PROOF User: 155293 Time: 12:59 - 07-22-2014 Region: NewYork Edition: 1

THE TIMES, WEDNESDAY, JULY 23, 2014 N D5

LETTER FROM PARIS ELAINE SCIOLINO The French Debate ‘Homemade’ CONTINUED FROM PAGE D1 Fraud Control, will start inspecting restau- as culinary artistry. rants that display the logos to make sure Instead, in just a few days the law has they are following the law. split restaurateurs, thrown the dining pub- But the threat of inspections could be a lic into confusion and prompted food crit- flash in the pan. To save money over the ics to challenge the government’s compli- last six years, the government has moved cated, and sometimes contradictory, defi- 560 of the agency’s roughly 3,000 inspec- nitions of what makes a dish truly home- tors out of their jobs. Just how inspectors made, or not. will identify suspect fare or impose penal- French fries, for instance, can bear the ties has not been worked out. “fait maison” symbol if they are precut “They’re laughing softly in the back somewhere else, but not if they are frozen. kitchens,” Mr. Légasse wrote. Participating chefs are allowed to buy a At La Forge, a cozy in the ready-made pâte feuilletée, a difficult-to- Fifth Arrondissement with orchids on the make, multilayered puff pastry; but pâte tables and house-made cassoulet on the brise, a rich pastry dough used to make menu, Jean-François Le Guillou, its owner flaky tart shells, has to be made on-site. and chef, was more forgiving. Cured sausages and smoked hams are ac- “Anything that recognizes the savoir- ceptable, while ready-made terrines and faire of the chef is good,” he said. “So I’ll pâtés are not. put the ‘fait maison’ logo on the door, but “This is all a lot of baloney,” said Phi- not on the menu. It would look silly to have lippe Damas, the owner of the popular Le little casseroles next to every item.” Philou bistro in the 10th Arrondissement, Yet he believes that the symbols are mis- who added he had no intention to put the leading. “You can have a frozen product logos on his menu. “It’s an insult. I live on that’s terrific and a fresh product that’s my reputation for preparing and serving terrible,” he said. the best that is fresh, every day. I predict A visit with Mr. Le Guillou to a vast out- that in six months this law will be history.” let of Metro, the German-owned wholesale There is little disagreement here that food giant, in Paris helps explain what all France ought to protect the integrity of its PHOTOGRAPHS BY OWEN FRANKEN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES the fuss is about. Among its many fresh fine cuisine against the onslaughts of mo- and prepared foods are vacuum-packed dernity. Last year, for the first time, more pouches filled with blanquette de veau, pa- money was spent in fast-food chains than ella, hake fillets in a sauce with chives, and in traditional . At the time of tongue in a piquant sauce. Promotion- the parliamentary debate over the decree, al “menus of the month” help restaura- there were claims that as many as 75 per- teurs cut costs even more. (This month’s cent of the nation’s restaurants were Metro menu offers cartons of individual guilty, mon Dieu, of serving food largely portions of spinach and goat cheese quiche prepared off the premises. Today, there is as a starter, skinless Atlantic cod with a broad consensus that consumers need to potato gratin as a main course and a frozen be warned when their boeuf bourguignon raspberry cream cake for dessert.) has been vacuum-packed with chemical Restaurant customers appear to be di- additives, or their escargots à la Bour- vided over the new law. At brunch on Sun- gogne made with soy filler and rehydrated day at La Favorite in the Marais, Kateryna garlic. Berezovksa, who works at a music man- But the country’s expansive, intuitive Jean-François Le Guillou, top, weekly magazine Marianne, wrote: agement company, praised the initiative. love of food does not always dovetail with the chef and owner of La Forge “‘Homemade’ doesn’t mean freshly made. She recalled her disgust when she discov- its persnickety, bureaucratic attempts to in Paris, is one restaurateur A dish totally prepared with frozen prod- ered that the deep-fried mozzarella sticks guard its reputation. displaying a sign, above, saying ucts, even if they come from a Romanian she had ordered at her favorite tapas bar The new law states that a “house-made” that all his dishes are made in- slaughterhouse, can enjoy this happy dis- came out of a vacuum package. dish must be made on the premises from house. Other restaurants note tinction as it was cooked on-site.” “I saw the chef dump the McCain moz- “raw” materials that have not undergone that on their menu, above right. There are already ratings systems to zarella sticks into a deep-fryer,” she said. “significant modification” in advance. Yet Right, the house-made pâté at showcase good restaurants. Alain “I never went back there again.” the lobbying groups for the frozen and pre- La Forge. Ducasse, Thierry Marx and several other At a nearby table, Elodie Carpentier, a pared food industries are powerful, so high-profile chefs have created a program college student, said the law wouldn’t many foods were allowed. They include al- that allows a restaurant — if it meets cer- change anything. “It’s much ado about most anything that has been frozen, vac- tain criteria, including offering cooking nothing.” uum-packed, peeled, sliced, cut, ground, from scratch — to display a sign identify- Some diners found larger meaning in the boned, skinned, husked, powdered, ing itself as a “Restaurant de Qualité.” initiative. “There is hypocrisy throughout crushed, smoked, salted or refrigerated — More than 1,000 restaurants belong. our lives today,” said Catherine Berger- as long as it is used in the “composition” of Organ meats can be deveined, bled and The government has created a web page Lefebvre as she dined with family at La a finished dish. blanched elsewhere. with a 21-page user guide explaining the Forge. “This will help eliminate the lies.” Thus, frozen spinach and vacuum- Many chefs and commentators find the law and how to use the logos, which can be Hubert Jan, an official of the French res- packed grated carrots are fine as long as rules so permissive as to be meaningless, downloaded, made into stickers and placed taurant and hotel union U.M.I.H., has lob- they are mixed with something as basic as bewildering for the consumer and no guar- on menus. If everything is made from bied hard over the years to gain recogni- a vinaigrette made on-site. (Frozen French antee of a better-quality meal. scratch, restaurateurs have a choice: They tion for good chefs. He said the law unfor- fries, however, are excluded, a not-so-sub- “Fait maison, phony decree,” declared can post the logo, or the words “fait mai- tunately focused all the attention on ingre- tle swipe at fast-food chains.) Pickled cab- the restaurant critic J. P. Gené in Le son” or simply “maison,” in a place visible dients rather than on the quality of cook- bage for choucroute — time-consuming to Monde’s M Magazine, calling the law a vic- to all diners. Starting Jan. 15, a federal ing. make — can be bought premade and still tory for the frozen-food industry. agency, the General Directorate for Com- “It’s obvious this decree was not written figure into a dish defined as house-made. Périco Légasse, a food critic for the petition Policy, Consumer Affairs and by chefs,” he said.

Now You Taste It, Now You Don’t When beloved dishes fall off plate we used to serve it on.” But fans of the dish, like Barry Wino- menus, some diners fight back. grad, who has eaten at Picholine more than 1,100 times, according to the restau- By JULIE SCELFO rant’s records, began calling in advance to I can’t recall the exact date a few years request it. “If we want something in partic- ago when I ate my first ciabatta egg sand- ular, we just tell them, and they have it for wich at Seersucker, in Carroll Gardens, us,” said Mr. Winograd, who ate the salm- Brooklyn. But I remember precisely how on in March for his 62nd birthday. great it tasted and made me feel, which is At Gotham Bar and Grill, requests for why I ate it again and again at every pos- fettuccine with tomato, basil and Maine sible opportunity. CHANG W. LEE/THE NEW YORK TIMES lobster Bolognese, from Mr. Portale’s It was an upscale version of the corner opening menu in 1985 , can send staff mem- deli standard: fresh scrambled eggs with bers scurrying. “If we have lobster stock in smoked country bacon and aged New York the refrigerator, we can put the sauce to- Cheddar, tucked into a warm, crusty Bal- gether quickly, but we don’t always have thazar Bakery ciabatta roll lightly fresh pasta,” Mr. Portale said, “so we send smeared with a delicate homemade ketch- a food runner to Whole Foods.” up called tomato jam. All love, no greasy To minimize off-the-menu requests, afterburn. The sandwich even helped save chefs employ a variety of psychological my marriage when, amid the stress of a tactics. “When people come in and say: home renovation, my husband herded our ‘Oh, my God! I can’t believe you took the three small children, two bikes and a stroll- salmon off,’ I tell them if you give us a few er several miles, bought a sandwich to go days’ notice we’ll make it for you,” Mr. and delivered it to me on Mother’s Day PHOTOGRAPHS BY BRIAN HARKIN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES Brennan said. “That kind of gives them a sense of relief. Then they forget about it morning, still wrapped in foil and piping “It has gone unanswered,” Mr. Brooks hattan, has for years wanted to overhaul Terrance Brennan serves and order whatever else.” hot. (Hooray! Together another year.) lamented in a Facebook message. his tuna tartare, having tired of its tower- Barry Winograd the tournedos Then one day, after settling into a table The Num Pang Sandwich Shop in Man- ing presentation, but he and his business of salmon with horseradish Sirio Maccioni, who has genially presid- at Seersucker for brunch, I discovered that hattan received what might be the world’s partners, including Bret Csencitz, worry crust (bottom left), which is no ed at Le Cirque for decades, taught his the menu had undergone a makeover and only love letter to a mahi-mahi sandwich that regulars would be upset. “We would longer on the menu at staff a diversionary technique: quickly of- my beloved ciabatta sandwich was gone. after replacing it in January with what one have a mass uprising,” Mr. Csencitz said. Picholine. Top left, the ciabatta fer a replacement from the current menu. No amount of pleading for a special order customer, Rick, thought was a “boring” “It would just be mayhem.” egg sandwich from Seersucker “You don’t say no. You say, ‘I don’t have would bring it back. salmon version. “I am deeply saddened , the executive chef of in Brooklyn. The restaurant is that today’ and get them to try something I had suffered a setback all too common and highly depressed,” wrote Rick, who Porter House New York, experienced an now closed, but a recipe for the else,” said his son Marco Maccioni, who in this age of restless chefs and novelty- lived across the street from the restau- uprising of sorts two years ago after re- sandwich can be found at now runs the restaurant with his father. seeking diners: the discontinued dish. rant’s East 12th Street outlet. “I’ve been placing a popular oven-roasted herb chick- nytimes.com/dining. Indeed, when I visited Seersucker and There are many good reasons why res- eating about two or three of your mahi- en with a grilled version for the summer. was informed that my ciabatta egg sand- taurants cast off their classics: Chefs tire mahi sandwiches per week. They were the Allen Grubman, the entertainment lawyer wich had perished, I ended up ordering a of making the same things over and over. greatest and made me a happy man.” and a regular customer, tasted the new poached egg atop a mound of toasted bar- Costs rise. Banh mi (or crudo or kale) go At Sotto, a trattoria in Cincinnati, it was chicken and immediately summoned the ley and hazlenuts, served in a languid pool in, then out of fashion. But diners like me, not the diners but the staff who had a hard chef to his table. of vegetable broth. The crunchy grains left with nothing but memories and long- time saying goodbye when the beloved “He called me out in the dining room were studded with juicy gems of roasted ing, often have a hard time letting go. porchetta bruschetta was terminated in and dressed me down,” Mr. Lomonaco re- mushroom; the broth was delicately sea- (When Seersucker closed its doors a few February. called. “He said, ‘I eat in all the best res- soned and precise. weeks ago for what its owners say is a “Porchie. Always a treat to be around,” a taurants in New York and you have the The chef and co-owner, Robert Newton, temporary hiatus, the loss barely regis- server, Sarah Temples, eulogized the appe- best roast chicken,’ and he gave me argu- declined to respond to my calls and emails tered, my grieving already intense.) tizer during a mock funeral held by em- ments why I shouldn’t take it off.” asking why the sandwich had been cut. After JCT. Kitchen & Bar in Atlanta ployees. “He was a true friend that made Mr. Grubman said that he doesn’t fully Only when I cornered him in person did he killed off its bacon, onion jam and blue strangers feel comfortable in his presence. remember the details of that conversation, explain that he had changed the menu to cheese burger last June, one devotee cre- When people saw him they would fall in but that his devotion to the original recipe suit his evolving interests, the same rea- ated a Bring Back the JCT Burger page on love.” (Ms. Temples also sketched a tomb- is justified. “It was moist, it was crispy on son he would later close Seersucker and Facebook, illustrating it with a stock - stone, with this epitaph: “Here lies Por- the outside, it tasted very, very fresh and open a spinoff, Wilma Jean, down the tograph of an angry crowd, arms raised, in chetta Bruschetta with his friends grain it’s rotisserie chicken, which is my favor- block. (Mr. Newton, who is also an owner front of billowing black smoke. Dijon mustard and shallots.”) ite,” Mr. Grubman said. “It’s perfect.” of Nightingale 9, said he hoped to eventu- “This ain’t right! It was my favorite in Most chefs and restaurateurs say they Mr. Lomonaco considered the matter ally reopen Seersucker in a new spot.) town!” a visitor posted. Another pleaded: consider diners’ feelings carefully before overnight, reinstated the dish and hasn’t “Chefs that really want to be chefs don’t “I came all the way from Hawaii only to be making menu changes. disturbed it since. really want to do the same thing day after disappointed! Bring it back!” Michele Mazza, the executive chef at Il Other chefs have learned to give in just a day, after day, year after year,” he said. Twitter is awash in protestations about Mulino in New York, says he hasn’t altered little. At Picholine, on the Upper West Side, I was mad for a while. But lately, an- spiked menu items, like one from Mathew the menu since opening in 1981 because he Terrance Brennan euthanized an ac- other strong emotion has been tugging at O. Brooks of Fredericksburg, Va., who sent is certain that it would hurt business. “For claimed dish, tournedos of salmon with my soul: a deep craving for a mouthful of what he describes as “an immediate and me it’s important to be very constant,” he horseradish crust, about 10 years ago. “I nutty, toasted barley with egg and broth despondent” tweet to Panera with the said. “If I don’t have the Dover sole or the was so sick of salmon I didn’t eat it for two that I’ve tasted only once, and can’t wait to hashtag #unrequited last fall after the osso buco,” customers “won’t come in.” years,” said Mr. Brennan, who had cooked savor again, hopefully at Wilma Jean or chain revoked its and white Cheddar Alfred Portale, the executive chef and the dish at three previous restaurants. “I Seersucker or whatever place Mr. Newton panini. co-owner of Gotham Bar and Grill in Man- couldn’t even look at this special marble opens next.