La Cuisine de la Demi-Pension

[robert brown]

Between Grasse and Villeneuve-Loubet, which is home to the Musee Esoffier, one finds the town that I have designated the capital of “La Cuisine de la Demi-Pension”. Le Rouret is the place, and it has two good restaurants. One is the Michelin one-star Clos St. Pierre; the other La Table de Mon Moulin. The latter was opened less than a year ago by Jean-Pierre Silva, who closed his restaurant north of Beaune, L’Hostellerie du Vieux Moulin, that once had two Michelin stars. While these restaurants differ significantly in cuisine and atmosphere, they have one significant attribute in common: Both serve what I have named “La Cuisine de la Demi-Pension”

As most travelers in France know, staying at a hotel and taking the “demi-pension” means eating a set or no-choice meal (usually dinner). This has been a standard feature of hotels at all standards of comfort. Unfortunately, this manner of dining has now become increasingly prevalent and growing like wildfire along with other restaurants that offer a choice of three starters and three main courses. All of this is another manifestation of how dining in France is offering increasingly less as time goes by. It seems that every chef who wants to start his very own restaurant can’t afford to hire more than one or two servers and one or two assistants.

Strictly speaking, most restaurants of this kind offer a slight bit of latitude that demi-pension hotels do not, such as a choice between two main courses or substituting dishes from two fixed “menus”. Thus in Le Rouret, Clos St. Pierre engages in the former (while offering special, significantly more expensive “menus” such as a truffle and a lobster one), while La Table de Mon Moulin is demi-pension” or “table d’hote” in its purest form.

I can go on naming other restaurants of similar format: Parcours, in Falicon, on the edge of Nice, recently opened by the former two-star chef, Jean-Marc Delacourt, and L’Auberge du Cheval Blanc, outside of Cavaillon. Both offer two “menus” at different prices between which you can exchange dishes.

Regardless of the permutations, the shrunken restaurant is taking hold like wildfire in France. For the diner, who is always the person I try to look out for, it means that restaurant-going in France is often a form of potluck. The situation is symbolic of a nation in gastronomic distress in which the “gestalt” and rituals of fine dining are rapidly disappearing. The causes for this hardly lay at the feet of the chefs. My plumber recently told me that he cut his operation from 12 employees to three because of the punishing social charges. Who can blame a chef for doing otherwise? I would even go so far to say that this doesn’t result in bad meals as such. It keeps the costs down; allows the chef to concentrate on finding top produce; and make it possible to offer a decent value for between 30 and 50 euros a meal accompanied by a small choice of wines that fall in the category of “petit vin” at modest prices. (La Table de Mon Moulin is an exception worth noting. It has the “cave” from Jean-Pierre Silva’s former restaurant that must rank among the very best in France at prices that are hard to beat). Yet I look at the phenomenon of the incredibly shrinking restaurant as a much larger factor than a relative lack of cutting-edge creativity as to why France is losing its overwhelming culinary superiority to a country such as Spain. Having just returned from Catalunya, I saw no evidence of the gourmand “petit restaurant” in my travels.

[pim]

Not to mention Yves Camdeborde’s new pension de famille to be open normalement.

[Bux]

I would even go so far to say that this doesn’t result in bad meals as such. It keeps the costs down; allows the chef to concentrate on finding top produce; and make it possible to offer a decent value for between 30 and 50 euros a meal

I'm glad you include the upside of the equation. I know some restaurants in Paris that fit this description and they're mostly well worth knowing as they offer excellent value--very good food at a gentle price. I think this is all a continuation of the downscaling trend started years ago with that group we've talked about before. It included Camdeborde and Constant. Constant was chef at the then two star les Ambassadeurs as I recall, and a few of the chefs in that loose group had worked with him there. Constant went to open le Violon d'Ingres, perhaps the most upscale of the lot and has continued to purchase smaller and more informal places adjacent to the his main restaurant. Camdeborde had tremendous success with La Régalade, but as Pim mentioned, has left and is about to open a "w pension de famille." I think we're all guessing exactly what it will be, but you've probably described it. La Régalade had a carte with a reasonable number of choices. We'll see if the new place follows the pattern you're describing.

Eric Frechon, who I also think of as part of the movement, had a wonderful place--more of a little restaurant than bistro--with a good menu. He's gone the other way and now heads the kitchen at the Bristol in Paris.

As an optional form of dining or restaurant, I don't see the problem. If it's a trend that's going to deepen and we see the destruction of the traditional haute cuisine restaurants of France, it's a great loss. There are downsides to arriving at a restaurant with a set menu. It's particularly annoying to see the dish you had for dinner the night before as the only choice, but generally speaking, I look at it as being invited to a friend's house for dinner--only the friend is a good cook. Of course there are all kinds of diners. I'm the kind that often takes the surprised menu where I don't know what I'm eating anyway. For me, to some extent, that's the spirit of the current pleasure of dining out. It's not always better or worse than it was a couple of generations ago, it's just different and I'll never dismiss the savings that it should afford even at the ritziest places.

[robert brown]

The state of affairs I describe also happens in Italy to some degree, only there you don't see the limited offerings because the person who takes the order verbalizes what ever is available.

I loved going to La Regelade, especially in fall when the menu was chock full of game birds. How is it under the new owner?

Maybe this is for the Spain/Portugal forum, but is anyone worried about the impact on restaurants of the new Socialist government?

[John Talbott]

At the risk of being lynched, I'll tell you (Robert) that Le Regalade as of two days ago, was better than ever. I'll post the full details in a while. But I agree that game season will tell.

Also Bux, the gang at les Ambassadeurs I believe included the now-reigning chefs at Le Repaire de Cartouche and Le Troquet and a couple of others whose names/restaurants escape me; (plus I'm watching the women's 10K.) Not a bad heritage for Christian if you count L'Ourcine as a grandchild.

[pim]

Not to instigate a lynching of young Mr.Talbott, I was at La Régalade right after YC left and it wasn't good. The review (with photo) is on my blog. Perhaps they have improved, but it will take lots and lots of good reviews and substantial improvement in service to get me to go back.

ps. L'Os à Moelle's chef is also a génération Constant.

Edited August 27, 2004 by pim (log)

[pedro]

Maybe this is for the Spain/Portugal forum, but is anyone worried about the impact on restaurants of the new Socialist government?

Not I. Though there were some restaurants which noticed a sharp downfall in revenues with the change of goverment, up to a 30% cut. It takes a while to get people used to use their new credit cards while some others have seen those go away.

On the broader issue discussed in here, there are huge advantages for the restaurant obtained by fixing the menu: it makes demand much more predictable, reducing costs of goods and such. We've talked about this before, and by having a fixed menu, no matter how good it is, from El Bulli to the demi-pension places, it makes the restaurant work more like a factory than an atelier.

Kind of agree with you, Robert: this probably will be better placed in Spain/Portugal.

Nice reading you.

PS: Do tell us about your experience in Spain, please!

[Bux]

At the risk of being lynched, I'll tell you (Robert) that Le Regalade as of two days ago, was better than ever. I'll post the full details in a while. But I agree that game season will tell.

Also Bux, the gang at les Ambassadeurs I believe included the now-reigning chefs at Le Repaire de Cartouche and Le Troquet and a couple of others whose names/restaurants escape me; (plus I'm watching the women's 10K.) Not a bad heritage for Christian if you count L'Ourcine as a grandchild.

I didn't mean to make light of that gang and its positive effect on dining in Paris. It was a much bigger gain to daily dinner out in Paris than it was a loss to multistarred dining. Tthere was a trip when we limited our dinners in Paris to unstarred restaurants that were well recommended. The memories are as good, if not better, than of meals that cost a multiple of what those meals cost. We've had some good threads on the subject here on eGullet, although it all happened well before eGullet started up.

That's an encouraging report on la Régalade. Reports have been mixed, but then again opinions were dropping about the restaurant under Camdeborde. Time will tell.

[Bux]

On the broader issue discussed in here, there are huge advantages for the restaurant obtained by fixing the menu: it makes demand much more predictable, reducing costs of goods and such. We've talked about this before, and by having a fixed menu, no matter how good it is, from El Bulli to the demi-pension places, it makes the restaurant work more like a factory than an atelier.

"Factory" sounds disparaging when applied to a restaurant kitchen. We think of McDonald's or at least of Howard Johnson's here, although Jacques Pepin worked for that chain in his earlier days and with some pride in what he accomplished. Robuchon's Atelier is not like Adrià's atelier, but I don't know quite what to make of the difference. Adrià uses his as laboratory for experimentation while Robuchon's seems to the flagship for a chain of counter restaurants. Haute cuisine kichens are all run on an assemply line. There's not going to be all that much difference between one that offers dozens of dishes and one that offers one set menu, except that there will be efficiencies and economies--smaller staff, smaller kitchen and less food waste. These should offer a lower overhead in terms of salary, rent and food cost.

There may not be an economy that will support the kinds of restaurants that peppered the map of France in the last half of the 20th century, nor may there be a clientele interested or able to support them. I'll join Robert in lamenting their loss when and if they're gone, but it's always been the change is the constant. There will always be connoisseurs and places where they gather to eat.

I'll join Pedro in eagerly anticipating some report of Robert's meals in Spain including the similarities and differences he's seen between current and past French restaurants and those in Catalunya today. I see Spain in an interesting position following France and yet being ahead of them. They follow France in the kind of interest and attention being shown to chefs and the kind of gastrotouring that's being developed, but they lead in terms of the actual product on the table in my opinion. Of course there are still great meals to be had on both sides of the Pyrenees.

[Carlsbad]

From my perspective, I agree that the creation of this type of bistro in Paris has been a plus. They do not seem to me to be replacing luxury restaurants, even if some chefs opening them worked previously at starred restaurants. There are still any number of two and three starred temples to be sampled, for those who want to spend the money necessary, and they seem to be full most of the time. Les Ambassadeurs survives quite well after the the departure of Constant and his followers. Indeed, Frechon carries on the tradition now, and may be destined to gain a third star. What was gained was a whole new group of bistros that serve updated cuisine to compete with the traditional bistros for the diner who is looking for good food and value.

[John Talbott]

Not to instigate a lynching of young Mr.Talbott, I was at La Régalade right after YC left and it wasn't good. 

Ah thank you for the "young" descriptor Pim. And I did read all the negative and mixed reviews and it was not until Figaroscope gave it 3 hearts June 9th and a friend, my most trusted "tester/taster" said he'd never had a better meal there the week of July 14th that I decided to return. I'll post details with my "Rentree" list next week.

[pedro]

On the broader issue discussed in here, there are huge advantages for the restaurant obtained by fixing the menu: it makes demand much more predictable, reducing costs of goods and such. We've talked about this before, and by having a fixed menu, no matter how good it is, from El Bulli to the demi-pension places, it makes the restaurant work more like a factory than an atelier.

"Factory" sounds disparaging when applied to a restaurant kitchen. We think of McDonald's or at least of Howard Johnson's here, although Jacques Pepin worked for that chain in his earlier days and with some pride in what he accomplished. Robuchon's Atelier is not like Adrià's atelier, but I don't know quite what to make of the difference. Adrià uses his as laboratory for experimentation while Robuchon's seems to the flagship for a chain of counter restaurants. Haute cuisine kichens are all run on an assemply line. There's not going to be all that much difference between one that offers dozens of dishes and one that offers one set menu, except that there will be efficiencies and economies--smaller staff, smaller kitchen and less food waste. These should offer a lower overhead in terms of salary, rent and food cost.

Bux, perhaps it does sound disparaging, but I believe it accurately reflects the processes in some restaurants: decoupling R&D and production, working less with raw materials and more with pre-prepared ingredients. To me, there's a difference between having a set menu and an offer to choose from, besides the efficiencies and economies: the latter introduces a fair amount of uncertainty in the processes. You could have an assembly line but you don't know what's to be asssembled until the last minute.

I would say that if the traditional driver for having precooked components for some dishes has been time (i.e., you can't cook some technically simple dishes in less than a given amount of time), now this driver is being influenced by complexity and economy of scale. We're demanding more and more complexity which increases effort both in time and human workload. Since the incremental cost of doing a small quantity of a component for a dish and a much larger quantity is not going to take significant more human effort, the restaurant is compelled to produce more and store it to obtain in that way some economies of scale.

[robert brown]

I think I'll be able to start (if not finish) the post about my trip in Catalunya. Some details about specific dishes have slipped my mind, so it won't be a diner's report as such. But if Adam Gopnick can write about Blue Hill at Stone Barns without mentioning a single dish, I'm entitled to leve out some details, even though I'm hardly an Adam Gopnick.