Côte d'Azur Riviera

[Steve Plotnicki]

"<i>For instance, lobsters in a bouillabaisse are as unnecessary as foie gras and truffles in a hamburger.</i>"

I couldn't think of a sillier statement. If the fisherman at Cassis had been pulling lobsters out of their nets along with the Rascasse, then it would have been a part of the original dish. Just like it is part of the general cuisine in Brittany and in Maine. Of all the other fish that are served in a Bouillabaisse at places like Bacon and Tetou, you haven't vetted their authenticity. But you are willing to single out lobster, which can be a good addition to the dish, only because it is a symbol of luxury.

[John Whiting]

I will back off and admit that this is my personal objection to what has become an excuse for doubling the cost. Spiny lobster is in fact listed as an *optional extra* in the Marseilles Bouillabaisse charter. http://www.starchefs.com/bouillabaisse/htm...omponents.shtml Alan Davidson gets the point when he includes among the ingredients, "maybe some inexpensive crustaceons". If Alan is also silly, then I'm delighted to keep him company.

[Steve Plotnicki]

"<i>I will back off and admit that this is my personal objection to what has become an excuse for doubling the cost. </i>"

Not double, 30%more. At Tetou, and converted into dollars, I believe it is $70 for Bouillabaisse and $100 avec langouste. In any event, I always found that dinner cost $100 a person there.

[Beachfan]

$100/$70 = 40%  roughly, close enough for government and boulliabase work.

[robert brown]

JD, I spend as lot of time in Nice and thought I knew all the interesting places. Chez Michel on rue Meyerbeer (or as my brother referred to it, "Meyerbeer is Rheingold, the dry beer") is new to me and probably not in the Guide Gantier. I will try it and report back to the members. Many thanks for digging this one up.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

JD, I have very much enjoyed your "long screed"s, your personal and judgemental critiques, the inclusion of non- destination as well as destination dining rooms, detailed descriptions of along the wayfood purveyers, the mention of price when it is relevant.  Rather than a single lunch or an evening, I feel that we have spent a few days with you, and are enhanced by the experience.  Thanks for both your good information and the vicarious pleasures.

[Jonathan Day]

Neither Michelin nor Gault-Millau mentions chez Michel.  Neither does Le Bouche à Oreille -- in fact, none of the bouillabaisse places it recommends are in the Alpes Maritimes.  It does single out La Table De Laurence (22 rue Victor Cousin, Cannes), giving it a score of 2.5 ("very good") but for a "bouillabaisse" made with poultry. Sounds like something Julia Child created in her later years, but perhaps worth trying nonetheless.

Epicurious does mention chez Michel in Nice, and I quote them because Marquise seems to agree, in a certain way, with Steve Plotnicki:

"For a main course the bouillabaisse is the obvious choice. The rich orange broth is crowded with meaty fish: racasse [sic], monkfish, John Dory, and snapper -- but no shellfish. Marquise makes clear that this is the correct way to prepare the dish."

[Steve Plotnicki]

JD - I would think that Marquise disagrees with me? What is clear about bouillabaisse is that what went into the pot had everything to do with what was on hand and nothing else. Whatever the fisherman came off their boats with is what went into the pot. If lobsters were caught in the Mediteranean, I'm sure they would have been part of a "classic" BB. And if they're weren't, all it takes is a posh restaurant a few steps from the docks where the fisherman unload their catch to throw a lobster from Britanny into the post. As far as I can see, langouste has no negative effect on the flavor of the dish. In fact it goes quite well with that broth. Any fish that isn't oily in a way that would change the flavor of the dish (like tuna, salmon or swordfish) is acceptable in a BB. Like I asked earlier, how would anyone know they are not?

As for the soupe at Tetou, I have to say that over the years I must have eaten there a dozen times and it varies. For me, the success of the dish is in how good the broth is. On occassions when Tetou has the soupe right, its BB is unbeatable. But when it isn't, the meal isn't anywhere as enjoyable. As for Bacon, I think their soupe has a good flavor but isn't robust enough (a comment I made elsewhere on this site.) Too delicate and feminine. BB is more of a masculine dish in my opinion.

[Jonathan Day]

I found the flavour of the broth at Tétou muddied rather than masculine (=robust, clear, strong, with plenty of garlic and just a bit of acidity) -- and it tasted slightly scorched.

Bacon also offered cloves of garlic to rub on the croutons, and a rouille that was more boldly flavoured than Tétou's. I don't remember their broth as being delicate.

But perhaps Tétou were having an off night. It's been awhile since the last visit to Bacon, and this exchange has whetted my appetite for a return check-up!

[FriedaL]

In principle, Bouillabaisse is not a luxury dish, but a hearty, filling peasant meal, made of local available fish, though rascasse is essential. With the depleting fish supplies and the consequent steep rise in fish prices, bouillabaisse has become an item at the top end of local menus.  To push further by including langoustines is, to my mind, an excessive exploitation of the current market and little to do what is basically bouillabaisse,

An honest and great b. can be had at Maurin des Maures in Rayol-Canadel (on the coast, in between St-Tropez and Hyères), where Chirac has a bouillabaisse whenever he visits his Bormes-les-Mimosas villa. Maurin des Maures is a boisterous place, filled year-round with local people and visitors.  Also a place for authentic Provencal coastal cuisine, created by the grandmother who refuses to show her face outside the kitchen (a myth?). The restaurant gets its fish supplies from a local fisherman.

That said, I offer a caveat: in summer tourist season the demand for fish dishes in the south of France vastly surpasses the supply of local fish. Most fish then come from the Atlantic, down to Senegal. There's nothing wrong with a rouget from Senegal, though some Mediterranean purists may differ. Best advice is to eat fish in winter or spring. At Maurin des Maures they will tell you whether the fish is available, from their fisherman, or not.

Frieda

[Steve Plotnicki]

Freida L - It isn't really a peasant meal, unless you want to call fishermen peasants. As the folklore goes, it was a boiling pot (hence the name) that was placed over a wood fire made directly on the beach. As the fishermen came in with their catch, they would toss their lunch into the pot of boiling broth. It's just another version of the "one pot cooks all" way of dining. So what goes into a BB is anything Provencal fishermen happen to catch. The only reason langouste isn't natural is because it isn't indiginous.

Story has it, and I get this info from a British friend of mine who worked in the area of Bandol, there is a women who makes BB's to special order right on the beach in the traditional style, and serves them outdoors on a table set on a small pier. Supposedly this women makes the best BB around, and serves it with Domaine Lardiere Bandol Blanc, a particularly fruity bottle of white wine given the region, and one I might add that Robert B. & Susan, Cabrales and I drank when we were at Jacques Maximin in April. But I look forward to trying Maurin des Maures when I get back to the area in the fall.

[Bux]

Bouillabaisse didn't start out as a luxury dish.

Exactly! There are certain peasant dishes that have been tarted up with more expensive ingredients to raise them to the luxury level. For instance, lobsters in a bouillabaisse are as unnecessary as foie gras and truffles in a hamburger.

Cassoulet is another. (See my "Bouillabaisse, cassoulet..." http://www.whitings-writings.com/essays/bouillebaisse.htm

Yes and no. A hamburger certainly doesn´t need foie gras, but db bistro in New York serves a "hamburger" stuffed with braised short ribs and foie gras on a parmesan bun and it´s been getting incredible reviews from most diners.

That said, I´m inclined to agree about bouillabaise, not needing lobster. Indeed, neither does cassoulet.

[John Whiting]

Bux, you mention the db burger. This is another move up-market of a formerly unpretentious dish. As with lobster in the bouillabaisse, it may elicit an ambivalent response. This is Marlena Spieler’s reaction, as posted to the Guild of Food Writers’ private Sparklist. (I have her permission to post it on her behalf; she’s working to meet a deadline.)

re: daniel boulud's (db's bistrot)  burger

thank you thank you richard [ehrlich] for your evocative burger posting. in it, the celebrated foie gras/truffle/braised short rib/burger from daniel bouluds bistrot, is mentioned. this gives me a chance to share my observations on this beefy thing.

i ate this in new york at DB's  in may when boulud gave a party for all of us who had been nominated for james beard awards.

now......this burger is legendary, i had heard about it for a long long time, probably since it went onto the menu as i am a greedy girl and there are few things i love more than foie gras, braised shortribs, truffles, or rare burger. but as i sampled my way through the menu -- and boulud so generously, so hospitably, so lavishly, made everything on their menu (and then some) in tiny appetizer form -- the burger just didn't resonate with me.

Oh, the afternoon was warm and balmy, and the street outside the bistrot was closed for our celebration, and the party was star studded it is true: but most important (nearly) was that everything that came from boulud’s kitchen was divine, from the pot au feu en gelee which made me swoon, to the tiny ravioli made by the chef’s grandmother’s recipe, to the gelato (jeffrey steingarten and i huddled over the counter trying to decide which flavour and could we possibly have room for more than one scoop).........the food was unbelievable.......a swirl of flavours and textures and brilliant ideas, and i recommend that anyone who has a chance and is passing through new york reserve a table.

but i would order something other than the famous burger: sometimes too many good things obscure the whole. It was served in tiny wedges, but even a small portion was too much. even a small bite weighed me down, spoiled my appetite for more delicacies. one bite of this burger and i was done for. and to tell you the truth: i missed the ketchup-mustard-raw onion-pickle-lettuce-melted cheese-maybe a little bacon etc theme of the more traditional burger (i can get a little trashy with my burger condiments) when truely a good rare burger should stand on its own and when it is good it does so deliciously, blissfully........... no, tomato confit and foie gras is too subtle for a burger i'm afraid, and braised shortribs far too heavy.

x

m, the burger girl

[Steve Plotnicki]

"This is another move up-market of a formerly unpretentious dish. "

As was Paul Bocuse''s Truffle Soup which was originally Auvergnyat peasant soup. Or Verge's truffle stuffed zuchini blossoms in a beurre blanc wasn't exactly how the Provencal peasant stuffed their fleur de courgettes.

All haute cuisine started out as peasant cuisine. To eat a DB burger and to compare it to a real burger misses the entire point of the dish. It is supposed to be upmarket. DB Bistro Moderne is not a hamburger stand.

I always wonder why people single these things out? I truly believe that if boulliabaisse just came with the langouste and you weren't charged extra, nobody would ever raise the issue. Same with Boulud's burger. If he didn't call it a "hamburger" and serve it on a bun, nobody would find a basis for a negative reaction. Mind you, Marlene's reaction isn't that it tasted bad, she just doesn't like her "burgers" that way. What if he served a combination of chopped meat, short ribs and foie gras, would anyone notice it could be a burger?

[John Whiting]

Some people respond enthusiastically to limitless luxury, others prefer simplicity and think of expensive food in the guise of a hamburger as -- well, as decadent. [That's not a word you encounter often in these pages.] I'm not about to argue the moral superiority of one mindset over the other; I'm simply more comfortable with a hamburger that looks like a hamburger, tastes like a hamburger and costs like a hamburger.

As for filet steak, lobsters, caviar, foie gras, truffles -- I love 'em all. In fact I love them so much that I hate to see them elevated into status symbols, as in that ludicrous American extravaganza, surf n' turf. A lobster on a plate in an expensive restaurant has become a signal to neighboring tables that the person who has ordered it has a long purse. The tail is eaten, and the big claws; the rest of that wonderful meat goes back untouched to the kitchen where it will probably end up in someone else's soup. A crab wouldn't do; it's not as expensive and it's too much work. As for champagne, I suspect that it wouldn't be nearly so popular for ostentatious occasions if it didn't come in a distinctive bottle and make a noise when opened.

Steve, this isn't aimed at you personally. I'm sure expensive food isn't wasted on you, and you have probably become so accustomed to gastronomic luxury that it's a norm rather than a splurge. Lucky you.

[Steve Plotnicki]

John - But the point of the hamburger is to be decadent. They aren't exactly hiding that fact. I have to say that the DB burger is one of the more clever dishes I've ever tasted. It is the perfect mix of french cooking strategy, simple plus luxury ingredients (remember there is short rib in there as well) and presented in a distinctly American way. It's the evidence on a single plate of why Boulud is so successful. In general, I think that since the sandwich is so pervassive in American lunch cuisine, it's strange that more chefs haven't elevated various sandwiches it to a higher level like Boulud did. My guess, is that Boulud might have started a trend here. Let's wait and see.

[John Whiting]

Nothing in your last posting I'd argue with. We seem to agree on the facts, if not our personal reaction to them.

Edit: Yes, the symbolic sandwich. Not unlike l'Astrance's famous avocado ravioli.

[Bux]

Bux, you mention the db burger. This is another move up-market of a formerly unpretentious dish. As with lobster in the bouillabaisse, it may elicit an ambivalent response. This is Marlena Spieler’s reaction, as posted to the Guild of Food Writers’ private Sparklist. (I have her permission to post it on her behalf; she’s working to meet a deadline.)

[i've snipped the quote to save space. Read above for the Marlena's words.]

As you note up-market moves are quite common. It's called refining. Down-market moves (making a cheap reproduction of something by using less expensive products) are usually decried by connoiseurs of the original. Once some cave guy threw some meat on the fire and his raw meat eating buddy probably accused him of going up-market with pretentious cooked food. It was all down hill from there as butchers learned how to cut meat and cooksl learned how to roast, fry, and braise various parts of the animals for effect. Nevertheless, I see nothing in Ms. Spieler's quote that supports your contention that this is a pretentious move. It was not to her taste and she also admits having a strong preconception as to what a burger should be. Having made one's mind up truly hampers appreciation of new ideas.

Anyway, it's not my favorite either, but I can tell you that the experience of the burger and the short ribs with that bit of luxurious foie gras is quite a sensation in the mouth. And it's that sensation that one should use to judge Boulud's creation, not the abstract idea that lobster is alright if not consumed conspicuously or that a tiny bit of foie gras has no right consorting with ground beef on a bun. What do you say about all the foie gras that's used in raviolis. After all we've all had raviolis and know exactly what they are and should be. Don't we?

John, if you discovered this dish deep in the Perigord, and were told it was an old family recipe resulting from a great grandmother's suggestion of what to do with the scraps of foie gras after the good stuff was put up for New Year's, I'll bet you'd react differently. Foie gras is a pretty common ingredient in restaurants these days and you don't expect that the very best pieces of the very best grades are stuck in these burgers do you? Give Boulud a bit of credit for not only being cleverly creative in a very honest way, but for having a good sense of humor. There's more classless joie de vivre in that burger than you suspect. I've seen some less than very sophisticated young working women sitting next to me splitting one of those burgers and relishing every bite. And for all Marlena didn't like the burger for her own reasons, she sure seemed to approve of the milieu in general.

[John Whiting]

Sorry, it jes' don't smell right.

[Bux]

That should be too subjective a reason to sway anyone's thinking. What you are saying is that it doesn't smell the way you want or expect it to smell. That's what creativity is all about. The interesting art doesn't always look the way art is supposed to look and the interesting music doesn't always sound the way one has been educated to expect music to sound. This is not to suggest the db Burger is anything like a high form of creativity. It's just the opposite--a tasty little bit of humor and both too tasty and too humorous to merit a serious social attack. Anyway, I assure you it smells and tastes just fine although it's hardly the best reason to visit db Bistro, in my opinion.

[robert brown]

For the record: I went to Chez Michel, the fish/bouilliabaisse restaurant in Nice, the other night. As soon as I walked in the door, I should have headed elsewhere. All the tables were filled with a tour group from Canada and the owner was this elderly American woman from CA who must get all her business from travel companies. Everything we ate was awful. The bouilliabaisse had frozen fish, croutons made from bread from a bad bakery, and a broth that was worse than you would buy in a tin at the supermarket. No wonder none of my Nicois friends knew of it and that it is in no reputable guidebook. It's the worst restaurant on the Cote.

[Steve Plotnicki]

Robert - Sorry about a bad Boulliabaisse. Nothing is worse than bad fish. I wonder if Chez Michel is the restaurant owned by Jacque's mother (he is the son/owner at Tetou. He must be around 40.) About 15 years ago his parents divorced and his mother married one of the owners of the Juana Hotel. Jacques told me that his mother had a restaurant in Nice somewhere. This sounds like it might be the place.

For those who might remember her, Jacque's grandmother used to run the front of the house at Tetou. I forget her name. When I first started going there in the mid 80's, she must have been around 75 years old. She was one of those old school French women they don't make anymore and was the epitomy of class and dignity. She used to stand at the front door dressed immaculately in a beautiful sun dress or her little cashmere sweater set in winter, hair pulled back, always looking radiant. She always gave a warm greeting and made you feel special.

Another thing people don't realize about Tetou is that they have a beach there. You can go spend the day on the beach (for a charge I forget what) and have lunch in the restaurant. It's a lovely way to spend the day.

Robert, next time you go, ask Jacques to tell you the story of Tetou during WWII. I can't remember the details now, but it was something like the Nazi's landing on their beach etc. His great grandfather who started the restaurant was somehow involved in the story. Which had to do with the resisitance or some other aspect of the war that the "good guys" in France were involved in. Or maybe they knocked the restaurant down. I can't remember. But Jacques is a sweet guy, and speaks English well. He went to university at UCLA and after he graduated he opened a restaurant in Costa Mesa, California I believe. The restaurant didn't make it, and he returned to Golfe-Juan somewhat dejected since I think he was looking to esacpe the provincial Provencal lifestyle. For years it seemed like his spirit had been broken. But when I saw him during the film festival in 2000 (or maybe it was 1999,) he had gotten married and had a child and settled down and seemed happy. So chat him up. He's a good schmoozer if he has time to talk.

They used to close Tetou down from November-April but they would open for the X-mas/New Years holiday and they used to open for the music industry convention in Cannes which takes place the third week of January. But they stopped doing it because Jacques told me that business during the holiday had slowed down over the years and with the music industry in serious decline for the last five years, they weren't getting enough business to warrant opening. So now he spends the winters in St. Barts. Not such a bad life. But it's too bad because they used to make fantastic homemade confitures to hold them over for the winter. When I used to visit in January the classic Tetou dessert that everybody ordered was "Confiture." They used to bring between 8-12 large glass jars that were filled with various jams. Besides the obvious ones like fraise, framboises and peche, they used to have things like rhubarb, tomate verte, cumquat etc. They would serve it with a big basket of fresh beignets and a large pot of cool creme fraiche. It was a fitting finale to the bouillabaisse, both tastewise and visually.

As for the infamous hamburger, I have to say that I'd be quite prepared to speak the truth about it if I thought it tasted bad, or was a bad idea, even if there were gold nuggets inside it. But it happens to taste terrific. And those who would object to it merely because it is called and mimics a hamburger, I would categorize in the same category as those who object to high-heel sneakers as a fashion accessory. Whimsy should not to be viewed through a serious lens.

[John Whiting]

Five years ago Nice still had a wonderful café in the old part of town, which served perfect soup de poisson and excellent entrecote au poivre, its sauce made properly from the pan juices. I learned about it from the EyeWitness guide to Provence, of all places. I hope it's still uncorrupted.

L'Acchiardo, 38 rue Doite, Nice, tel 04 93 85 51 16

[Steve Plotnicki]

L'Arcchiado is still there. Not too far in from the Palais de Justice on the rue Parioliere. Some other guide recommended it as having the best soupe de poissons in town. Maybe the Guide Gantie. But although I have walked by it a dozen times, I never stopped to eat there. It always had an air about it that made it seem too touristy to me.

[John Whiting]

Inside, when I was there, the clientelle were predominantly locals and they set the tone of the place -- rather like Chez Denise in Les Halles, which has absorbed the tourists rather than the other way around. Steve, give it a try -- if you're not happy, I'll refund your Euros.