City of light and love

Volume 6 Number 2 February 8 - March 8 2010

Celebrity chef of Vue de Monde fame, Shannon Bennett, along with a kitchenful of mates, explore Parisian food from the Michelin stars to market bars and kebab stands in a new MUP book. By Shane Cahill.

Westmeadows in the early 1980s seems an unlikely location for Samantha, the witch struggling to live life as a New York housewife in the classic 1960s sitcom Bewitched, to weave her magic. But as Shannon Bennett, Australian haute cuisine prodigy, tells it in his homage to all things Parisian, Paris A Personal Guide To The City’s Best, the episode where Samantha and her mischievous mother Endora flit off to Paris for a day of shopping and fine dining before resuming Westchester reality always seemed to be on the telly when he was home from primary school sick or sick of it.

As he recalls, “These were the types of venues you could only, as a kid, imagine eating in if your parents won the lottery or some long-lost relative left them a fortune in a bank in Paris.”

The seed was sown and an indomitable, M Poirot-style French teacher cultivated the sensibilities of the young Francophile, while elective Home Economics classes – chosen as much for their amorous as culinary possibilities – opened up the window to the rudiments of French cuisine.

A farsighted uncle took a 12-year-old Shannon on fine French dining treats when visiting in London, showing him the whole experience even to the point of providing suitable clothing.

Back in Melbourne he started at McDonald’s, moved to an apprenticeship at the Grand Hyatt and fired off letters to the top Michelin guide restaurants that saw him working in the cutthroat kitchens of the finest restaurants in Europe.

Paris is the rich ragout of the whole journey and the strength of this readable and useful book.

Each arrondissement of Paris is surveyed across all ranges and levels of dining along with a selection of regional side trips. A detailed guide to restaurant selection and ratings systems is the ideal guide for that special night out. But even if you can’t – or won’t – shell out hundreds of euros for the Michelin stars, you can metaphorically press your nose up against the window before heading off to a more modest brasserie or bistro.

One of Mr Bennett’s favourites is the spectacular and quintessentially Parisian Brasserie Bofinger operating at 5 Rue de la Bastille in the 4th Arrondissement since 1864, and lodged in his mind since childhood as the restaurant visited by Samantha the television witch.

Along the way hotels, markets, specialist food and wine shops, museums, galleries and bookshops are sampled and even the best kebabs in the city get a run.

Another strength of Paris is its convers-ational style where 17 others including family, mates and chefs Stephanie Alexander and Matt Moran, who share a similar passion for Paris contribute to the narrative where it takes on the style of a lunch conversation (well into the afternoon.)

Co-author Scott Murray recalls the first time he navigated his way along notorious Rue St Denis – known as “prostitute central” – to find the recommended back alley Brasserie Flo which he found to be “impossibly dark, moody and irresistible...a place that could exist only in France”. Another contributor, hairdresser and foodie, Harry Azidis, stumbled across hard core bar Chez Janette. “I stepped into this bar, a must-see place that is like something out of a classic film. Don’t let the toothless barman put you off, and take time to admire the magnificent signage over the bar.”

With a First 18 like this don’t expect the memories and observations to be all glowing. For all the moments of near and achieved perfection and the willing performance of the indignity of travelling to a heavenly regional restaurant by budget carrier Ryanair, there are tales of being shunted off to dank cellars instead of the glorious main rooms to be studiously ignored by insouciant waiters.

And for the crème sur le gateau – the recipes. All the French classics are there in clearly set out expositions – from croque monsieur, perfect French fries, onion soup, garlic snails, truffle omelette, crème caramel and crèpes suzettes among them.

One minor quibble would be the fact that Mr Bennett takes us to the venerable Amabassade d’Auvergene in Le Marais to savour the Auverergne specialty of aligot and leaves us with just a description – “whipped potatoes with Cantal cheese” – but no recipe. Search one out and enjoy a dish for which “comfort” alone is a gross disservice.