Paris and the Provinces

      The cuisine of the capital city represents

       a convergence of all French provincial culinary talent

      Only two of the fourteen chefs who contributed recipes to this book were born in Paris and even they are first-generation Parisians: one has parents from the regions of Charentes and Brittany on the Atlantic coast, while the other's parents originally came from Normandy and the Périgord. The others together represent nine different French provinces and their distinct cuisines, plus one chef from Japan whose cooking shows a distinct enthusiasm for the food from the Basque country. The siren song of the capital has long attracted the ambitious: how can you keep them "down on the farm" when they dream of making a name for themselves and revealing their talent to the world? When chefs come to Paris seeking fame or fortune, their bags are packed with local products and local savoir-faire. So even the most Parisian of dishes are provincial in origin: fresh seafood comes from Brittany and Normandy, escargots from Burgundy, salade niçoise from Nice, warm lentil salad and andouillette sausage from Lyon, potatoes au gratin from the Dauphiné, choucroute from Alsace. It is true that the flavors of the provinces are adapted to suit the Parisian table, and in the process gain something spiritual, subtle, and elegant, even down to the humblest dish of offal. Cooking in Paris allows the chef artistic license that would not be granted elsewhere. Parisians meanwhile are absolutely passionate about the authenticity of regional traditions and celebrate peasant dishes, handmade charcuterie, and the desserts their grandmothers served. This is even more pronounced because it comes on the heels of the oh-so-precious nouvelle cuisine. It also explains their refusal to submit to fast-food and other forms of culinary globalization—feasting on a heritage handed down by generations of connoisseurs is one way of keeping the taste buds from being dulled. Drinking is another: Parisian wine bars are temples to the glory of Burgundy, Touraine or Bordeaux and the arrival of beaujolais nouveau every autumn is a much awaited event.

      Le Rallye du Nord, like thousands of Paris bistros, announces the day's specials directly on its windows. Inside, dishes are listed on blackboards.

      Seasonal Cuisine

      Authenticity and precision,

       the keys to perfection

      Curnonsky, prince of gourmets, declared that "Cuisine is when things taste like what they are." This astonishing paradox is probably the best definition of French cooking, where the highest art consists of doing away with the most erudite techniques to serve a dish that blends textures, tastes, and cooking methods to produce something that appears as nature intended.

      Good cuisine starts at the market, where every product has its high season. Everyone knows that you cannot find wild mushrooms or game out of season, but few people realize that all meat and seafood also have their moments of perfection, which vary from species to species, just like fruit and vegetables. Whether you are seeking higher quality or better prices, there are many advantages in buying products at the height of their season.

      It is thus important to be able to evaluate the freshness of a piece of fish, the quality of a cut of meat, and the ripeness of a vegetable or fruit, as well as the happy (or unhappy) marriages between various ingredients. A novice would be wise to follow the advice of a good recipe, a friendly cook or a competent grocer: nothing delights honest craftsmen or enlightened people more than sharing their experience and knowledge with anyone who is truly eager to learn. In general, specialist grocers, experts in what they sell, are preferable to supermarkets where you have to sort the best from the worst, and where it is hard to get away from industrial production.

      Harvesting leeks, illustration taken from Tacuinum sanitatis, a treatise from the 15th century. Leeks, like most vegetables in the Middle Ages, only appeared on the tables of commoners.

      Finally, it is better to make your purchases as near to mealtime as possible, to avoid having to stock them in the refrigerator, which is always bad for fresh ingredients. This may seem rather complicated, but with a successful trip to the market you will already have taken a big step towards culinary triumph.

      The menus of good Parisian restaurants change at least once a season and have a different market dish or menu every day, often composed that very morning according to what delights they have gleaned from their purveyors' stalls.

      The window of Hédiard, the world famous luxury grocers, founded in 1854.

      A restaurant kitchen in Paris in the first half of the 20th century.

      Once the preparation itself begins in earnest, success depends above all on precision in cooking. Overcook a sea-bream by just a few minutes and its delicate flesh will turn to mush, whereas doing the same to an oily fish will give it more or less the appearance and consistency of an old shoe. Forget to let a duck rest after removing it from the oven and the flesh will be unpleasantly tough. Over-boil baby vegetables and they will be irremediably ruined, becoming soft and tasteless. On the other hand, if you do not give the meat for a stew the hours of cooking it requires in order to reach the desired tenderness, it will be inedible.

      Cooking techniques (grilling, frying, roasting, braising, steaming, boiling, simmering) are simple but precise, and require a little organization and the right equipment (see page 29). Sauces have become considerably lighter. But that does not mean that cream, butter and classical beurre blanc have been banished from the Parisian kitchen, where they are still used with moderation to enrich cooking juices and coulis. Variations are infinite, although the basic techniques are in fact few in number. The thick sauces made with a flour roux, once a mainstay of any decent French kitchen, have all but disappeared.

      Now, more than ever before, Parisian cuisine concentrates on freshness, quality of products, and precise execution, which is hardly compatible with industrial agriculture. Today's high-technology agiculture produces tomatoes all year round in a nutritive liquid under neon lights, perfect in appearance and perfectly insipid in taste, and provides unbelievably red mid-winter strawberries that have the taste and consistency of papier mâché.

      If you are in a hurry why not prepare one of those many very simple Parisian dishes that are tasty and quick to make? Not only will you increase your dining pleasure but you'll do no harm to your health either.

      The cooking brigade at the Brasserie Marty, in

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