Le Cafe de Paris, Boise

Duck Confit photo Darin Oswald/Idaho Statesman

I’ve been slightly haunted by an heirloom tomato salad I ate at Le Cafe de Paris a few weeks ago – haunted because an early freeze likely killed my chance for another taste of that beautifully composed appetizer until next summer. That’s the downside of seasonality: That tomato salad – with its diced, rose-and peach-colored tomatoes, balsamic-softened focaccia (baked in house), bits of aged manchego, basil chiffonade and drizzle of Dayglo-green basil oil – was both shockingly delicious and a too-soon farewell to summer.

Still, I admire any restaurant willing to include flavorful, if fleeting, seasonal ingredients on its menu. To that end, Le Cafe de Paris’ new chef Paul Faucher (he’s been at the cafe six months) and owner Mathieu Choux are offering more local fare along with Thursday night “farm dinners” that showcase the products of area farmers, ranchers and winemakers. I enjoyed one of those dinners a couple of months ago. (The cafe’s last farm dinner of the season will be Oct. 29.)

Of course, a change of season also has an upside: The duck confit entree ($18) that followed my tomato salad was a pleasant reminder that our inevitable slide toward winter doesn’t have to be haunted by the ghosts of tomatoes past.

For those who don’t know, confit is a very old, very French way to preserve meat (usually poultry) for winter. In this case, Faucher buries duck legs in salt, peppercorns, garlic and thyme and lets them infuse for a day. Then he poaches those legs in duck fat and olive oil and lets them cool in it. (Encased in fat, confit will last for months.) The final result isn’t greasy or salty, as you might expect. Instead, a kind of magical alchemy transforms the meat into something succulent. Faucher serves his confit with roasted fingerling potatoes and sliced green apples. I only wish the duck skin had been crisper. Still, it was near perfect fall fare.

On that same Saturday evening, my wife ordered a lavender-marinated rack of lamb ($22). A mint pesto overshadowed the lavender, but the lamb was moist and tender. The potato and gruyere terrine that accompanied the dish was delicious; its crisp exterior, thin layers of just-cooked spuds and melting gruyere created an earthy counterpoint to the meat and mint sauce.

For dessert, we devoured the tarte au citron meringuee ($5.99), a denser, more sophisticated French cousin of good old lemon meringue pie. Sweet, but not cloying, it had a pleasantly bitter finish and showed that Le Cafe de Paris’ original focus on its pastries and desserts is a continuing strength.

Though it seems to me that the dinners at Le Cafe de Paris have improved with the arrival of Chef Faucher, they’re served only on Friday and Saturday nights (apart from those Thursday farm dinners, First Thursday tapas nights and an upcoming series of occasional French regional dinners).

For breakfast and lunch, Le Cafe de Paris is open every day. Along with breads and pastries, the morning menu offers chocolatey, hazelnutty Nutella crepes, French toast made from house-baked brioche, croissants with ham and havarti, and frittatas and omelettes.

Still, I miss those summery heirloom tomatoes. But as I walked to Le Cafe de Paris on another chilly day, hot soup and a slab of house-baked bread sounded even better.

For full story go to: http://www.idahostatesman.com/foodanddrink/story/937352.html

Tags: agriculture, food, Idaho, local food movement, locavore, restaurant

This entry was posted on October 16, 2009 at 6:38 am and is filed under Restaurant Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.