My Parisian memories with food at the heart of celebrations
LEE Conetta is Glasgow food royalty, with many years experience helping to run one of the city’s biggest restaurant groups.
Each fortnight in Times Out, she shares recipes and stories of her life less ordinary. This week, she revisits a fancy French restaurant and, fittingly, rustles up a classic French onion soup.
IT was my cousin Selina’s 60th birthday a couple of weeks ago. This set me thinking of the time we went to Paris for her 30th birthday. We were so excited – three days in Paris, what a treat.
Of course, food was at the heart of our celebration.
On the first day we went to Au Pied de Cochon, located in Les Halles area of Paris, for lunch. It is famous for its French onion soup and pork dishes. Many celebrities have dined there, from Salvador Dali and Alfred Hitchcock to Brigitte Bardot, It is also famous for being the first restaurant in Paris to be open all night and took pride in never having closed its doors since 1947, until Covid.
For Selina’s birthday dinner, her husband had booked a very special restaurant, La Tour d’Argent.
It was a Michelin-starred, historic place founded in 1582, with an amazing wine cellar beneath. In 1890, the head waiter introduced the carving of a duck on the end of a fork without allowing it to touch the platter. It became the restaurant’s signature dish, “pressed duck” and each customer who ordered one was presented with a special certificate.
The website reveals a lot of the history of this famous restaurant. Already used in some homes in Italy, the fork made its first appearance in France at the Tour d’Argent in the 16th century.
“It was a remarkable invention to prevent gentlemen from staining the immaculate fashionable ruff worn around the neck,” says the website. “Henry IV inaugurated the amazing piece of cutlery at a much talked about dinner in Paris. From that evening onwards, the Tour d’Argent could not be ignored ...”
For us, all those years ago, we were overwhelmed by the majesty of the place. We were shown to a window table with a breath-taking view and the headwaiter showed us the menu – foie gras, Dublin Bay prawns, blue lobster…
I started to order. “I’ll have the foie gras –” I began, when Joe’s urgent whisper interrupted me. “No.”
I was surprised. “Oh, okay, the Dublin Bay prawns then –” And again, from Joe: “No.” Perplexed, I looked at him and realised he had the menu with the prices on it. “French onion soup?” I said….
In fact, it was wonderful, and so was the pressed duck. Afterwards we went down to see the wine cellar, with its 500,000 bottles, and Joe bought Selina and I each a beautiful silk scarf printed with ducks.
I don’t think my cousin will forget her wonderful 30th birthday, and neither will I. In honour of that trip, this week’s recipe is French onion soup. Enjoy.