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Bringing the Country to the City
PARIS - As country winters seem to grow longer, a number
of chefs from the provinces have come to test the waters
of the Seine. Since the autumn, two Michelin-starred
chefs have decided to maintain their restaurants away
from Paris while bringing their casseroles to the capital:
Jean-Yves Bath from the Auvergne and Didier Oudill from
Biarritz.
I have followed the careers of both since the early
1980s, when Bath was chef at the charming auberge La
Bergerie in Sarpoil in the Auvergne and Oudill was chef
to Michel Guerard at Eugenie-les-Bains in the southwest.
Bath later moved to Clermont-Ferrand, to the restaurant
that bears his name, proving that traditional country
fare need not lose its personality or authenticity as
it is modernized and lightened. He has always managed
to make a plate of lentils taste like pure perfection
and has dedicated himself to making everything from
the chocolate to the bread from scratch.
In October, he moved to the center of Paris with his
son, Stephane, to begin a new adventure, which seemed
to take off from the moment he opened the doors. Transforming
an old Chinese restaurant into a pleasant, rather formal
country restaurant, Bath continues to work his magic
in the kitchen, while his wife, Daniele, continues to
run their brasserie, Le Clos Saint-Pierre, in Clermont-Ferrand.
Bath's menu is rich with the specialties of central
France, with salads of snails and duck gizzards, duck
sausage, cabbage, foie gras, and, of course, the delicate
Limousin veal and rich, incomparable beef from Salers.
He does not ignore fish and shellfish, giving lobster,
scallops, monkfish and the river fish pike perch good
billing.
Begin, if you like, with a simple salad of lobster,
poached to a moist tenderness and flanked by simple
greens anointed with olive oil. Likewise, the rich and
fragrant rissole de Cantal, little pastry-wrapped packages
of Cantal cheese, are paired with a wintry salad of
lamb's lettuce dressed with fresh walnut oil.
Throughout the meal, the boyish, outgoing Bath strolls
from table to table chatting with and warming the somewhat
stiff Parisian crowd.
As to be expected, meats are the star of the show here,
and one could do worse than a thick veal chop, paired
with Bath's famous tagliatelle dressed with the exceptional
cow's-milk blue cheese, Fourme d'Ambert. The meat was
cooked to perfection, and improved on the plate, gaining
in flavor and tenderness as it had time to rest. Between
bites, the best wine to sample with the pedigreed meat
is the Ladoix Vieilles Vignes from Burgundy - the 1996
priced at 220 francs (about $35). Years ago, a sommeliere
suggested that the ''wet horse'' aroma of this rarely
seen red wine was a perfect match for rare meat and
she was so right.
Order the moist, tender Salers beef and you will also
be treated to Bath's incomparable lentil sauce. I dare
you to find better lentils, those flinty, deep-green
grains that taste of the volcanic earth. His are cooked
to a perfect tenderness, so they are still crunchy,
not soggy but lively and virile.
Classic and creative Like Bath, Oudill has paid his
dues in the countryside, working with Guerard, moving
on to his own Pain, Adour et Fantaisie nearby, then
to Biarritz and the Cafe de Paris, which remains open
as Oudill makes his mark in Paris at Le Dauphin. During
those years, he gained a reputation as a classically
trained chef who also understands how to be creative
and feed right into our hands.
His talent is still there, but it is overshadowed by
a barren, dreary Palais Royal restaurant that is totally
devoid of character and has a staff that might be better
off at a fast-food counter.
It's a shame, for Oudill and his partner, Edgar Duhr,
have great ideas and the ability to move modern French
food a giant step forward. The menu has much of what
we look for today - a touch of internationalism, plenty
of vegetables and a new take on everything from a simple
green salad (here teamed up with a toasted baguette
covered with a slice of ham and a touch of cheese) to
a wonderful cassoulet (flavorful white beans in broth,
with giant shrimp, delicious sausage and chunks of bacon).
But service is so contrary to the food that it is hard
to believe that the kitchen and the dining room communicate
at all. Wines are opened, then plopped in the center
of the table without a proper tasting. A quartet of
sauces come out of nowhere and are set at the edge of
table without a description of what they might consist
of and which dish they are meant for. The bare wooden
table is not set, rather knives and forks are strewn
about helter-skelter.
Let's hope that as the weather warms, the staff warms
up too, so we can continue to enjoy Oudill's talents,
along with the delicious Jurancon white and fruity Saint-Chinian
red; the selection of can't-stop-eating-them bread and
rolls; the plump oysters served with well-spiced grilled
chorizo sausages; the immense platter of perfectly grilled
tomatoes, zucchini, fennel, onions and potatoes, served
with a Spanish-style open-face sandwich of scrubbed
tomato and ham, and the memorable, moist casserole of
joues de cochon, tender pig's cheeks.
- Bath's
9 Rue de La Tremoille
Paris 75008
Tel: 01-40-70-01-09
Fax: 01-40-70-01-22
Web: www.jean-yves-bath.fr
e-mail: restaurant.BATH@wanadoo.fr
Closed Saturday and Sunday. All major credit cards.
A la carte, about 300 francs.
- Le Dauphin
167 Rue Saint-Honore
Paris 75001
Tel: 01-42-60-40-11
Fax: 01-42-60-01-18.
Open every day. All major credit cards. 140-franc
lunch menu; a la carte, 100 to 200 francs.
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