The profiterole hit the table, craggy on the outside, dewy on the inside, caught as only perfect pâte à choux dough can be, in that millisecond when the expanding balloon of eggy, buttery batter is at the apex of maximum possible magnificence, suddenly sizzled into solidity as a poof of an empty heart, ready for anything. In this case, the practically perfect profiterole was ennobled by a pale globe of Grand Marnier ice cream, the alcohol making the ice cream soft enough to effortlessly yield to the pressure of a spoon. As a chic hat, the profiterole wore at its peak a disc of dried orange, which turned an incoming cascade of hot chocolate sauce into an inky net of rivulets down one side, like a veil over half a beautiful face. My spoon brought back deep chocolate, the haunting flavors of fresh and bottled orange in the ice cream, the tender and crunch of the pâte à choux—is this the best profiterole I’ve ever had, in a lucky, profiterole-rich life? I think yes.
I looked up into the vest-pocket space of Gavin Kaysen’s new 50-seat North Loop bistro, Bellecour—which is very, very different from his Edina quick-serve of the same name—and beheld the gunmetal fog of blue on the walls, the soaring woodwork, the pale veined marble of the bar, the inescapable sense that you stepped through a portal straight into a Parisian bistro in Manhattan, and I thought, “What am I even doing here? Just watching Gavin Kaysen play T-ball?” Set ’em up, watch him swing, and there it goes, up, up, over the fences—it’s another home run, folks! And, uh, then another. Another! Try not to get bored, because we only do home runs here. Set ’em up: cassoulet, quiche, bouillabaisse, steak frites. Boom—watch them sail!
I mean, if you don’t happen to have Gavin Kaysen’s bio at your fingertips, please recall that, after a Minnesota childhood and a zip through cooking school, Kaysen found his bliss in the kitchens of the greatest of great masters of the 20th-century French American culinary dialogue. He was Daniel Boulud’s numéro deux in Manhattan, first running that cooking legend’s New York Café Boulud and less-fancy DB Bistro Moderne, then opening more all around the country. Kaysen developed a close relationship with Boulud’s own cooking mentor, Paul Bocuse, founder and eponym of the world’s most important cooking competition, the Olympics of gastronomy, the Bocuse d’Or. For the Bocuse d’Or, Kaysen has been both a competitor for Team USA, in 2007, and a coach, leading America to our first podium placement with a silver medal in 2015 and a gold medal in 2017.
With that past, you may be wondering: Did Paul Bocuse’s son give Kaysen one of his late father’s chef coats to keep under glass in new Bellecour North Loop? Why yes, he did. Take a picture in front of it, culinary history lovers! Now you may be asking yourself: Is the wallpaper in the North Loop Bellecour a replica of the wallpaper from Paul Bocuse’s restaurant near Lyon? Why yes, it is. Take another picture? You may also be asking yourself: The very name Bellecour, “beautiful heart,” which you have been living with in Minnesota for going on a decade—has it always been a tribute to Bocuse’s roots in the heart of France? Again: Yes…