderne – itself termed a “modern market” – succeeds by using the season’s freshest produce to put traditional bistro fare up against contemporary interpretations and combine the rustic simplicity of classic French dishes with the latest in gastronomical invention. We came face to face with this interpretation with our very first course: a half dozen Kusshi and Beausoleil oysters served with a traditional mignonette and a ginger mignonette. The former, hailing from British Columbia, were large with a deep middle and fresh finish while the latter were smaller and more concentrated in flavor, tasting like they just came out of the ocean. The mignonettes provided the right kick at the end – a refreshing departure from the ubiquitous horseradish – with the traditional adding flavors of tarragon and black pepper and the ginger mignonette adding a slight Asian spin.

A bistro wouldn’t be a bistro without charcuterie, and the selections at Marché Moderne are enough to inspire even the most practiced connoisseur. Selections of homemade duck terrine, La Quercia prosciutto and saucisson sec truffé arrived on a wood board with a warm baguette, cornichon and mustard cream. The duck terrine was light and airy, and with a hint of Cognac, the richness was amplified. Balanced by the sweet-tart pickled cornichon, it was a great flavor combination. Saucisson sec truffé was thinly sliced, causing a scent of truffle to waft between our plates. On the accompanying cheese plate, there was the Saint-Agur blue, a cow’s milk cheese from France; Bûcheron, a semi-aged goat’s milk cheese from France; and Purple Haze, a fresh goat’s milk cheese from Northern California flavored with wild fennel pollen and lavender. Accompanied by every accoutrement one could desire – cherry and currant marmalade, honeycomb, candied pecans, and a warm baguette – this was a cheese plate to remember.

From the appetizer menu, an absolute must-have is the foie gras with both roasted pineapple and pineapple chutney with Sauterne. Lightly seared, the foie gras was silky and full of rich flavor that was only heightened by a slight carmelization from the roasted pineapple. The pineapple chutney with Sauterne was a clever way to integrate one of foie gras’s greatest partners – Sauterne, a famous dessert wine from France’s Graves district of Bordeaux – into the dish.

Main courses run the gamut from French countryside favorites like Shelton Farms chicken coq au vin, which we started with, to modern classics like steak and pommes frites. The Shelton Farms chicken coq au vin was hearty and fulfilling, packed full of cremini mushrooms, cipollini onions, honey bacon, and hand-rolled tagliatelle. With meat falling off the bone and a distinct flavor of red wine and smoky bacon, it’s one of Marché Moderne’s most popular dishes for a reason. Moscovy duck leg confit – another centuries-old, slow-cooked French dish – was updated with an addition of micro Brussels sprouts, bacon, griottine cherry jus, and duck prosciutto. The duck was tender and delicious, but it was the cherries and the Brussels sprouts that put this dish into another stratosphere by introducing both a sweet and bitter component. Four Story Hills Farm beef short ribs with fingerling potatoes, cremini mushrooms, bacon, and cipollini onions came served in a cast-iron pot, and will melt in your mouth.

Dessert at Marché Moderne is as precise an event as everything that preceded it. Where dessert often comes across as an after-thought, here, with Amelia at the helm of all-things-sweet, it joined center stage with all that preceded it. First were the brioche beignets served with macadamia-white chocolate ice cream and pineapple confit – as light and airy as clouds. Next was the apple gateau Basque with apple gelée and sherry wine ice cream, which had a texture somewhere between cake and shortbread and an unforgettable buttery-lemon flavor.

A modern bistro worth the elevator ride.