Parmentier has been one of my favorite dishes since I discovered it at Le Grand Vefour in Paris about 20 years ago. I mean, really, what’s not to love about a heap of tender, savory stew topped with creamy mashed potatoes that are swirled with butter and run under a broiler ‘til golden brown? (The dish is named for Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, an 18th century gent who trumpeted the potato as valuable human food at a time when they were only fed to animals.)
At Grand Vefour, Paris’ oldest restaurant, I flipped over chef Guy Martin’s parmentier (above), made with a rich oxtail stew and smothered in fresh black truffles. Last week I fell in love all over again with the Gallic classic, this time made with confit de canard, at Chez Savy in Paris. The confit ---- succulent duck meat, slow-cooked in its own fat –-- was under the mashed potatoes; a small slab of foie gras, appropriately unctuous, was on top. On the side, a simple, well-dressed green salad offered a cool contrast to the dish’s opulence.
After just a few bites…and a few sips of a delicious 2006 Malbec from Cahors…. I wanted to shout “Savy, where have you been all my life?”
In fact, it’s been right there, just off the Champs Élysées in the 8th arrondissement, since 1923. Dishing out whopping steaks and mountains of pommes frites, trumpeting seasonal ingredients and local purveyors before it became fashionable to do so, and knocking the socks off its fans with dishes like my starter: Oeufs Brouillés a la Truffe Fraiche. At the risk of you drooling over your laptop keyboard, I’ll translate that: Soft, cream-infused scrambled eggs covered with six or seven paper-thin slices of fresh black truffle from the market in Lalbenque in the Lot Valley.
The food of southwest France is celebrated at Savy with duck and foie gras done every which way, a robust cassoulet, and the region’s famed dessert, prunes stewed in Armagnac. Steaks, too, are a highpoint; waiters careen through the tables balancing Brobdingnagian hunks of beef and haystacks of pommes frites.
Chez Savy isn’t cheap. Steaks start at 20 Euros (about $27); appetizers average 10 Euros. The Southwest specials offered the night of our visit ranged from 19 to 29 Euros. But the food is worth it. And, I might add, that food is only part of the charm of Chez Savy. The owners and staff are a lively, likeable bunch. The décor is unique --- long, comfortable booths, soft lighting, lots of wood, brass, leather and artifacts from by-gone days.
And there’s a party-hearty vibe created by an appreciative international crowd as well as lucky locals who were, the night we arrived, sharing pre-dinner aperitifs and cigarettes at the sidewalk tables -- even though it was 34 degrees.
That’s what I call love.
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