What the Famous Paris Restaurateurs Eat When Alone

Egg Dishes:

Oeufs Parmentier (serves 2).

Oeufs au Beurre Noir (serves 1).

Tomates Lucien (serves 1).

Fish:

Daurade au Gratia (serves 4).

Palets de Morue Vieille Benoite (serves 6).

Grondin R6ti au Beurre Montpensier (serves 4).

Mouclade d'Esnandes (serves 4).

Fowl:

Poulet Saut£ Paysanne (serves 4).

Foies de Volatile Andr£ (serves 1).

Meat:

Paupiettes de Boeuf Flamande (serves 6).

Côtes de Veau aux Cepes (serves 4).

Oreilles et Pieds de Pore aux Haricots Rouges(serves 4).

Rognons de Veau Sautes (serves 4).

Vegetable Dishes:

Beignets de Pommes de Terre (serves 4).

Gnocchi aux Champignons (serves 6).

Poireaux au Gratin (serves 4).

Puree de Pommes de Terre (serves 4)

PART ONE

One day, as I chanced to pass by the Restaurant LapSrouse, on the Quai des Grand Augustins, I decided to call in and exchange a few words with the proprietor, Monsieur Topolinski, who happens to be one of my neighbors. The time was 12:45 p.m., and I should have remembered that at that hour the illustrious owner of this celebrated establishment would probably be having his lunch. This was the case, for I was conducted to a small back room where I found Monsieur Topolinski enjoying a meal all by himself and with such evi­dent relish that I inquired what it was he was eating. "Potato Pancakes, mon cher, and how I adore them," he answered with a flourish of his fork. "When I am alone I always ask my chef, Monsieur Delorme—who prepares to perfection our great specialties such as Homard Babinski, Canard de Colette, and Poulet Docteur—to cook me something simple. Yesterday, for example, he gave me a Grilled Herring with a Mustard Sauce. Quelle delice! Tomorrow being Friday, I shall ask him for a Daurade au gratin. There's nothing like good, honest, simple fare now and again, especially for us restaurateurs who enjoy la haute cuisine just as much as do our gourmet clientele. But, as I have said, an occasional return to plain, simple cooking is both a necessary and pleasurable change for every­one."

I left the Restaurant Laperouse wondering what the other well-known Paris restaurateurs ate when alone. Did they, too, enjoy la cuisine simple to this extent? The result of my in­quiries was most revealing.

Of the eight restaurateurs listed here, whom I visited, the first five are the proprietors of the five existing three-star restaurants in Paris. The others are the proprietors of the next leading great restaurants of the capital.

BEIGNETS DE POMMES DE TERRE (potato pancakes)

Serves 4

1¼ pounds potatoes

1 onion, chopped

1 tablespoon butter

2 eggs

½ cup flour

½ cup grated Parmesan, or Gruyere cheese

½ cup milk

Pinch nutmeg

Salt, pepper

Peel the potatoes. Wipe them well, but don't wash them. Grate them finely. Soften the chopped onion in the butter. Mix thoroughly together the onion with the potatoes and all the other ingredients.

Butter a small pancake pan, add a teaspoon of oil (which will prevent the butter from burning), and make pancakes of the mixture about the thickness of blinis. Allow about 6 minutes each side. Serve very hot.

DAURADE AU GRATIN (sea bream poached in white wine)

Serves 4

2 sea bream, of ½ pound each

½ cup butter

½ cup shallots, chopped

Salt, pepper

2 cups dry white wine

Bread crumbs

If sea bream is not available, then either gray mullet or bass make excellent substitutes, for which the cooking process is just the same.

Place the butter in the bottom of a hot Pyrex dish which will go into the oven. Place in it the chopped shallots. Score the fish lightly on either side. Salt and pepper them and place them on the bed of shallots. Warm the white wine and add to the dish and poach the fish, uncovered, in a medium oven for about 25 minutes, basting frequently. Five minutes before serving, sprinkle the bread crumbs over the fish.

Monsieur Raymond Oliver is the celebrated proprietor of the three-star Grand VSfour Restaurant, in the Rue du Beaujolais, at the far end of the gardens of the Palais-Royal. This has always been one of my favorite restaurants, not only on ac­count of the superb cuisine, and its incomparable cellar, but also for the great comfort and the elegance of its setting. The interior is pure Directoire and the atmosphere truly reminis­cent of the epoch. Napoleon regularly frequented the Grand Vefour when a young general, and it was at the coffee shop next door that he chanced to meet Josephine de Beauharnais. La haute cuisine française is the order of the day at the Grand Vefour, especially when Monsieur Oliver himself takes control of the kitchens. Bearing in mind his famous spécialites such as Croute Landaise, Ortolans aux Raisins, Pigeon Prince Rainier, etc., I humbly inquired if he ever cooked a "simple" dish for himself? "Often," he answered, "and I get a kick out of perfecting an easy recipe such as Poulet Sauté Paysanne,* or a very simple egg dish."

OEUFS PARMENTIER (eggs with potatoes)

Serves 2

4 large potatoes

Salt, pepper

2 tablespoons butter

4 eggs

1 tablespoon olive oil

Roast the potatoes, in their jackets, in the oven. When they are cooked, cut them in half lengthwise, remove the pulp, and sauté rapidly in the very hot butter and oil. Salt and pepper. Remove to a shallow Pyrex baking dish. Break the eggs over the potatoes and bake in a medium oven until the eggs are just cooked. Serve at once.

POULET SAUTE PAYSANNE (fried chicken)

Serves 4

1 frying chicken, for 4 persons

¼ cup lard

1 sprig thyme

1 bay leaf

2 tablespoons dripping

1 tablespoon olive oil

Salt, pepper

4 medium-sized onions, quartered

4 medium-sized potatoes, quartered

Chopped parsley

Cut the chicken up, including the carcass, into eight or ten pieces. Place the lard, the thyme, the bay leaf, the dripping, and the oil in a large, deep frying pan and, as soon as it starts to sizzle, add the pieces of chicken and brown them rapidly. Season slightly with salt and freshly ground pepper. Continue to cook, uncovered, for 5 or 6 minutes after which time add the onions and the potatoes. Cook over a fast flame for an­other 5 or 6 minutes, or until the vegetables and chicken are well browned. Season once more. Cover and cook over a me­dium flame, for 10 or 12 minutes. Remove the herbs. Sprinkle chopped parsley over the dish and serve at once straight from the pan.

Most American gastronomes who know Paris claim La Tour d'Argent, on the Quai de la Tournelle, to be the best and the smartest restaurant in the capital. The proprietor, Monsieur Claude Terrail, certainly caters more than any other Paris restaurateur to a regular American V.I.P. clientele who fre­quent the restaurant, not only for the superlative cooking (and the famous Pressed Duck that Monsieur Terrail has proudly served to the royalty of Europe) but also for the unique fifth-floor view overlooking the Seine and the apse of Notre-Dame Cathedral.

I have occasionally come across Monsieur Terrail partaking of a very simple meal, around 2:30 p.m., when the restaurant is clearing after the luncheon service. But, apart from suc­culent steaks, what else did his well-known chef, Monsieur Descreux, sometimes prepare for him by way of bourgeois cooking? My inquiry led to the following two recipes:

PALETS DE MORUE VIEILLE BENOITE (fish and potato pancakes)

Serves 6

1 pound salt codfish

1 tablespoon fresh cream

1 pound potatoes

2 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon fines herbs

Salt, pepper

1 clove garlic

2 1 teaspoon olive oil

3 eggs, beaten

Leave the fish to soak overnight in plenty of water (place the side with the skin uppermost). In the morning, change the water and allow the fish to soak again for several hours. Then place the cod in a large pan of fresh, cold water. Bring gently to a boil and poach for quarter of an hour.

Meanwhile, roast the potatoes, in their jackets, in the oven. When cooked, peel them and pass them through a fine sieve.

Remove the fish from the pan of water, dry it, and hash it, and then mix it well with the potatoes, the fines herbs, the garlic, the two beaten eggs, the cream, and one tablespoon of melted butter. Season with salt and pepper and beat thoroughly together so as to obtain a paste with which you make small pancakes (size and thickness of blinis pancakes). They should be cooked in oil and one tablespoon of butter until brown on either side.

PAUPIETTES DE BOEUF FLAMANDE (thin stuffed escalopes of beef)

Serves 6

6 thin escalopes of beef, 4 ounces each, cut from the rump

Larding pork

6 tablespoons hashed pork meat

Fines herbes

½ cup butter

3 onions, chopped

2 carrots, cut in strips

1 tablespoon tomato puree

¾ cup dry white wine

Bouquet garni

Consomme, or stock

Salt, pepper

Have your butcher flatten the escallops and give you six strips of larding pork of the same size. Place a tablespoon of pork meat, seasoned with fines herbs, on each escalope and roll in the form of a sausage. Wrap a strip of larding pork around each meat roll and tie securely with fine string.

Brown the rolled escallops, in a cocotte, in the butter along with the carrots, the onions, and the bouquet garni. Add the white wine and the tomato puree and pour in sufficient con-somm6 (or stock) to cover the meat. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and cook gently for about one hour.

Remove the rolled escallops and the bouquet garni and cut the strings and carefully take away the larding pork. Keep the escalopes hot while you reduce the sauce in the pan until it starts to thicken. Serve with braised Belgian endives, or rice, or spaghetti, with the rolled escallops placed in the middle of the dish and the sauce poured over them.

Maxim's, in the Rue Royale, is probably the most famous restaurant in the world. It has been the subject of songs and operettas, and stories about it have been told many times on stage and screen. The restaurant has retained its true turn-of-the-century decor and atmosphere and if, nowadays, it is less "naughty" than during the nineties, it still expresses a charm and gaiety that is quite unique, while the standard of its celebrated cuisine has never varied.

Monsieur Alexandre Humbert is the head chef. He is a fanatic for non-stop work in the kitchens. He makes no point of cooking specialities of his own, for he claims that a truly able chef should be able to prepare any, and all specialties!

Monsieur Louis Vaudable is the very active director of Maxim's. By way of a change from la haute cuisine française of his own kitchens he occasionally asks Alexandre Humbert to prepare him as simple a dish as Oeufs au Beurre Noir* or a C6te de Veau aux Cepes.*

OEUFS AU BEURRE NOIR (eggs in black butter)

Serves 1

2 eggs

Dash vinegar

1 tablespoon butter

1 teaspoon capers

Cook the eggs, in a well-buttered ramekin, in a medium oven until the whites are just about to set. Heat the butter in a small pan and when it starts to turn dark nut-brown in color, remove at once and add the vinegar and capers. Pour the butter and capers sauce over the whites of the eggs and serve at once.

COTES DE VEAU AUX CEPES (veal cutlets with flap mushrooms)

Serves 4

4 very thin veal cutlets chopped

1 tablespoon shallots,

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons oil

Salt, pepper

1 pound cepes (canned or bottled flap mushrooms), or 1 pound large ordinary

Chopped parsley

mushroom caps

Brown the veal cutlets quickly in the hot butter and oil. Lower the heat and cook for 2 or 3 minutes only on either side. Re­move from the pan and keep hot. Remove the stalks from the flap mushrooms and add them to the hot pan in which the cutlets have cooked. Saut6 until they start to brown then add the shallots and saut6 for a few more minutes. Salt and pepper. Add the vegetables to the dish with the veal cutlets, sprinkle with chopped parsley, and serve at once.

Lasserre is a luxurious and very comfortable establishment situated right opposite the Palais de la Decouverte, in the Avenue Franklin D. Roosevelt. Many who have wined and dined here for the first time have come away saying that they themselves have made a real discovery in the realm of gas­tronomy.

Monsieur Lasserre, the proprietor, who was formerly at the famous Prunier and Drouant restaurants, came here shortly before the end of the war and quickly earned success on ac­count of the excellence of his cuisine. An original and striking feature of the restaurant is the formation of the exclusive gastronomic Club de la Casserole which is composed of regu­lar customers at Lasserre who foregather to enjoy the special­ties of Monsieur Auguste Perrot, who is in control of the kitchens. This remarkable chef, who has won most of the great culinary prizes of France, takes pleasure in preparing the simplest of dishes for Monsieur Lasserre, such as les Foies de Volaille Andre* and les Tomates Lucien.*

FOIES DE VOLAILLE ANDRE (chicken livers with onions)

Serves l

5 chicken livers

2 tablespoons butter

Salt, pepper

½ cup onions, finely chopped

Sauté the livers in the butter. Salt and pepper slightly. Add the onions. Season again slightly. Cook for about 10 to 12 min­utes. Serve very hot.

TOMATES LUCIEN (eggs and tomatoes)

Serves l

3 medium-sized tomatoes

Salt, pepper

Olive oil

2 eggs

Peel the tomatoes and drain them entirely of their water. Quarter them and cook them for 7 or 8 minutes in a very little oil, in a frying pan. Season to taste. Remove from the fire and add the raw, unbeaten eggs and mix in gently with the tomatoes. As soon as the mixture is cooked, serve at once.

PART TWO

Drouant, on the Place Gaillon, is one of those quiet, but al­ways busy, well-appointed restaurants that are ideal for busi­ness lunches. The service is soigné and there are numerous salons particuliers. In one of these, the Jury of the Prix Gon-court always holds its annual banquet. Monsieur Jean Drouant is the proprietor of this excellent establishment specializing in seafood. He also owns Fouquet's, on the Champs-Elysees, and the very elegant Pre Catalan restaurant in the Bois de Boulogne.

The cellar Chez Drouant is extremely well stocked and Monsieur Drouant, who is a great connoisseur of wines, is often tasting them to the accompaniment of some new and simple dish. When we lunched with him recently we were given two unusual dishes to try, the Grondin Rôti au Beurre Montpensier* (because the chef, Monsieur Jules Petit, wished to experiment with the sauce for this fish) and the Oreilles et Pieds de Pore aux Haricots Rouges,* as this is one of Monsieur Drouant's favorite dishes when not lunching in company.

Here are the two recipes:

OREILLES ET PIEDS DE PORC AUX HARICOTS ROUGES (pig's feet and ears with red beans)

Serves 4

¾ pound red beans

4 ounces salted bacon

1 onion, stuck with 2 cloves

1 carrot, quartered

Bouquet garni

3 cloves garlic

10 peppercorns

4 shallots, chopped

1 cup red wine

2 tablespoons beurre manie(two portions of butter to one of flour)

2 pig’s ears and 1 foot

Soak the beans overnight. In the morning, drain off the water and add fresh water to the pan to cover the beans. Add the bacon, the onion stuck with two cloves, the carrot, the bouquet garni, and the garlic and the peppercorns enclosed in a small bag. Cook, well covered, for one hour or until the beans are tender.

Remove the bouquet garni and the small bag containing the garlic and the peppercorns. Remove also the bacon and keep warm. Strain the contents of the pan. Cook the chopped shallots gently in the red wine until reduced by half, then add to the beans. Cook the vegetables again, gently, for a quarter of an hour and then bind with the beurre manie.

Meanwhile, blanch the pig's foot for 10 minutes. Remove, rinse well, dry, and braise until tender. Remove the center bone and cut the meat into large pieces. Do likewise with the bacon and then add the foot and the bacon to the beans. Brown in the oven. Remove from the oven and place on top two cooked and quickly grilled pig's ears. Serve very hot.

GRONDIN ROTI AU BEURRE MONTPENSIER (red gurnard with herb butter)

Serves 4

4 red gurnard, or red mullet of 7 ounces each

Salt, pepper

Flour

½ cup hot, melted butter

Beurre Montpensier*

Empty and clean the fish, season with salt and pepper, sprinkle with flour, pour hot, melted butter over them, and set to roast in a hot oven for 10 or 12 minutes. Baste fre­quently.

Meanwhile, prepare the:

BEURRE MONTPENSIER

2 shallots, chopped

1 ounce spinach leaves

A few parsley, chervil, and fresh tarragon leaves

½ cup butter, softened

Salt, pepper

Blanch the shallots and the herbs for 8 minutes. Strain and cool them and then squeeze them in a cloth to extract as much liquid as possible. Pound them in a mortar and then pass through a fine sieve. Mix the herbs into the well-softened butter and season to taste. Arrange the fish on a hot platter and serve the Beurre Montpensier separately.

One of the most fashionable and chic restaurants in Paris is he Berkeley, on the Avenue Matignon, near the Rond-Point des Champs-Elysees. Here, Monsieur Jean Rouhette, the very-able director, caters for the elite of international society and for well-known artists, authors, and stage and screen person­alities. The restaurant is most comfortable and the service impeccable. In summer you can enjoy lunch on the flowered terrace on the sidewalk and admire the fountains and great chestnut trees on the Champs-Elysees.

The menu of Le Berkeley lists almost everything that the epicure could desire. But "Monsieur Jean," as he is known, prefers to have his meals in strict privacy, for he enjoys ex­perimenting, with the assistance of his very experienced chef, Monsieur Andre Moreau, in the creation of very simple dishes from what may be left over from the preparation of plats raffines for his V.I.P. clientele. For example, for the very simple and easily prepared Poireaux au Gratin,* half the white and half the green of the leeks are used, after the lower and purely white part has been utilized for some other dish. And what could be easier to prepare than the delicious Gnocchi aux Champignons,* another of Monsieur Jean's favorite plats simples.

GNOCCHI AUX CHAMPIGNONS (potato gnocchi with sauteed mushrooms)

2 pounds potatoes

1 pound mushrooms, sliced

2 eggs

1 cup flour

½ cup butter

Salt, pepper

1 teaspoon lemon juice

Peel the potatoes and cook them in boiling, salted water and proceed as if preparing a puree of potatoes. Meanwhile, wash thoroughly the mushrooms in a little water with a dash of vinegar. Dry and slice finely.

Serves 6

When you have mashed the cooked, dried potatoes, add the two eggs, the cup of flour, and ¼ cup softened butter, bit by bit. Season with salt and pepper and beat together thoroughly. To make gnocchi’s, place the dough on a wooden platter and roll it out into the form of a long, thin sausage. Cut off pieces the size of a small nut, and flatten them slightly. Then, with the aid of the prongs of a fork form gnocchi’s (small dump­lings). Sprinkle them lightly with flour and plunge them into boiling, salted water. As soon as they rise to the surface (after 5 minutes or so), remove and strain them and place them on a hot serving dish.

Sauté the mushrooms, for 4 or 5 minutes, in the remaining ¼ cup of butter. Add the lemon juice.

Spread the cooked mushrooms evenly over the gnocchi’s and pour over the juice from the pan. Serve at once.

POIREAUX AU GRATIN (leeks with sauce bechamel and grated cheese)

Serves 4

3 pounds leeks(half white, half green)

Salt, pepper

Sauce Bechamel*

½ cup grated Gruyere cheese

Bread crumbs

Butter

Plunge the thoroughly washed leeks into boiling, salted water and cook gently for about 20 minutes or until they just start to soften. Remove and drain. Butter an oval dish that will go into the oven. Salt and pepper the leeks and arrange neatly in the dish. Pour over the Sauce Bechamel and sprinkle with the grated cheese. Cover with bread crumbs. Dot with a few small pieces of butter and brown under the grill.

SAUCE BECHAMEL

2 tablespoons flour

2 tablespoons butter

1½ cups scalded milk

Salt, pepper

Make a roux by mixing the flour with the melted butter in a small pan. Stir over a low flame until it starts to color. Gradu­ally add the milk. Continue stirring until the sauce thickens. Salt and pepper slightly and allow to simmer for a quarter of an hour.

Everyone who is fond of seafood knows of La Maison Prunier, in the Rue Duphot, just by the Madeleine. This famous fish restaurant is run by Monsieur Barnagaud whose wife, Ma­dame Prunier, administers the London establishment in Saint James's Street.

Fish, of course, was the main topic of conversation when we lunched with Monsieur Barnagaud to inquire what were his favorite simple dishes. One of them is the Mouclade d'Esnandes,* an original way of preparing mussels with a cream and aniseed sauce. When we discussed the art of sim­ple cooking, we were in complete agreement concerning the basic principles. Monsieur Barnagaud, too, we found was a stickler for Puree de Pommes de Terre. "I will tell you exactly how I prepare them," he told us. "And a very good accom­paniment is Sautéed Kidneys."*

ROGNONS DE VEAU SAUTES, PUREE DE POMMES DE TERRE(SAUTEED VEAL KIDNEYS WITH MASHED POTATOES)

Serves 4

4 veal kidneys

½ cup butter

2 tablespoons cognac

4 tablespoons port wine

4 tablespoons shallots, finely chopped

1 tablespoon onion, finely chopped

Parsley, finely chopped

Salt, pepper

Slice the kidneys in half lengthwise. Soak them in cold water with a dash of vinegar for 10 minutes; then remove and drain. Cut them into cubes about the size of a large lump of sugar. Sauté them rapidly, in a cocotte, in the hot butter for 1 minute. Pour in the cognac and blaze. Next add the port wine and the finely chopped shallots, the onions, and parsley. Salt and pepper. Mix well together. Cover the cocotte and cook, fairly rapidly, for 10 minutes. Remove the kidneys and keep hot. Reduce the juice in the cocotte until it starts to thicken. Rectify the seasoning and pour it over the kidneys. Serve very hot with a Puree de Pommes de Terre.*

PUREE DE POMMES DE TERRE (MASHED POTATOES)

Serves 4

2 pounds large roasting potatoes

¼ cup butter

¾ cup scalded milk

Salt, pepper

Wash the potatoes thoroughly. Do not peel them. Dry them and bake them in a hot oven for 30 minutes. When they are cooked, cut them in half, lengthwise, and remove the pulp with a spoon. Pass through a sieve and place in a warm pan, over a low flame. Add the butter bit by bit and beat well with a wooden spoon. When all the butter is absorbed, add the milk gradually, beating vigorously all the time. Season with salt and pepper and serve at once.

MOUCLADE D'ESNANDES (mussels with cream and aniseed sauce)

Serves 4

6 pounds mussels

1½ cups dry white wine

Finely chopped:

2 cloves garlic

5 shallots

1 onion

3 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons flour

2 cups hot milk

18 grains of aniseed

2 egg yolks

1 tablespoon fresh cream

Salt, pepper

Scrape and brush the mussels well in several waters. Place them in a large pan, add the white wine, cover securely, and cook rapidly for 5 or 6 minutes, shaking the pan vigorously several times during the cooking process.

Remove the mussels and keep hot. Strain the juice from the pan through a cheesecloth and reserve.

Cook the garlic, the shallots, and the onion in the butter, very gently for about 30 minutes, in a small pan with a very closely fitting lid. The vegetables should soften and not color. Next add the flour and mix thoroughly to make a roux. Then add the juice in which the mussels have cooked and, gradu­ally, the hot milk. Stir well and add the aniseed and leave the sauce to simmer for 20 minutes.

In the meantime, remove the upper shell from the mussels and place the mussels in their half shells on the bottom of four hot plates. Remove the sauce from the fire and beat in the egg yolks and the cream. Rectify the seasoning. Pour the sauce over the plates of mussels and serve at once.

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