An incredibly simple cocktail that, odds are, you’ve never had before.
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The hardest part of this recipe is getting your hands on the octopus. Give your fishmonger a few days to order it for you. 3.[#image: /photos/57ad4f151b334044149755d3]||||||
Asparagus with Mussel Beurre Blanc
Okay, so maybe you don’t live across the street from a blooming locust tree—you can still make a killer butter sauce. 4.[#image: /photos/57d831eab22e7d6464951416]||||||
Cod with Potatoes and Preserved Lemon Relish
An assertive—and, trust us, habit-forming—relish enlivens a humble dish of silky cod and crushed potatoes. 5.[#image: /photos/57d831eb304c2be47da77108]||||||
It’s airy, light, and sweet, but this delicate cake gets pucker and punch from vinegar in both the icing and the filling. 6.[#image: /photos/57d831e41807135a7746d874]||||||
Laurent Cabut and Crystèle Petit share a laugh 7.[#image: /photos/57d831e2304c2be47da77106]||||||
Sliced smoked duck breast and simple tapas for the apéro hour 8.[#image: /photos/57d831e1ca64e36a6c3bcccc]||||||
Aizpitarte’s hors d’oeuvres start with a few great products 9.[#image: /photos/57d831e7c455f790358b98c6]||||||
Inaki Aizpitarte (center), with his partners Laurent Cabut (left) and Franck Audoux, enjoying a pairing of Basque cheese and Cyril Zangs sparkling cider. ')], $targets = $('h3.ss-anchor'); script.type = 'text/javascript'; $targets.each(function(ind){ var anchor = $(this), show = ss[ind]; return $(this).after(show); }); return document.body.appendChild(script); }); }(window, document, jQuery)); My husband might phrase it differently, but it’s fair to say I’ve been tracking the quietly intense chef Inaki Aizpitarte for over ten years. It started in 2003 when my Parisian food friends took me to La Famille, a tiny spot where his ambition radiated from a kitchen the size of a dorm fridge. The week after Aizpitarte opened Le Chateaubriand in 2006, I waited at the bar for a table for so long that I was too drunk to remember my meal (though I got some great phone pics of the bed-headed waiters modeling “I ♥ NY” T-shirts). And at the Omnivore festival in Deauville, France, four years ago, I watched as Aizpitarte showed a gorgeously abstract film involving blowtorched chestnuts and raw daikon (I think).
I’m not the only Inaki-watcher. While few outside of the foodist fishbowl know “Ee-NYA-kee,” he is the man nearly every big-name male chef in the world under 40 (or 65) wants to look like, cook like, and be like. The 42-year-old French-Basque Aizpitarte set out as a landscape designer and ended up outpacing Joël Robuchon on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. His success comes from Le Chateaubriand, the brasserie with a tasting menu as brashly intellectual and, shall we say, challenging as it is delicious. The first seating has been booked nightly since he and his partners, Franck Audoux and Laurent Cabut, opened the place. The second, no-reservation seating draws so many hopefuls to the now crazily trendy 11th arrondissement that they opened Le Dauphin next door, now a destination in itself.
With his naturalist-style plating, bare-bones decor, and fair pricing in a country that has rigorous codes about what restaurants should be, it’s no wonder L’Express declared the latest crop of arrivals on the Paris food scene “Génération Inaki.”
So, what would the guy who has flipped the script on French restaurants cook at home? The answer, as evidenced by this laid-back springtime lunch: French-ish/Basque-ish/comfort-ish food. Not exactly normal, but totally satisfying.
As friends arrive at his new apartment at the edge of the untouristed Parc des Buttes Chaumont in the 19th, they’re greeted with a cocktail and simple but rigorously sourced tapas. The drinks are Audoux’s territory—he’s the master of ceremonies for the restaurants and a partner in their new wine store (which sells bottles from any country except France). As he stirs Byrrh Specials, he gossips about a YouTube video of Jay-Z and Beyoncé dining at Septime, Génération Inaki’s table of the moment.
Aizpitarte sets out what he deems the best cured duck breast in France alongside a dish of Sicilian olives. When asked about the three-ingredient tapas, he shrugs: “We just took super anchovies, super olives, and super guindilla peppers.” (Those anchovies, which cost a euro apiece, are harvested from the Bay of Biscay, then hand-filleted and cured for months.) “This is the perfect way to begin the apéro,” he declares, adding, “I’m going to start doing it at Le Chateaubriand.”
The first pot of dry aromatics that Aizpitarte puts on the induction cooktop burns; he’s used to gas. (Also missing in the tiny kitchen: an oven. “I dream of roasting chickens on Sunday,” he says with a sigh.) Eventually, a new batch of the lemongrass-infused milk is ready for fillets of desalinated salt cod, which poach just until they begin to flake. They’ll be served over crushed potatoes with a spicy-tart vinaigrette of pimentón oil and preserved lemon spooned on top. It’s his rougher, more assertive take on brandade de morue, the humble French comfort dish.
While ’80s synth-pop heroes Les Rita Mitsouko play on the turntable, guests like cookbook author and consultant Frédérick Grasser Hermé alternate between taking in the view and snooping around. Among the curiosities: a photograph of hot dogs on a radiator that Aizpitarte bought for his 40th birthday, ten bags of Rancho Gordo beans he picked up on a trip to Mexico, drawings by his 8-year-old son, Diego, and an old Polaroid of him with Grasser Hermé’s ex, pastry deity Pierre.
Before the meal, the lanky chef totes a ladder across the street to harvest fleurs d'acacia (Black Locust flowers) blossoms and elderflowers from the park. The former will be folded into *beurre blanc *to lavishly dress asparagus, while the latter will garnish a génoise cake whose strawberry filling is sharpened with elderflower vinegar. Pretty with an edge: classic Inaki.
After Basque cheese is served, Grasser Hermé turns the conversation to the state of cooking in Paris and how it reflects Aizpitarte’s newfound maturity. “It’s more about the flavor, less about la cuisine radicale,” she says, elbowing him. “Here in Paris, we’re rediscovering the real values of cooking.” And of comfort, however avant-garde.
Aizpitarte proves that the hors d’oeuvres don’t have to be complicated to be great. They just have to be really well sourced. Here, his favorite ingredients, plus our favorite versions stateside.
1. ANCHOVIES: “All the Spanish chefs use these,” Aizpitarte says of Don Bocarte’s wild-caught, hand-prepared fish. Don Bocarte anchovies, $11 for 48 grams (approximately 7 fish); despanabrandfoods.com
2. GUINDILLA PEPPERS: Sweet and delicately spicy with a bright acidic bite, these pickled green peppers are a Basque tapas staple. El Navarrico guindilla peppers, $16 for 4.5 oz.; latienda.com
3. OLIVES: Aizpitarte buys olives (and oil) from La Tête Dans les Olives, a tiny shop whose owner visits Sicily to find the best family farms. These Andalusian olives are a close second. Donostia Foods Manzanilla olives, $5 for 7.5 oz.; donostiafoods.com
4. TANDOORI POWDER: Octopus readily takes to this floral, spicy blend. When it’s one of just four ingredients, make sure it’s the best quality. Tandoori curry powder, $4 for 2 oz.; worldspice.com
5. CURED DUCK BREAST: The chef trusts the artisan Alain Grezes for his perfect seasoning and deliciously fatty preparation. Try this prosciutto-style Pekin. Smoking Goose prosciutto-style duck breast, $14 for 8 oz.; smokinggoose.com
6. BYRRH: This bittersweet wine-based aperitif (pronounced “beer”) was reintroduced to the U.S. in 2012. Sip the herbal blend on ice. Byrrh Grand Quinquina, $18 for 750 ml; astorwines.com