Restaurant Atao - A bit of Brittany in Paris

We’re finally back in Paris after almost six months in the States and Italy and I am ready to dive back into the restaurant scene to share my discoveries with you!

Last night my husband Kent and I tried a neighborhood restaurant in Batignolles that changed hands over the summer. Formerly a simple but good seafood restaurant offering oysters, mussels, etc, Atao, which means eternity in Breton, was opened by Laurence Maheo, an oysterman from the Golfe du Morbihan off the south coast of Brittany. All of the fish and seafood come daily from Brittany and the oysters are cultivated by Laurence and his family.

The dining room is blue and white, like the sea and the sand in Brittany. All 20 seats were taken which is always a good sign. We did not try the oysters this time but started instead with a creamy oyster soup and a dish of girolles with an oyster emulsion. The oyster soup was very flavorful but had only 2 little oysters floating around

in it, a far cry from the delicious oyster stews we Americans are used to. The girolles with a splash of oyster flavor were however quite delicious..

For our main courses we both had fish, which was fresh as could be and perfectly cooked. Kent selected Filets de Maquereau Laqué, 2 generous filets of mackeral lacquered with a soy sauce glaze and served on a bed of spinach with mashed potatoes and an array of root vegetables, grown by Michelin 3-star chef Alain Passard.

The white beets, yellow carrots, and turnips were crunchy and bursting with flavor, a nice contrast to the moist, succulent fish. My Filet of Daurade (sea bream) came with the same wonderful vegetables and an emulsion of basel.

We drank a bottle of Cheverny Blanc 2010, Villemade and were perfectly satisfied, so we skipped the house made crèpes offered for dessert.

We however made up for that today at lunch when we feasted on a Kouign Amann, a super rich Breton butter cake a friend brought from San Malo. One of my favorite chefs in Brittany, Patrick Jeffroy makes a superb Kouign Amann and I have his recipe which I am giving you below. If you can’t get to Brittany, this cake is well worth the effort.

Kouign Amann

(Breton Butter Cake)

Patrick Jeffroy (Restaurant Patrick Jeffroy)

(Serves 8)

Ingredients:

2 c. flour

1-1/4 c. sugar

2 7-g packets of dry active yeast

11 T. butter (keep one stick in refrigerator (8 T.) until called for.

1 t. salt

Preparation:

· In large bowl dissolve yeast in 1/3 cup lukewarm water.

· Set aside until yeast begins to activate and foam, in about 10 minutes

· Add salt and 1 cup flour.

· Stir with a wooden spoon

· Add 1/3 cup of water

· Blend well.

· Add remaining 1 cup of flour.

· Add another 2/3 cups of water.

· Stir until dough forms into a ball.

· Transfer to a lightly floured work surface.

· Knead with heels of your palms until smooth and elastic

· Coat the inside of a large bowl with butter.

· Place dough in bowl, cover with damp cloth or plastic wrap.

· Set aside to rise until doubled in bulk, about an hour.

· Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

· Grease a 9-inch pie pan with butter.

· Dust it with flour.

· On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the dough to form a large 12x18 rectangle, with shortest side closest to you.

· Cut the chilled stick of butter into 12 pats.

· Place the pats around the center portion of the dough.

· Sprinkle with ¾ cup of sugar.

· Fold short sides toward center over butter and sugar, moving quickly

· Sprinkle dough with sugar.

· Roll over the seems to form a seam.

· Turn dough around so shorter side is closest to you.

· Fold into thirds, as if a letter going in an envelope.

· Place dough in refrigerator to rest 15 minutes.

· Sprinkle sugar over work surface.

· Roll out dough into a large rectangle, dusting as you go with ¼ cup of sugar.

· Folding in thirds again, place in fefrigerator to rest.

· Sugar work station lightly again.

· Roll out dough into a square, slightly larger than the pie pan, dusting as you go with remaining ¼ cup of sugar.

· Press dough gently into pie pan.

· Melt and drizzle remaining 3 tablespoons butter over dough.

· Sprinkle with sugar, baking 35-40 minutes until golden.

· While still hot, remove from pan and serve warm.

Restaurant Ripaille - Batignoles, 75017 Paris

Well today is the day!  I am dropping my whisk and hitting the keyboard to begin sharing with you my culinary discoveries in Paris (and other places where my travels will take me), where I have lived between October and May every year since 2007.  We live in a wonderful old French neighborhood, Le Village des Batignolles, at the foot of Montmartre.  The streets are filled with ateliers (artist studios) as many artists from the Impressionists on have relocated here.  A lively mix of restaurants, traiteurs (cheese, wine, ready-made meals, chocolate) and boutiques are around every corner, and I am going to focus today on a restaurant I discovered within a week of moving here, and continue to frequent with great pleasure. 

I always pay attention to crowded dining rooms, as I believe it is a very good indication of delicious things to come.  Such is the case with Restaurant Ripaille, a small simple bistrot, which is on my way to the metro so I pass by it every day.  And every day, at lunch and dinner, the dining room is packed with people who are clearly enjoying the food and wine.  The owner, Philippe Favre, warmly welcomes all the diners, most of whom he knows by name, as the restaurant has a great many regulars.  The dining room is intimate and cosy, and Philippe, who is also one of two servers and the sommelier, moves between the tables and guests with ease and grace.  Philippe is a sommelier by training, having worked at Chez Laurent and Chez G Faucher in Paris before opening Ripaille in 2005.  Chef Brendan Labarre is from Brittany (and Philippe from Normandy), so fish takes center stage at Ripaille.

Owner of Restaurant Ripaille, Philippe Favre 

At lunch today, both my husband and I ordered the formule dejeuner, which is an excellent value at 15 Euros for two courses and 20 Euros for three.  I had the Pate de Foie de Lapin with a salad, which was delightfully warm and melt-in-your-mouth delicious.  Kent had the Risotto de Anchoiade, which was perfectly cooked, creamy and had just the right amount of anchovy.

Pate de Foie de Lapin

Risotto de Anchoiade

I moved onto a Blanc de Poulet, Epinards avec Sauce Supreme, with a generous amount of spinach covered with the rich, creamy sauce supreme, while Kent had a Bavette de Flanchet (flank steak) with the most delectable Pommes Mitrailles we have ever eaten.  These tiny little potatoes come from the island of Noirmoutier, off the southern coast of Brittany, and they were delicious – I talked Kent into more than a few bites!  Neither of us felt like sweets, so we shared a Carpaccio de Elivaz, Tomates Confits, et Jambon d’Auverne.  The Comte-like cheese was sliced thinly and served with thin slices of delicious ham sprinkled with a little sherry vinegar and dots of sundried tomatoes.  It was really very tasty.  We each had a glass of Philippe’s red selection of the day, Domaine de L’Aigle, Pinot Noir, 2009 from Languedoc, which went perfectly with both the beef and the chicken.  We left completely satisfied and felt that we had been wonderfully taken care of by Philippe and his team.

Blanc de Poulet, Epinards avec Sauce Supreme

Bavette de Flanchet

Carpaccio de Elivaz, Tomates Confit et Jambon d'Auvergne

Ripaille, our little gem, is located at 69 Rue des Dames, 75017 Paris; tel 01 45 22 03 03.