Southwestern cuisine riding high at home and abroad

Nation's Restaurant News, Oct 2, 1989 by Florence Fabricant

Southwestern cuisine riding high at home and abroad

Southwestern cuisine continues to ride a crest of popularity here. It is being featured in the forthcoming olive oil conference sponsored by the American Institute of Wine and Food in Phoenix, Ariz. Chefs like Mark Miller, Robert del Grande, Stephen Pyles, and Brendan Walsh are in demand for guest appearances, and menus across the country continue to feature chilies and blue corn.

The same is true in France, except that the Southwest there has to do with Gascony and the Dordogne, not Santa Fe and Tucson.

In Paris, for example, duck and duck foie gras, products of the Southwest, are featured on almost every menu. Confit, a regional technique of preserving duck and goose (and other meats) in fat, is widely used.

The signboard outside Carre des Feuillants, Alain Dutournier's restaurant on the Rue de Castiglione, has an added note announcing that it serves the cuisine of the Southwest. That fact could not be ignored when Dutournier was cooking at Au Trou Gascon but is less evident in his new establishment.

Nearby in the new restaurant installed in the Pyramid of the Louvre, the cuisine is basically that of the Southwest. That a museum restaurant, usually the kind of place for bland classics, couls serve such regional fare is astonishing. The operation is called Le Grand Louvre and is run by a division is the Groupe Accord, which also controls Sofitel and Novotel chains.

Three other restaurants have also been installed in the pyramid by this group. They serve sandwiches, salads, and other light fare.

The consultant in charge of Le Grand Louvre is Andre Daguin, chef and owner of the Michelin two-star Hotel de France in Auch. He has put Yves Pinaud, not a native of Gascony but someone who has worked there for more than 12 years, in charge.

Visitors to the Louvre have their choice of goose galantine with foie gras, smoked fillet of duck with cured ham and foie gras, sauteed apple with duck foie gras, smoked Gascon trout, grilled duck fillet, and confit of duck, among other choices. The desserts include lou pastis, a flaky fruit-filled pastry made with a type of phyllo.

Pinaud said that in keeping with the Gascon approach even the pastry is made with pure duck or goose fat, not butter. Americans who shudder at the though should remember that butter has a higher proportion of saturated fat than does the duck or goose fat. The pastry is absolutely delicious, and had I not been told how it was made, I would never have suspected.

In discussing Le Grand Louvre, I must note that a three-course complete lunch or dinner is 165 francs (about $25), including tax and service. Al Gascon tasting menu is $70, including wines, taxes and service. There is also an all-duck menu, identical with the one that was served for the economic summit, for $125.

The popularity of Southwestern cuisine in France has spread beyond Paris, to other regions. In Le Mans, at the edge of the Loire Valley area, there is a small operation called Le Perigord in the old quarter of town, vaunting the fact that it serves the cuisine of "Les Landes" (famous for foie gras and another of the many names for part of the Southwestern area).

In the Bordeaux area the interest in this cuisine from the region adjacent to this commercial center has been a factor in improving the level of cooking. Not only are foie gras and duck on the menus of operations such as the Saint-James, Cordeillan Bages, and the Pavillon des Boulevards, but the kind of lusty cooking that is typified by Southwestern French cuisine has added a depth of flavor to other ingredients.

Fish, for example, that may come from the nearby Atlantic, will be served in a rich brown sauce. Fresh cod with caramelized onions is simmered with lentils at Pavillon des Boulevards. The lentils come from Le Puy, also in the Southwest. Bass roasted with chicken livers is another example.

And on the desert list, also from the Southwest is prune ice cream. This delectable confection is served in Le Grand Louvre and at the Saint James. Of course it is on the menu at the Hotel de France in Auch.

Southwestern French may never challenge Southwestern American in this country, but it has begun to show up. An early example is Zum Cafe in San Francisco. The latest may be Alison's on Dominick Street in New York. Manhattan's Ambassador Grill is staffed with chefs trained by Dagiun. Perhaps the premier practitioner of the cuisine, in this country, with overtones of our own Southwest, is Jean-Louis Palladin at the Watergate.