Moules Marinière from Le Saint Amour.

Is there an uptick in the number of French restaurants in Los Angeles?  I certainly hope so.  French food = comfort food.  At least in the case of Le Saint Amour in Culver City.  I haven’t kept track, and I don’t really know actual figures but it seems to me that there are more and more French restaurants opening in Los Angeles.  And that’s a good thing.  We’ve been so Italian for so long that I’m ready for the return of France.  The best recent example of this was my weekend visit to the very French Le Saint Amour, a Culver City restaurant that has been open for a year and a half.

Escargots de Bourgogne from Le Saint Amour.

French Restaurants in Los Angeles, (San Francisco and New York)

But before I go there, a bit more on French restaurants in Los Angeles, (San Francisco and New York too).  I just checked on Open Table and seventy-four French restaurants came up in a search for Los Angeles and Orange counties.  A quick cursory glance and I’d remove a number of them because they’re not truly French.  A secondary search of West Hollywood/Beverly Hills/Mid-Wilshire and the Westside gave me thirty-five results.  For those same neighborhoods seventy-three results pop up for Italian.

Not scientific in the least.  The reason I say there seem to be more French places: Le Saint Amour, Petrossian, Fraîche Culver City (French chef Benjamin Bially), RESTAURANT at the Sunset Marquis (French chef Guillaume Burlion), Church & State, Comme Ça, Bistro LQ (French chef Laurent Quenioux), RH at the Andaz (French chef Pierre Gomes), to name a few and not naming the many that have French influenced menus, or American chefs that lean towards cooking French food.  And then there’s Ludo!  French chef Ludovic Lefebvre who cooks French in a way no one has before at his pop up restaurants, Ludo Bites.  Café Stella is my favorite neighborhood bistro.  Sitting on the outdoor patio feels like being on a back street of Paris.

San Francisco has always been more equitable when it comes to French versus Italian, or maybe it’s just their natural hybridization of French food — it simply appears as part of the menu on so many Bay Area restaurants.  They naturally cook French.  They operate their restaurants in the French brasserie/bistro/café way.  I’m not sure if Zuni still does it but in my Zuni eating days (’80s to ’90s) they had an oyster station outside on Market Street, complete with shucker and all.  So very Parisian.  New York is the most welcoming to French food and French chefs.  Mostly, I’d venture to say, due to its size and numbers: a huge city, millions of mouths to feed.  All cuisines get good coverage there.  I’ve always felt that Los Angeles was slighted when it came to French restaurants.  They’re here, they exist but not in the ways they do in San Francisco and New York.

Les Frites from Le Saint Amour.

Le Saint Amour

Over this past weekend Robert and I were returning from a great day with food blogger friend Sean Sullivan (of Spectacularly Delicious)* who was in town from New York.  We’d dropped Sean off at his hotel, and were on the 10 Freeway going home and desperately needed gas.  Off at Robertson Boulevard and suddenly we were in Culver City.  Hunger.  Parked and walked along Culver Boulevard.  I wanted to find Le Saint Amour as I’d heard about it.  We popped in around six forty-five and a kindly French woman promptly sat us.  I assume this was Madame Herve-Commereuc.  The place felt so French.  Café.  Bistro.  Brass, lace curtains, French café chairs, art deco advertising posters on the wall.  The very French waiter sealed the deal.  Heavy French accent, no name (thank God), available not intrusive.  I knew I was in a French restaurant when I ordered my Steak Frites and he simply said “medium-rare?” as if there was simply no other option.  The food was quite good, straight forward, traditional French café/bistro fare.  It was just what I wanted.

Owned by Florence and Bruno Herve-Commereuc they recently hired chef Walter Manzke to revamp the menu.  Chef Manzke introduced a Plats du Jour menu, a different special each night of the week.  These are truly French dishes.  The night we were in it was Bouillabaisse.  Other current dishes include Choux Farci, Bourride Provenςale, and Filet Mignon Bordelaise. Monsieur Herve-Commereuc is a master charcutier and makes house-made charcuterie, and terrines.  Oysters, onion soup, escargots, bone marrow are among the many typical French dishes on the regular menu.  If I lived in Paris, this is the kind of neighborhood place that would be a second home.  I’d pop in on my way home from work, or for a morning café. I wish it was in my Atwater Village neighborhood so I could.

Now then: All you Los Angeles-based French chefs, put the word out to your French brethren to hie their way across the Pond, and our vast continent to our sunny Southern California shores.  We need more French restaurants in Los Angeles.  And for the rest of you Angeleno readers: Are there more French restaurants opening in Los Angeles?

Bon appétit!

100 Miles Shout Outs! Local events, mini-reviews, and mentions of things happening in the world of food:

#1 – A Menu of Parisian Bistro Classics at Le Saint Amour, Culver City, CA.  Consulting chef Walter Manzke offers a different Parisian bistro dish every night of the week (Sunday is Poulet Frit for example) at Le Saint Amour.  If you like classic French food like I do then get thee to Le Saint Amour for a plat du jour, or for something delicious off their full menu.  Bon appétit!

#2 – Thursday, March 31, 2011, 6 pm – 10 pm ~ Mo Chica’s 18th Tasting Dinner – 6 Courses for Japan Relief at Mo-Chica, Los Angeles, CA. Help raise money for Japan disaster relief.  Special tasting menu by chef Ricardo Zarate.  Details here.

#3 – Saturday, April 16 & Sunday, April 17, 2011, 11 am – 8 pm (Sat.), 11 am – 7 pm (Sun.) ~ Artisanal L.A. where nearly 100 local, artisanal and handmade vendors showcase their wares.  Support your local crafts persons, vendors and businesses.

My Status:  Enjoying the gradual arrival of spring in So Cal and the last of the lovely winter produce: amazing citrus, kale, broccoli, collard greens, fennel.  Continuing to blog, cook, and eat.

I’m published!! My recipe “Chef Wally’s Baked Papaya” was selected to be in the cookbook: “Foodista Best of Food Blogs Cookbook: 100 Great Recipes, Photographs, and Voices.”  You may order it here.

Upcoming Posts: More on my great-grandmother’s garden, and my California childhood.  *A post on New York food blogger Sean Sullivan of Spectacularly Delicious.  A visit and tour of Ojai Valley citrus grower Friend’s Ranch. More The Local Reports. Cookbook Reviews: Southern My Way by Gena Fox; Heartland: The Cookbook by Judith Fertig; Small-Batch Baking for Chocolate Lovers by Debby Maugans; Maida Heatter’s Cakes, and Maida Heatter’s Cookies by Maida Heatter.

Image from iStockphoto.com

“I Was A Teenage Cheesemonger.”  Title of my autobiography?  Uhm, well, maybe.  Too early to say.  And I wasn’t actually a teenager.  I was twenty years old.

I hope this isn’t becoming too much of ‘me, me, me’ but I am proud of the few things I did do in the food and restaurant business.  Buying and selling cheese was one of my proudest food-related occupations.  Looking back on my rather un-storied food career I see that I was a jack-of-all-trades/master of none-type of food professional.  But I am proud nonetheless of the varied things I did do, the people I met and worked with, and the places I was able to go.

I stumbled into selling cheese; happily.  The year was 1979 and it was after I’d completed the Culinary Arts and Hospitality Studies program (cooking school) at City College of San Francisco; before cooking school I had returned from living in France, and I’d been head line cook at Sourdough Jack’s in Santa Rosa, California.  My first job after cooking school was working as lunch chef for a tyrannical French chef at a place called Today’s on San Francisco’s Union Square.  I didn’t last long.  The French chef was truly a tyrant: unreasonable, flew into rages, yelled and screamed.  I might have lasted two months but it was probably less.  One day at the end of a shift I quit by sliding a note under the chef’s office door; he was already gone.  I never saw him again.  Not my finest professional moment but I was desperate.

The Wine & Cheese Center

After the horrors of the French chef I got a 9 to 5 job as a foreign exchange teller at Security Pacific National Bank.  That didn’t go so well either but on the ground floor of the bank building was a shop: The Wine & Cheese Center.  It sold a huge variety of domestic and imported cheeses, had a full selection of wine, and did most of its business selling sandwiches to the office workers in the skyscraper above the store.  It was my entrée into selling cheese.  I learned the varieties, types, styles, what countries they came from, how to cut, wrap and display them, when they were ripe, and what they tasted like.  My time living in France had given me a nice exposure to French cheese.  This was an education in everything else — the world’s cheese.

Image from iStockphoto.com

‘Maître Fromager’, the Oakville Grocery

I suppose that’s a fair translation of “cheesemonger” although in France cheesemongers are true masters of the trade.   But first my apprenticeship.  When I heard that there was a gourmet grocery store being opened by Napa Valley winemaker Joseph Phelps in San Francisco I applied immediately.  When I started at Oakville Grocery the store had only been open for a short period.  Before my arrival the cheesemongering duties had been seen to by Clark Wolf, the store manager.  Clark knew (and knows) a hell of a lot about cheese.  Before Oakville he ran a small cheese shop on San Francisco’s California Street.  His enthusiasm for, and knowledge of cheese was (is) boundless.  He took me under his wing and taught me what he knew.  This was a true education in all the vicissitudes of buying, storing, selling, serving and eating domestic and imported cheese.

I learned how to cut open huge wheels of Parmigiano-Reggiano, Emmental, Gruyère, and English cheddar.   Eventually I understood the many nuances of goat cheese, how it was made, how it was aged, and how what the animals ate, and the time of year can affect the flavor of the milk.  We sold bulk Normandy sweet butter shipped from France in large wicker baskets, probably a first for San Francisco.  I remember clearly the day we got in fresh Italian mozzarella di buffala that had arrived by plane that morning from Italy.  Another first for San Francisco.  We almost threw the cheese a parade everyone was so excited.  I owe a tremendous amount of gratitude to Clark for showing me the world of cheese, and to Oakville for an amazing learning experience.  Clark went on to have a very successful career as a hotel and restaurant consultant.

Image from iStockphoto.com

Friends for Life

I also met the most amazing people while working at Oakville; some of them are still friends over thirty years later.  I met chef Jeremiah Tower at Oakville, we’ve been lifelong friends.  One day a French goat cheesemaker, Marie-Claude Chaleix came into the store.  She’d taught American goat cheesemaker, Laura Chenel how to make goat cheese on her farm in France.  Marie-Claude and I became fast friends and I spent a week with her on her goat cheese farm in the Charente region of France.  She took me all over the region and introduced me to the area’s goat cheese makers.  I learned a tremendous amount.  Another friend is Kathleen Lewis, now a personal chef, who oversaw all the prepared foods at Oakville.  We lost touch over the years but she recently found me because of this blog.  She and her husband live in Los Angeles.

DDL Foodshow

My year long stint at Oakville led me to another cheese-related opportunity: to work with Italian film producer, Dino de Laurentiis in opening the first of a series of Italian-themed food shops, DDL Foodshow.  I was hired in 1982 to help him and his staff open the flagship store on New York’s Upper West Side.  When the store opened I became cheese manager, or head cheese buyer.  I placed orders, controlled inventory, was responsible for the display cases, sales and managing a staff.  It was an exciting time for me.  While I worked for Dino I met two more life long friends: Martine Rothstein who worked the cheese counter with me, and Lori Berhon who worked in Dino’s film offices, and at the store.  Before I started working at DDL I was lucky enough to go on a three week buying trip with the general manager to France and Italy.  While I was in Italy I went to Milan and saw the food shop of all food shops, Peck.  Amazing selection of cheeses, jaw-dropping displays.  I was inspired.  (I wrote a bit about here: Peck di Milano — my first ever blog post.)

Cheese became a part of my life and it still is.  I may not eat quite as much as I did when I was a cheesemonger, and a bit younger but I still eat it often.  The best part of having been a cheesmonger is the cheese knowledge I’ll always have.  I can go into any cheese shop and know what the cheeses will taste like, where they came from, how they’re made.  And for that I am very happy.

Recommended Los Angeles-area Cheese Shops: Cheese Store of Pasadena; Cheese Store of Silver Lake; Say Cheese; Cheese Store of Beverly Hills.

Recommended Reading: Cheese Primer (Steve Jenkins); American Cheeses: The Best Regional, Artisan, and Farmhouse Cheeses, Who Makes Them, and Where To Find Them (Clark Wolf); Culture: The Word on Cheese (magazine).

My Status:  Enjoying the gradual arrival of spring in So Cal and the last of the lovely winter produce: amazing citrus, kale, broccoli, collard greens, fennel.  Continuing to blog, cook, and eat.

I’m published!! My recipe “Chef Wally’s Baked Papaya” was selected to be in the cookbook: “Foodista Best of Food Blogs Cookbook: 100 Great Recipes, Photographs, and Voices.”  You may order it here.

Upcoming Posts: More on my great-grandmother’s garden, and my California childhood.  A visit and tour of Ojai Valley citrus grower Friend’s Ranch. More The Local Reports coming soon. Cookbook Reviews: Grilled Cheese, Please! by Laura Werlin, Southern My Way by Gena Fox, and Heartland: The Cookbook by Judith Fertig.

Julia Child wasn’t the only person to introduce America to French food.  Often when something is suddenly in vogue, it’s a combination of events that contributes to the cultural sea change.

René Verdon, June 29, 1924 – February 2, 2011

Chef René Verdon died two weeks ago at age 86.  I knew who he was.  I knew he owned a successful French restaurant in San Francisco called Le Trianon.  I may have met him in San Francisco when I worked at Stars restaurant in the early ’80s.  What I was reminded of while reading his obituary in the Los Angeles Times is that he was also White House chef during the Kennedy administration.  I was fascinated reading the details of his life, specifically how he ended up at the White House, and the influence he had on American cooking and eating.  There is so much more to that part of his story.

First Professional Chef in the White House

Verdon was the first professional chef to work in the White House.  First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy being a Francophile herself interviewed him in French.  As White House chef he was way ahead of his time: he cooked with the freshest ingredients he could find; he planted an herb garden on the White House grounds; he designed a new kitchen for the first family’s quarters.  He also broke tradition by serving as President Kennedy’s private chef.  During prior presidential administrations a housekeeper was in charge of feeding the first family.

Verdon was born in 1924 in a small French village, Pouzauges, in western France.  His parents owned a bakery and pastry shop.  Deciding he wanted to be a chef at age thirteen he apprenticed first at a hotel in Nantes followed by several apprenticeships in Paris and Deauville. He emigrated to the United States in 1958 and found work in New York restaurants the Essex House, and La Caravelle as well as the Carlyle Hotel.  La Caravelle head chef, Roger Fessaguet, recommended him for the job when the Kennedys were looking for a chef.

America’s Interest in French Cuisine

His arrival as White House chef ushered in a period of great interest in French food and cooking.  In an interview with the Minneapolis Star-Tribune in 2002 Julia Child said she was “lucky” the Kennedys hired Verdon because soon “everyone was interested in French cuisine.”  Child’s French food bible “Mastering The Art of French Cooking – Volume 1″ was published in 1961 the same year that Verdon started cooking for the Kennedys.  It all makes sense.  Becoming the White House chef put Verdon on the international stage.  Mrs. Kennedy was considered the height of chic.  She didn’t hire any old chef, she hired a French chef.  It was the early ’60s.  Naturally the rest of the country, and the world, followed suit.  All of this brought at least as much if not more attention to French cuisine as Child and her book.  Verdon actually had a bigger more popular stage than Child’s.

French Food in the White House

While White House chef Verdon became known for such dishes as chicken in Champagne sauce, and “incomparable quenelles de brochet” (according to Time Magazine).  President Kennedy favored Verdon’s New England clam chowder.  His first official White House meal was an April 1961 presidential luncheon honoring then-British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan.  Verdon served a menu of trout in Chablis and sauce Vincent, beef filet au jus and artichoke bottoms Beaucaire, and meringue filled with raspberries and chocolate.  Verdon’s favorite state dinner took place in July 1961 along the banks of the Potomac River honoring the President of Pakistan.   He served “simple yet elegant” food that included avocado, crab meat cocktails, and raspberries in Chantilly cream.

I asked Chef Jeremiah Tower to comment on his friend, Rene Verdon, “A very sympathetic man who devoted himself to what he knew best, the best of classical and country French cooking and standards of service.  A very fine chef.”  Tower and Verdon were San Francisco restaurateurs during the same period in the 1980s.  Verdon owned Le Trianon from 1972 to 1987.

Verdon wrote a total of five cookbooks including “The White House Chef” (1967), “French Cooking for the American Table” (1974), and “The Enlightened Cuisine” (1985).  An unsung hero of American cooking, light years ahead of many of his chef brethren, and an integral part of introducing French cuisine to America, rest in peace Chef René Verdon.

Sources for this article: Los Angeles Times, and Wikipedia.

100 Miles Shout Outs! Local events, mini-reviews, and mentions of things happening in the world of food:

#1  – The Good Neighbor Cookbook – consider submitting your, or somebody else’s, good-neighbor story to the Meet This Grateful Recipient or Meet This Good Neighbor Cook features on The Good Neighbor Cookbook blog by e-mailing authors Sara Quessenbery and Suzanne Schlosberg at: cooks@thegoodneighborcookbook.com. Let us know if you do by leaving a comment below!

My Status:  Still enjoying winter in So Cal and the lovely winter produce: amazing citrus, kale, broccoli, collard greens.  Continuing to blog, cook, and eat.

I’m published!! My recipe “Chef Wally’s Baked Papaya” was selected to be in the cookbook: “Foodista Best of Food Blogs Cookbook: 100 Great Recipes, Photographs, and Voices.”  You may order it here.

Upcoming Posts: More on my great-grandmother’s garden, and my California childhood.  A visit and tour of Ojai Valley citrus grower Friend’s Ranch. Cookbook Reviews: “The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook” by Rachel Saunders, “Quick-Fix Southern” by Rebecca Lang, and “Italy Dish by Dish: A Comprehensive Guide to Eating in Italy” by Monica Sartoni Cesari.

Gabrielle Perdrizet and me, spring 1977, ready for the Montgomery High School Senior Prom. Santa Rosa, California

I took my prom date to dinner at the French Laundry.  No, really, I did.  In 1977.  Granted back then it wasn’t the French Laundry it would grow up to be.  The French Laundry now owned by uber-chef Thomas Keller.  The world renowned French Laundry; a place where everyone who knows good food wants to eat at least once in their culinary lifetimes.  This past spring I was in the Napa Valley (where the French Laundry restaurant is located in the town of Yountville) and I went to the restaurant.  It was closed as I was there between the lunch and dinner services.  I didn’t have plans to eat at the restaurant.  I wanted to see the building.  I wanted to see if it was true; that I actually did take my prom date, the beautiful and very French, Gabrielle Perdrizet (see photo) to dinner at the restaurant before we went to our Senior Prom at Montgomery High School in Santa Rosa, California, thirty-three years ago.  It was.  I did.

Keller Buys the French Laundry

In 1994 Thomas Keller purchased the building that the current French Laundry is in.  The beautiful stone building dates back to the 1880s when it first served as a saloon.  When alcohol was outlawed within two miles of Yountville it became a brothel.  In the late 1920s it became a French steam laundry.  In 1974 the Mayor of Yountville, Don Schmitt, and his wife purchased the building and opened a restaurant naming it the French Laundry.  The name stuck and when Keller came along he kept it.

I went to high school in neighboring Santa Rosa in 1976 and 1977 during the time that Mayor Schmitt owned the restaurant.  I have no idea how I even knew it existed.  I may have read something about it in the newspaper, or maybe I saw it on a family outing to the Napa Valley.  What I do know is that once Gabrielle, a French foreign exchange student, accepted my invitation to attend the prom it only seemed fitting that we go there.  Yountville is almost twenty-eight miles from Santa Rosa; it’s over hill and dale, it takes close to an hour to drive to.  I think we arrived at the restaurant at five-thirty.

My mother let me borrow her fading powder blue V.W. Hatchback.  The car didn’t have a lot of power, we sputtered along as there were problems with the muffler.  We made it there and back.  I don’t remember what we ate.  To my young developing palate it was the most amazing meal I’d ever eaten — at least in my current memory.  I do remember that we sat at a table next to a window looking out on to flower boxes, or possibly flower beds.  I know we had a good time.  It was Senior Prom after all.  And I don’t have any pictures; we didn’t take a camera, it was before the days of photographing everything.

The 12 foreign exchange students who attended Montgomery High School in Santa Rosa, California, during the 1976-77 school year. The countries represented here are Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Sweden (x2), Greece, Scotland, France (x2), and Denmark

All Things French

My introduction to all things French happened in 1976, the year before the infamous prom date, when at the age of sixteen I went with my French class on a week long trip to Paris.  It was my first time out of the country, my first time to Paris, and I fell in love hard.  I loved Paris, and everything about it, I still do.  It was an eye-opening experience that led to a lifelong connection to the country and its people.

There were twelve foreign exchange students during my senior year of high school, two of them were French.  My interest in all things French grew further as I came to better know Gabrielle and Amélie, the two French exchange students.  Gabrielle became my girlfriend and prom date.  So being the budding Francophile and wanting to impress Garbrielle, I chose a place that seemed to be French for our prom dinner.  At least it had the word French in the name.  I probably thought it served French food although now I can’t say if it did or did not.  No matter what type of cuisine, nor how good or bad it may have been, I have the memory of the experience.  That’s enough for me.

Me in front of the French Laundry, Spring 2010

Now to the Gap

Through my friendships with Gabrielle and Amélie I was introduced to the idea of working in France as an au pair, or mother’s helper.  I did it.  After I graduated from high school I went and lived in France for a year where I took care of four French children.  I returned home knowing how to cook French food, and speaking French.  The experience cemented my relationship with France.  It’s now like a second home.  It also started me on a path of cooking both professionally and personally that I remain on today.

So after my year in France I returned to Northern California and began my professional career in the restaurant and retail food businesses; it was San Francisco in the early 80s.  All was going very well.  I was working in top restaurants with top chefs.  Then I decided I wanted to work in the film industry which I started to do after graduating from the New York University Film & Television program in 1988.  I slowly moved into film and away from food.  I missed the advent and rise of a chef named Thomas Keller.  It was the late 90s and Keller’s star was truly ascending, and I kept hearing things about a restaurant called the French Laundry that Keller owned.

Photo by Jo Stougaard

I often wondered: is this the French Laundry I took Gabrielle to for our prom?  It sort of gnawed at me.  Could it really be the same place?  It was so famous now.  In the early 80s when I was working in San Francisco restaurants I went to the Napa Valley often but this was before the arrival of Keller, and his ownership of the French Laundry.  Until this past spring when I went to the area to attend the Cochon 555 event I wasn’t sure if it was the same place or not.  One thing I did know: while I was there I would be stopping by the French Laundry to see for myself.  I did, and it is, or was, the same place I’d been to all those many years ago with my prom date, the lovely, the beautiful, the very French, Gabrielle Perdrizet.

So it’s true.  I took my prom date to dinner at the French Laundry.  I recently told this story to a friend and he told me he took his prom date to White Castle for dinner.  (He went to high school in New Jersey.)  Where did you take your prom date to dinner, or where did you have dinner before the prom?

Bon appétit!

KCET Top 10 List: I wrote this piece for LA-based PBS station, KCET ~ ‘Walking and Eating in Atwater Village: A Top 10′

Coming Up: International Food Bloggers Conference (IFBC), August 27 – 29, 2010, Seattle Washington.  So much fun last year that I’ll be attending again this year.  Are you?

Upcoming Posts: Cookbook Reviews: Steak and Friends: At Home with Rick Tramonto by Rick Tramonto, Spice Dreams by Sara Engram and Katie Luber, Cider Beans, Wild Greens, and Dandelion Jelly by Joan E. Aller.

]]> http://www.100miles.com/prom-date-the-french-laundry/feed/ 18 http://www.100miles.com/the-languedoc-narbonne/ http://www.100miles.com/the-languedoc-narbonne/#comments Wed, 24 Jun 2009 02:02:00 +0000 Charles Thompson http://100miles.com/?p=40

And to the market we shall go! Part of my excitement at visiting my friend, Anne, in the Languedoc was doing ‘foodie’ type things with her. Going to the local markets, food purveyors, and restaurants, as well as cooking with her. One of our most fun – and unusual – days was the day she took us to Narbonne. It was Saturday, the day before we were to leave, and Anne wanted to cook a simple seafood meal for our last dinner together. One of her favorite fishmongers is located in Les Halles, the main market in Narbonne. So off we set to Narbonne. We did a quick walking tour of the city to get a feel for it. It’s now a city of 50,000 people, and is about twelve miles from the Mediterranean so it’s a good city for seafood. It was originally founded as a Roman port, and was also the first Roman colony outside of Italy; in the town square you can still see a portion of the Roman road that connected Italy to Spain.

After our quick tour of the city center, we walked over to the market. It’s one of those daily markets inside a large building with individual stalls selling all manner of food items: locally grown vegetables, meats, charcuterie, fish, cheese, pastries as well as a few locally produced wines. We stopped at a produce stand, one of Anne’s favorites in the area, where we purchased asparagus, tomato tapenade, and one of my favorite new tastes: pickled garlic. This is very popular in the South of France; they take peeled whole garlic cloves and pickle them in vinegar, sugar and spices. The pickling process removes the bite from the garlic making it sweet but still leaves it crunchy like a pickle. They’re delicious. Our next stop was the fishmonger where Anne bought bulots (sea snails), marinated fresh anchovies, and fresh sardines and mackerel. Our shopping was complete; we had our menu: bulots avec aïoli, marinated fresh anchovies, tomato tapenade, pickled garlic, grilled sardines and mackerel, and grilled asparagus.

By this time it was late morning and I was jonesing for my late morning café crème; a habit I started in Paris and took with me to Spain. A café crème (cafe con leche in Spain) in late morning, and often one in the late afternoon – just so I could keep going into the evening. We were busy travelers; we had a lot to see and do. And I just loved that there were so many places to stop – and to sit – to have a coffee, and that not once was I served coffee in a paper container. Always in a ceramic cup with a saucer and a metal spoon. It might have been more about the ceremony than needing caffeine. But I digress. There were several places to either eat, or get a coffee, or have a drink in the market. We found one and the four of us sat down at the counter. This was a tiny place. It was called Chez Bebelle. We sat on chairs that looked into the small space that was the kitchen. There were a few tables off to the side. That was it.

And this is when the fun began. It was just before noon and the staff was setting up for lunch. We ordered our drinks and watched as they began the lunch service. All the seats at the counter quickly filled up. I realized it was run by a family. I assumed they were the ‘Bebelles’. But, as I found out by doing a little Internet sleuthing, they are the Belzons, a brother and sister. His name is Gilles, hers is Johanna. The little girl who looked to be around ten or eleven years old working alongside them remains nameless. Possibly either Gilles or Johanna’s daughter? Robert still talks about the fact that the little girl was working at such a young age and that she was pouring wine. Not something we would see in the U.S. As we sat there I heard someone shout something but I didn’t know who it was, or what they said. A few moments later, Gilles grabbed a megaphone, aimed it across the market, and spoke into it: “Michel, deux bavettes, s’il vous plait!” He was telling someone he wanted two cuts of beef, please.

I looked to see who he was addressing and before I could register who it was a white package came flying through the air and Gilles caught it. I suddenly understood. The restaurant was too small to store all of the meat, and other items it would need so they didn’t. There was no reason to. When someone ordered something off his meat centric menu he simply had the butcher across the aisle put it together and send it over. We all watched joyfully as this little restaurant went about its business. Gilles placed several more orders using the megaphone as we sat there. Each time the item was delivered wrapped in white butcher paper either by hand or through the air. We had other plans for lunch but when I do go back to Narbonne I’ll be going by the market to have lunch at Chez Bebelle.

We finished our outing by having lunch at Les Cusiniers Cavistes situated very near the market. The restaurant is one that Anne works with when she conducts her cooking classes and food tours of the Languedoc through her company Saveur Languedoc. The food at Les Cuisiniers was fresh, local and superbly prepared. An added feature is the artisanal bread they serve that is baked in a wood fire oven that has been operating for hundreds of years. The day ended with another amazing meal chez Anne that evening. To start we had les bulots, the marinated sardines, the tomato tapenade, and the pickled garlic; for the second course Anne grilled the sardines, mackerel and asparagus over les souches, uprooted grapevine trunks, giving the fish and asparagus a rich smoky flavor that was unique as well as perfect.  A fitting last meal.  Sadly, our time in the Languedoc was coming to an end.

Photos above, taken by Charles Thompson and Robert Guerrero, from top to bottom: the entrance to the Narbonne market; the Roman road in Narbonne; fish selections at the Narbonne market; spice selections at the Narbonne market; Chez Bebelle in the Narbonne market; Gilles placing an order with the butcher; sardines and mackerel grilling over les souches.

Check Out: my friend Jo’s new site: Chef’s Who Tweet, follow your favorite chef; add to her list of chefs who Twitter.

My Status: home, blogging, cooking, missing Paris, eating, blogging, missing France, dreaming of Barcelona…

Upcoming Posts: France and Spain: more detailed blogs about our food and travel adventures in France and Spain. The Wedge Salad: a recipe, the origins of the salad and of Iceberg lettuce. Review: ‘The Barcelona Cookbook’.

Paris is always about food.  At least it is for me.  It’s probably other things to other people but food and eating are my end all, be all Paris activities.  And in a city like Paris food and the chance to eat are everywhere, all the time: cafes, restaurants, food shops, open air markets, crêpe stands, even department stores.  I actually wasn’t going to write about Paris as I didn’t think we had done enough food-related activities on our recent trip to France and Spain but then I realized we had.  Our short time there actually revolved around food and eating; happily so.

Our plane arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport on a Monday morning at 7:30 a.m.  By the time we took the RER to Gare du Nord and a taxi to our hotel in the Marais it was a little after 9:00 a.m.  We walked into the lobby, exhausted and unkempt from a long flight from Los Angeles that included a plane change in Boston, to find that our room wasn’t ready, and might not be until 2:00 p.m.  We could leave our luggage and return later.  We had no choice.  We grabbed our cameras and our day bags, and stepped out into the street.  I told Robert I needed a good cup of coffee and something to eat.  On the corner down from the hotel were two cafes.  We sat down at an outside table on a little square in those most comfortable wicker-style French cafe chairs.  We ordered two petit déjueners with café crèmes.  I couldn’t have been happier.  The fact that the first thing I was eating in France was a crusty baguette, sweet butter and jam was perfection.  There’s nothing like a fresh morning baguette slathered with sweet French butter.  We sat, we ate, we drank our coffees and watched the Paris morning happen around us.  I could have sat there all day.

Except there were a few errands I wanted to run, one in particular: since I began writing my blog in January I have been exploring other blogs and bloggers.  One of my favorite blogs is David Lebovitz .  He’s an American pastry chef, was a longtime employee at Chez Panisse, who moved to Paris a few years back and writes about his Parisian experinces on his blog.  He’d announced that his most recent book: ‘The Sweet Life In Paris’ had been published and was for sale at W.H. Smith, an English-language bookstore in Paris.  With this subheading: ‘Delicious Adventures in the World’s Most Glorious – And Perplexing – City’ I had to read it.  I thought it would be fun to read while in France.  W.H. Smith is located at 248, rue de Rivoli.  The rue de Rivoli is quite a long street that runs through several arrondissements but we could pick it up nearby so we set off after our petit déjeuner. It ended up being a wonderful walk that took us right by several of Paris’ grandest monuments such as the Hotel de Ville, Paris’ city hall; the Louvre; the Tuileries Gardens; the Jeu de Paume museum; and the stunning Place de la Concorde.  It was like a walking tour of the best monuments in Paris; a perfect re-introduction to Paris.  I bought my book and proceeded to read and enjoy it throughout the trip.  On the walk back we peeked into the very chic Place Vendôme.  I was in love with Paris all over again.

Our first evening we met our friends Jay and Neill at their Marais apartment before going off to dinner.  I wanted to bring some kind of host gift.  As we walked back to the hotel we saw a number of pastry and candy shops selling beautifully colored macaroons.  Come to find out there is some kind of macaroon craze going on in Paris right now — they are everywhere.  But they are very chic and fun-looking;different, strange flavors like green tea, peanut butter, passion fruit, and mango; Technicolor colors like bright pink, lime green, and lemon yellow.  Not at all what we are used to tasting and seeing in a macaroon.  We finally stopped in a little shop that sold macaroons only.  We selected a few and voila a host gift.  Jay and Neill own a wonderful little apartment just down the street from our hotel which they rent out when they are not in Paris.  We met them there, had drinks and hors d’ouevres, and then walked through the Marais to dinner at Aux Trois Petits Cochons.  The prix fixe menu changes daily depending on what’s available at the open air market right next door; the food was well-prepared and quite good.  The restaurant and service charmimg.  It was an enjoyable evening.

The next day, I still had one remaining errand to run: to find a hostess gift for my friend, Anne, who we stayed with in the Languedoc.  So as we were out and about in Paris seeing a photography exhibit at the Bibliothèque Nationale in the morning, and visiting Père Lachaise cemetery in the afternoon, I kept my eyes open for something wonderful.  I also learned that Robert had never been to the Galeries Lafayette – Paris’ top department store that looks like Bloomingdale’s on acid.  I love the GL.  So in our quest for Anne’s gift I took him there.  Once inside, we needed sustenance, I needed caffeine. Thankfully much in France is still old-fashioned.  We checked the directory and sure enough the entire top floor was a cafe and restaurant.  We made a beeline.  Unlike the horrible food courts that all U.S. malls have, this was the real deal. Like an old-fashioned cafeteria with real dishes and silverware.  Grab a tray, see what was on offer, and take what you want.  All the food looked good, was fresh and decently made.  We both had a cafe crème and a pastry.  We sat at a window seat and looked down on the Paris  Opera house.  The gold leaf on the statuary shining in the late-evening sunshine.  Happiness.  After, when Robert had seen more of the main store, we found Anne’s gift across the street in the GL housewares store.  The GL also has an unbelievable food hall to rival any other food emporium of it’s kind.  I’d never seen it before but the selection is immense and all of it extremely high quality.  It was fun to wander through looking at all the delicacies and drool.

Our final night in Paris was spent with my good friend Marie-Claude van Steenbrugghe.  I met Marie-Claude when she owned a goat cheese farm in the Charente, in west central France.  We met in San Francisco in the early 80s when I asked Marie-Claude if she would teach me how to make goat cheese.  I never actually got to learn but I did spend time with her at her farm in France, we toured goat cheese cooperatives, and met other goat cheese makers; she took me to a goat cheese competition and judging.  It was fascinating.  Several years later, at my behest, she brought her family to New York and ultimately helped develop the goat cheese that would become Coach Farm Goat Cheese made on a farm in Upstate New York.  We have remained good friends over the years.  Robert and I joined her, her husband and her daughter and her daughter’s husband for dinner at her Paris apartment where we ate Japanese.  It was wonderful to see her again and get caught up with each other.  It was another very special food-filled evening in Paris.

Our two days in Paris were fast and furious but worth every rushed moment.  We did and saw a lot, I got my periodic refill of the  City of Light.  A city I treasure and always will.  I hope we are able to go back soon.

Photos above, taken by Charles Thompson and Robert Guerrero, from top to bottom: the newly gold-leafed sculpture, ‘Liberty’ on top of the Paris opera house; city-owned bicycles for rent; Charles and Robert at their favorite neighborhood cafe; Robert eating his Galeries Lafayette pastry and coffee in the store cafeteria.

Check Out: my friend Jo’s new site: Chef’s Who Tweet, follow your favorite chef; add to her list of chefs who Twitter.

My Status: home, blogging, cooking, missing Paris, eating, blogging, missing France, dreaming of Barcelona…

Upcoming Posts: France and Spain: more detailed blogs about our food and travel adventures in France and Spain. The Wedge Salad: a recipe, the origins of the salad and of Iceberg lettuce.  Review: ‘The Barcelona Cookbook’. ]]> http://www.100miles.com/paris/feed/ 6