Food writer and culinary visionary, Richard Olney, wrote of Cassoulet, “and a further slow cooking process intermingles all the flavors while a gratin, repeatedly basted, forms, is broken, re-forms, is rebroken, a single new savor moving into dominance, cloaking, without destroying, the autonomy of the primitive members.” Here Olney is showing us how the depth and layer of flavor pulls the senses towards one element of the dish, while another comes into field, neither speaking louder than the other, each enhancing the other.
This week promises to be an exciting one at Bar Boulud. On Monday evening we will be joined by guest chef Christian Constant, the chef and owner of several restaurants in Paris and Toulouse, including Les Cocottes, Le Café Constant and Le Violon d’Ingres. Chef Constant is also the reigning World Cassoulet Champion, and we are thrilled to welcome him into our kitchen tomorrow evening. His recipe features a lamb navarin, Saucisson Lyonnais, Toulouse sausage, and duck confit. Alongside Chef Constant’s award-winning Cassoulet, we will be pouring Domaine Tempier’s Bandol Rouge 1987 from Magnum. The sun-soaked Mediterranean red, the perfect pairing for this rustic dish.
Throughout the rest of the week, we will feature Chef Dieter Samijn’s Cassoulet recipe. Inspired by the cassoulet of famed restauranteur Henri Soulé of Le Pavillon and La Côte Basque, Chef Dieter’s recipe features a suckling pig roulade, Toulouse sausage, pig ears and duck confit. For Chef Dieter, the difference between a good and bad cassoulet is the depth of flavor, the multitude of angles provided by the dish. While the dish is of course heavy in meat, the beans are really focus of a great Cassoulet, and we are proud to use Tarbais beans, which hold and deepen the flavor of the jus without breaking, remaining beautifully textural.
So please join us this week as celebrate a rustic, regional classic at Bar Boulud!
Cassoulet Wines
MONDAY
Tempier,
Bandol 1987
TUESDAY
Tour du Bon,
Bandol 2001
WEDNESDAY
Tour du Bon,
Bandol ‘Saint Ferreol’ 2000
THURSDAY
Tour du Bon,
Bandol 2009
FRIDAY
Tempier,
Bandol 2016
FRIDAY
Tempier,
Bandol 2016
SATURDAY
Château Sainte Anne,
Bandol 2011
SUNDAY
Tour du Bon,
Bandon ‘Saint Ferreol’ 2008