A recent excursion to the gastronomic Mecca of Paris for equipment presented the chance to sample some of my favourite cooking from anywhere in the world. Paris is still the ultimate food destination for me. It’s a city where respect for produce, provenance and place is demanded by the punters, in contrast with the polite hope seen elsewhere. If there’s one thing about the French, it’s that they will tell you exactly how they feel – just look at their long-standing history of protest.
This trip focused on the traditional bistros that dot every part of Paris. If nothing else, they provide respite from the relentless tempo of the town. If you ever need to truly relax, take a seat in a Parisian bistro, order some oeufs mayonnaise and a glass of wine, and watch the world go by.
The best ones will transport you through the history of French cuisine, where flavour and flair shout loudest. There’s steak au poivre, veal kidneys in mustard cream, pâté de campagne, ouefs en meurette, béarnaise, îles flottantes, rum babas … the list goes on.
Two of the standouts from this trip are dishes I have eaten 100 times over. As with many dishes, it’s the people and the place that make something special. So add my beautiful wife and the foothills of my favourite neighbourhood of Montmartre and it’s bound to be memorable. This week’s recipes are inspired by that trip and are very easy to recreate at home.
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French onion soup relies on the most basic and cost-effective ingredients paired with a bundle of patience. The key is in the slow caramelisation of the onions to extract the rich brown colour and maximum, jammy sweetness. After that, it’s all about a little bit of seasoning and using the classic Comté or Gruyère cheese. While this dish is cheap to produce, it’s rich in comfort and culture.
The second recipe is as old as time. Beef Bourguignon is a peasant dish that uses offcuts of beef marinated in red burgundy wine. I remember making it for our staff meal many years ago in Thornton’s restaurant. Proud of my creation, I was informed it was not a true Bourguignon as I didn’t marinate the beef in the wine overnight.
Sceptical of this added time, I was soon reminded why patience is often the greatest seasoning. The following weekend, Kevin Thornton himself made the dish “properly”, as he said himself. The richness of the beef that had marinated brought it all to new heights.
I never forgot this lesson and you shouldn’t either. This is a recipe to settle in for the evening with; make sure to pour yourself a glass of something too.
