11 Jun 2025
Posted at 10:24
in Feature
Elena Hogg, founder of local culinary company FOOD by Elena, is back from a short break in Paris with plenty of foody ideas..
I’ve just returned from a short trip to Paris. Three nights in a hotel room all to myself. Paris is lovely, but frankly the blissful solitude outstripped it. Too much solitude isn’t my thing, though, so it was lucky that the days were spent in the company of a 150-strong choir to which I belong, in France on tour.
Being part of a choir is fundamental to my happiness levels ever since leaving the musical theatre industry I was part of in a previous incarnation known wistfully as ‘before children (BC)’.
My happiness levels are also boosted by delicious food, as you may by now be aware, and Paris didn’t disappoint. Whether it was the mirror-glazed patisserie glinting from behind its glass casing, or the oozingly ripe French cheeses, there is always a more-ish morsel to munch in Paris.
The backdrop certainly doesn’t hurt either: just about anything tastes good served up at an outside table in a narrow cobbled lane flanked by shabby-chic Parisian buildings with shuttered windows and a string quartet playing round the corner.
A hungry group of us were delighted to stumble across exactly this setting tucked behind the traffic and fumes of a busy intersection.
We’d felt quite discouraged by the mundanity of the eateries on the main roads; Paris has Subway and Five Guys, too, despite this seeming wholly incongruous in a city renowned for its – dare I say? – slightly snobbish attitude to food.
But Paris earns its place among the upper echelons of the food scene.
Even the clichés are delicious: my friend, Sam, who lived in France for around 17 years, simply must have snails whenever she visits the city.
Things had started to get a bit desperate by the penultimate day of our trip and no gastropods had been ingested.
Thankfully (although to the squeamish dismay of a few of our fellow diners), a plate of fat escargots were delivered in garlicky, buttery glory to a salivating Sam, and all was well again with the world.
Another French staple is of course the pastry. We breakfasted on croissants so perfect they looked fake, and pains au chocolat with such crisp outer layers that the snap and crackle they made as we sunk our teeth in would have given Kellogg’s a run for its money.
The prize had to go, however, to the hybrid croissant–brioche creation the size of a child’s head that called to me from a bakery window. I’ve never seen such defined lamination (I realise I sound like Paul Hollywood) and although my arteries may not have thanked me, my taste buds did.
The middle day of our trip was blisteringly hot and, in hindsight, it was probably unwise for it to have included a quasi-military march from the Seine up to La Madeleine church, where the choir was due to sing. My friends will forgive me for using the rather uncharitable but accurate phrase ‘sweaty Betty’ to describe us as we plonked ourselves into seats at a bistro within dashing distance of the church.
We didn’t have long for lunch and so salads were ordered all-round in the hope that they’d be prepared fast, and also because something cold might help lower our dangerously raised body temperatures and return our faces from pillar-box red to a regular colour.
As our bowls of salad were delivered to us by the excellent staff, we realised why French food gets the accolade it does. In the UK, although it’s getting a lot better,
your average café quite often serves up salad that’s more of an afterthought than something to enjoy, with no dressing and as few as two or three ingredients.
But the salads we were delving into had such well though-out combinations of ingredients that each forkful was a different from the previous one. There was avocado with chicken and pale pink half-moons of pickled onion, another with hard-boiled eggs and Parma ham with wedges of marinated artichoke, and mine was topped with little toasts blanketed in melted goat’s cheese that had been drizzled with honey. To top it all off, the vinaigrette was delicious and plentiful, bringing everything together in a hearty-but-healthy triumph. Yes, the French do food well. And my friends and I do eating well. It was a match made in heaven.
Adventures in Paris
Foody fun in Paris