The Accomplisht Cook (1660)

The Accomplisht Cook is a wonderful cook book by Robert May, written in 1660. May was born in Buckinghamshire in 1588, sent to France where he learnt cooking, and returned to work as a professional chef for the minor English nobility. On Rue de Seine I want to share some of the gems found in this work from time to time.

Today's recipe:

To roast a fillet of beef (otherways)

Sprinkle it [the fillet] with rose-vinegar, claret wine, elder-vinegar, beaten cloves, nutmeg, pepper, cinnamon, ginger, coriander-seed, fennil-seed, and salt; beat these things fine, and season the fillet with it, then roast it, and baste it with butter, save the gravy, and blow off the fat, serve it with juyce of orange or lemon, and a little elder-vinegar.

Galerie André Candillier

The gallery of André and Angela Candillier, founded in 1976 and located at 26, rue de Seine (GoogleMaps), is one of the well-established print galleries in the street. GALERIE ANDRÉ CANDILLIER sells prints from the 19th and 20th century (up to 1950). During my visits every few months I have seen a number of wonderful lithographs, woodcuts and etchings by Bonnard, Braque, Chahine, Laboureur, Segonzac and Toulouse-Lautrec among others. The prints are mostly medium-sized, and thus in four-digit territory. For a selection of current stock see the website.

Opening times: Tue-Sat 10am-1pm and 2:30pm-6:30pm

Da Rosa

José da Rosa runs the eponymous épicerie-cantine DA ROSA at 62, rue de Seine (just north of boulevard St. Germain, in the 6th, GoogleMaps), which is one of my favourite food places in Paris. It is a cross between a fine food store (épicerie) and a restaurant (cantine) and is open - in both functions - from 10am to 10pm every day. The store sells delicatessen of the highest quality - most notably four different types of Jamón Ibérico of the bellota variety from Jabugo in Spain. This cured ham is held in very high esteem by connoisseurs, for two reasons: Firstly, in order to give Jamón Ibérico, the ibérico pig can be at most 25% cross-bred. Secondly, the bellota, being the Spanish word for "acorn", signifies that the pigs have only been fed acorns during the fattening period, which gives this ham its delicious and complex flavour. DA ROSA offers one ham, called the Unico, from 100% pure-bred ibérico pigs, and three other ones from 75% pure-bred pigs. Not exactly cheap, at €250/kg, this will however most likely be the best ham you'll ever taste. DA ROSA is also affiliated with BELLOTA-BELLOTA (18 rue Jean Nicot, in the 7th, GoogleMaps) another store-and-restaurant which specializes on selling and serving this ham in even more varieties.

But DA ROSA has much more to offer than just Jamón Ibérico. The menu of the cantine also features saumon fumé norvégien - some of the best smoked salmon I've ever tasted. Their excellent foie gras (you have a choice between canard and oie) comes with a chutney created by renown chef Olivier Roellinger (who received his third Michelin star this year). In general DA ROSA has many connections to the French culinary aristocracy, providing ingredients for Joël Robuchon's Atelier, Guy Savoy's restaurant and the legendary Hotel Meurice.

During the winter season DA ROSA also serves and sells Lardo di Colonnata (see here if you can read Italian) - thinly-sliced pig fat. While this might sound disgusting, it is in fact extraordinarily delicious and quite unlike any other food I've ever eaten, like eating thin silk which melts instantly in your mouth. Most main course dishes in DA ROSA come in a tapas version and an assiette version, where the latter is larger and includes a salad. Tapas usually lie between €6 (the Lardo for instance) and €13 (the Unico) and assiettes are usually not quite double that.

But it doesn't stop there. Besides several types of caviar - which my bank account and I haven't quite got around to yet - DA ROSA also offers a good selection of wines by the glass (the Quincy was very pleasant for example) as well as desserts directly from patisserie-god Pierre Hermé and Belgian biscuiterie DANDOY. In particular you might want to try a selection of Pierre Hermé's smaller macarons (€8 for three) or perhaps his inimitable Ispahan - a large macaron with raspberries, litchis and rose-petal cream (€11). However, be warned that before you order a couple of slices of DANDOY cake as your dessert, you might want to know that for a few Euros more DA ROSA also sells the whole cake to take home.