Un Petit Peu de Paris en SoHo: Cocotte

A few weeks ago my co-worker texted me a photo of a business card, asking me "Free drinks tomorrow?" Of course this is an offer I try to never refuse. So we stopped by the pre-opening of the new French bar/small plates restaurant called Cocotte around the corner from work on Thompson Street below Prince in SoHo. The petite place was jam packed with friends and neighbors the first night we went but we could still feel a good energy and were already making plans to return sometime soon.

Finally tonight, after Sandy and busy schedules, we decided to stop in for some drinks after work. What we found was a relaxed Sunday night atmosphere and stellarly flavored food. Starting with deux verres de crémant (that is to say, French sparkling wine not from Champagne) we worked our way through a couple small plates, a silky dessert and my shoddy French conversation with the gracious staff. 

To begin we chose the champignons farcis - tiny mushroom caps filled with a delicate, earthy-colored chorizo stuffing and garnished with orange tomatoes. The portions are meant to be small, but they go a long way in terms of flavor. This is a good way to start a succession of assiettes at Cocotte because the savoriness of the mushrooms will have you primed to try more. 

Next we allowed our server/bartender Guillaume to select a dish. As he had mentioned his fondness for the hanger steak with bordelaise and shallots, I was not surprised when it was placed in front of us. I personally love hanger steak thanks to Chef Ludo's Meatopia creation. I've cooked the cut myself at home and have had great results. A quick cooking but very flavorful piece of meat. This is done delicately so as to not overcook the beef then sauced with the bordelaise that demands to be soaked up with the fresh bread it arrives with. 

Lastly, we couldn't end the night without dessert - especially after Raphael (co-creator/maitre d'-extraordinaire) brought me back to the kitchen to meet Sophie, the pastry chef (after a discussion of my macaron making) and Chef Sébastien Pourrat. We went for the made-that-day gâteau Basque. The pastry cream was smooth and the crust was salty-sweet with a gentle, sandy crumb. A great way to end a work day.

Cocotte, named for Chef Sébastien's nickname for his wife Sophie, is a warm, welcoming place for anyone looking for good wine, good food and equally good company. Francophiles and expats will feel right at home with the French-English menu and the sound of franglais in the air. I look forward to returning to Cocotte to explore the rest of the small plates, hopefully score a seat at the back-of-the-house Chef's table seats (in the most charming New York restaurant kitchen I've ever seen), and even just to stop in for a coffee or a glass of wine after work. If you generally like what I like, odds are you will love Cocotte! 

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Cocotte

110 Thompson Street (below Prince)

SoHo, New York

212-965-9100

LUDOBITES - Finally! LudoBites 8.0 at Lemon Moon

Stars and planets aligned and I was finally able to go to my first iteration of Chef Ludo Lefebvre's "pop-up" restaurant LudoBites in its eighth outpost. This time Chef Ludo took over Lemon Moon restaurant on West Olympic Boulevard. Thankfully, after so much hype and excitement there was not an ounce of disappointment from first experience under Chef Ludo and Krissy Lefebvre's care. 

By now it's been over two month's since I sipped hard cider and languished over course after course of Chef Ludo's cuisine. But better late than never, eh? And it doesn't feel like its something of the past because I am still thinking about and craving the tuna with somen I had that night every single day (no joke). (Sorry in advance for the dim photos, was trying not to be too ... flashy.)


So, let's start at the beginning. My dinner guest and I opted for the NV Cambremer Cidre. Our meal began with a bang- literally- as the cork popped out of the bottle of cider the moment the cage was undone.

Next it was time to survey the menu and devise our plan of attack. We didn't opt to have the whole menu, as many do. As it was I was totally full when we left after eating less than half of the menu. I admit I was thrilled to have this simple piece of paper finally sitting in front of me in real life, not just a photo on the internet for once:

Burgundy Gougères and Chicken Tandoori Crackling got things going. I found it smart and comforting that Chef Ludo offers up something as simple as cheese puffs on menu. It is a way to taste something familiar at start of the meal as a means of easing into his unique flavor combinations and cooking techniques. The cracklings were like super fancy nachos without a tortilla in sight. The chicken liver mousse was a meaty cloud on a crisp chicken skin 'chip'.

Four Kitchens: Traveling the World with Lauren Shockey

Over the last few months of summer Lauren Shockey's Four Kitchens kept popping up on my radar- on my favorite blogs, in tweets, as giveaways, etc. Who was this young woman, just a couple years older than me, who I kept hearing about? Turns out Four Kitchens is the first book from a great new writer in our food-loving midst. Even though I had read a few posts about the book and some excerpts I wasn't sold on the book at first. Since there was no promise it'd be a homerun, not coming from a well-known and seasoned writer, I didn't buy Shockey's book right away. 

Luckily Lauren was one of the authors at the Freerange Reads event I attended at the beginning of September, throwing out a second line for me to catch. After she read us her stomach-churning experience eating dog meat in Hanoi I was effectively hooked and knew I would enjoy her book. But she didn't fully reel me in until last month's book launch party for Kathleen Flinn. At the September event I was able to hear the quality of her reading, but at the book party she was able to speak candidly to a small audience in a discussion about home cooking. After that I knew it would be worth my time to spend 300-pages or so with Lauren. So that was the night I bought the book and jumped right into it after finishing the books I had already queued up at the beginning of the month: Flinn's The Kitchen Counter Cooking School and Ruth Reichl's Comfort Me With Apples.

The comparison to Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love and Four Kitchens has been made a few times, for valid reasons. Both are memoirs about women who travel alone to multiple countries with set goals in mind, eating along the way and ending with a final revelation. As Lauren said at the Flinn event her book is really just 'Eat, Eat, Eat, Eat- and wasn't that everyone's favorite part of the book anyway!?' Her journey to four countries and her work in four different restaurants is very interesting. As a chef-loving nation, getting into the kitchens anywhere is always a bit foreign and exciting for us. To get an insider's peek at one of the nation's most interesting kitchens, the molecularly focused wd~50, in addition to kitchens across the globe makes Shockey's story captivating to a broad audience; to lover's of Bourdain as much as those who loved reading (and watching) Gilbert's trek. 


After completing her degree at the French Culinary Institute and while working on a Masters in Food Studies at NYU Lauren comes up with her plan to be a stage (aka unpaid kitchen worker) in kitchens in New York (because that's where she's from), Hanoi (because Vietnamese cuisine fascinates her), Tel Aviv (because she is Jewish) and Paris (because of its gastronomic importance). 

Restaurant Celebrity Chefs: Why Chef Ludo Lefebvre is my Favorite

When getting ready to finish reading Blood Bones and Butter the other night, I got to thinking about the idea of a celebrity chef. I was deep in the part when Hamilton is spending a full month in southern Italy with her husband’s family. With the written admissions that her marriage doesn't ever quite fit and after some previous poking around online, I know they end up less than together. So the whole time I’m reading about how much she loves being a part of the Fuortes family I am wondering if at the moment I was thinking about it she is gearing up for a month long vacation with her 2 sons to visit their paternal relatives in Italy- leaving Prune in the hands of her chefs and staff.

This got me thinking about what happens when a chef transitions from an executive chef or restaurant owner into celebrity. It is the very fact that they made amazing dishes to put a restaurant, and then their name, on the map in the first place, but then as their celebrity grows and the demand for their appearances at events, book signings, on television, etc, grows equally, they are cooking in a restaurant less and less. Some celebrity chefs, mostly TV chefs and now some bloggers and food writers, were never really known for restaurant cooking; like Ina Garten and Giada DeLaurentiis. But what sense does it make that the more celebrity that is demanded of a restaurant chef, the less cooking they actually do? The celebrity turns into more restaurants, which in turn makes it impossible for them to ever cook at all the places under their name, and more books, which requires time to write outside of the kitchen in that limited amount between closing after the dinner shift and opening for prep the next day.

PARIS Part III: Les Déjeuners et Les Dîners

As a student in Paris I only ate in restaurants when my parents came to visit. My breakfast and dinner during the week were included in my foyer (dormitory) stay and on the weekends I mostly got by eating baguettes with cheese for breakfast and lunch and crepes for dinner down along the Seine (you'll remember my foyer was located on Île Saint-Louis). So upon return, I was most excited to be able to eat at sit-down restaurants and finally order proper French fare (not the suspicious French cafeteria food I was served for dinner Monday through Friday). In the good company of Jocelin, Eddie, and my Scottish friends Chris and Paul all the meals I enjoyed in Paris were memorable and delectable. 

It all began my first day when I enjoyed a memory-jogging Nutella crêpe from the crêperie window on Île Saint-Louis. A hot custardy batter cooked to perfection and filled with melting globs of chocolate-hazelnut spread was a welcome first meal, admittedly too many hours after my arrival. The first bite immediately transported me to all the nights I meandered along the south bank of 'my island' nibbling a crêpe for dessert or as a weekend dinner. It was just like I remembered.

My late afternoon snack was followed by a classic bistro dinner at Chartier. A few guidebooks and David Lebovitz had recommended Chartier as an affordable place to enjoy traditional fare in a typical French brasserie setting. We began with a smooth meaty terrine: