Yesterday I went to what must be the ultimate winemaker dinner - or rather lunch - cooked by the world’s most successful chef with each course partnered with a different champagne. The chef, of course, is Joel Robuchon who now has no less than 25 Michelin stars across the globe having ‘retired’ from the restaurant business 13 years ago.

He’s succeeded by keeping abreast of the times. His Atelier de Joel Robuchon in London is a smart contemporary restaurant that serves upmarket tapas rather than a chandeliered ‘palace’ in the grand French style. You can walk off the street and lunch for under £20 but that didn’t stop it picking up a second star in this year’s Michelin guide.

The champagnes came from Bruno Paillard who makes Robuchon’s house champagne. I can see why - they have a particular purity in their youth due to their low levels of residual sugar so I was less impressed by his older degorgements, two of which were corked. (It seems a matter of pride among champagne producers to demonstrate how long their champagnes last but older isn’t necessarily better.) That said there were some outstanding matches:

Fine jelly flavoured with lemon
Actually the more important component of this dish was the fennel-flavoured cream which nicely set off the Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru Réserve Privée (as it would a white burgundy). A great palate cleanser

New potatoes marinated with truffles with shavings of truffles and foie gras
A classic over-the-top luxury haute cuisine starter which I was unfortunately unable to enjoy fully as I don’t eat foie gras. Superb with an opulently rich Brut Millesimé Assemblage 1999 served in magnum (my favourite wine of the tasting)

Steamed crayfish with spring vegetables cooked in Paillard’s Blanc de Blancs 1995
A fabulous dish with a rich, creamy shellfish sauce with just a hint of piment d’Espelette to stop it being cloying. The same wine was used for the pairing: toasty and rich it partnered the dish perfectly matching the sauce weight for weight while preserving the delicate texture of the crayfish and vegetables which had been cut into marvellous little ‘pearls’ the size of peppercorns. A combination that could only be devised by a chef with decades of experience.

Seabass cooked with spiced honey, ginger and baby leeks
Perfectly cooked seabass with a crisp skin and delicate flesh accented with seasonings that brought out the pure fruit flavours in the accompanying NPU (Nec-Plus-Ultra) 1995. It was slightly overwhelmed by the famous ultra-buttery Robuchon mash though.

Chou pastry with hazelnut praline and mandarin-flavoured Tahitan vanilla ice cream
A dramatically quivering globe of light-as-air choux - wonderful as a dessert - though the bitter orange note was too powerful, I thought for the fresh, wild strawberry-flavoured Rosé Première Cuvée that accompanied it - although some disagreed.

A sugar sphere with Yuzu and an ‘effervescent’ sorbet
The same champagne was paired much more successfully with a show-stopping irridescent ball of sugar, filled with citrus and fresh berry-flavoured sorbet which was tart enought not to strip the fruit from the wine.

All in all this was an amazing tour de force. Not unpredictable in terms of the ingredients that were featured but executed with great precision and skill to make every champagne taste at its best. Every winemaker should be lucky enough to have a chef like Robuchon cooking for them!