Amazing food and ice cream pairings for the festive season

For epicureans in search of gourmet experiences off the beaten track, Paris is a veritable playground. In the four corners of the City of Light, daring concepts surprise the taste buds to the delight of culinary adventurers. In this joyous holiday season, here's a rather frosty concept that brings together two of the capital's finest talents to delight us all this festive season!

To discover it, you'll have to head to Jardinsdu Palais Royal and make your way down the discreet rue de Montpensier before pushing open the doors of Nhome, Matan Zaken 's restaurant, which has already conquered the capital with its blind tastings. In the heart of beautiful vaulted cellars, you'll find a cocoon with an intimate, convivial spirit, with a table for sharing designed to bring gourmets together in the love of gastronomy.

And during the month of December, an astonishing featuring will leave a lasting impression on your taste buds. Working in tandem with Jean-Pierre Braun, one of the capital's frostiest ice-cream makers, who created the concept of Reys with its unusual flavors, Matan Zaken intends to surprise his guests from time to time with food and ice-cream pairings that add another dimension to the tasting experience. Blending hot and cold, and adding an evolving element to the various dishes, this culinary experience demonstrates how ice cream can also be elevated to gastronomic status.

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In Jean-Pierre Braun 's own words, "we go looking for ice cream where you don't find it much". And this promise of the unexpected is embodied in flavors that are out of the ordinary. In this 4-hand score, of which we had the opportunity to taste a few recipes, Matan Zaken manages to compose a charming plate of marinated scallops, refreshed by a hint of lovage, while the pear brings a comforting sweetness and saltiness to the shellfish. A few grains of caviar are sprinkled throughout, making the link with... caviar ice cream. Surprisingly, thanks to the presence of ribot milk (an excellent binder!) and horseradish, the taste of this exceptional delicacy is more accessible, even though it can be a bit tricky. The flavors of Maison Sturia caviar don't seem muted, thanks to its 12% content: it's a match made in heaven for theart of glazing.

A farmhouse guinea fowl with chestnuts and green cabbage stuffed with trumpets of death is married this time with a Roscoff onion, sherry vinegar and Agastache herb sorbet, topped with crispy onion for a beautiful play on texture. This creation reveals all the gourmandise that can be found in this bulb, the idea of making a sorbet from it would be hard to imagine. We salute this discovery, which will be an unexpected coup de coeur for us.

By way of a trou normand, a Mezcal Black Lemon sorbet awakens the taste buds, while respecting the smoky notes so typical of this Mexican brandy made from agave. And when it's time for dessert, Jean-Pierre Braun takes up the challenge of reconciling dark truffles and cocoa in a sorbet that is once again quite astonishing, and for good reason: these two very pronounced flavors manage to harmonize thanks to a meticulous dosage and balance. To accompany it, pastry chef Marisha Shuklaa has imagined a miso, pecan and praline tartlet whose creamy preparation offers an interesting contrast to the black truffle and cocoa sorbet.

In keeping with this spirit of sharing, Matan Zaken and Jean-Pierre Braun invite you to get your hands dirty with a boxed set of 4 gourmet ice creams created for the occasion, accompanied by the chef's recipe ideas. Just the thing to add a touch of madness to your Christmas meal! While the box may seem expensive (€125 for 220 ml and €195 for 390 ml), we'd like to remind you that these are 100% artisanal ice creams, the fruit of meticulous expertise, and whose raw materials are more than just flavorings: the caviar ice cream is prepared by directly incorporating the grains, the truffle ice cream is made with fresh black truffles rather than flavored oil, and so on.