“Avec ce temps de merde, il faut boire du champagne,” he insisted (‘with this crappy weather, one must drink champagne’); he was right, too, and the drink never showed up on my bill either. When he returned to take my order, he told me what I would be eating instead – leeks vinaigrette with toasted hazelnuts, boeuf aux carottes, and tarte Tatin (my first), washed down with a bottle of Cairanne. I was dumbstruck by his gastronomic domineering, but it was one of the best meals I’ve ever eaten. Why was he so kind to me? I’ve often wondered, but I can’t help but think that I may have reminded him of himself the day he’d climbed on a train somewhere deep in the French countryside as an innocent young man to move to Paris and make his way in the world.
In any event, Benoit has been a fixture in my life for nearly 40 years, and through various changes in ownership – Alain Ducasse bought it from the Petit family in 2005 – it’s never failed me. Meeting a friend for dinner the other night, however, I was disappointed by the distracted and disorganised welcome from a rather off-handed young woman, because given its prestige, Benoit deserves a seasoned maître d’.
But the menu continues to deliver in the most marvellous of old-school ways. My spouse is from Valenciennes, a small industrial city on France’s border with Belgium that I’ve visited many times, so I was glad to see this proud, hard-working little town’s gastronomic speciality still on the menu: la langue de Lucullus fine slices of smoked tongue interleaved with pâté de foie gras a rich but sumptuous treat. Onion soup and escargots in garlic butter, which my friend had, were also excellent versions of these monuments of Gallic gastronomy. Skate wing with a grenobloise sauce (lemon, capers, brown butter and croutons) was outstanding, as was the cassoulet, a long-running favourite of the regulars here, and the tête de veau ravigote, or boiled calf’s head. Sadly, these great French dishes are increasingly difficult to find in Paris as younger French diners prefer ‘light’ eating, including sushi, hamburgers and pizza.