It was here that we tasted an authentic salade niçoise of such splendid simplicity and savor that it prompts an added paragraph. There are few, if any. Mediterranean dishes which you can prepare with more ease and scintillating success in your own kitchen than salade niçoise. The fundamentals arc always the same-tomatoes, string beans, potatoes, black olives, and anchovy filets-but there are subtle variations. When you sit on Monsieur Raynaud's terrace, the waiter brings on a platoon of chilled vegetables in a large bowl. There are:
- Small tomatoes, not too ripe, cut in quarters
- Small boiled Holland potatoes, sliced
- Boiled green beans
- A few very thin slices of Spanish onion
- Slices of mild yellow, green, and red peppers
- Black Greek olives
- Anchovy filets, cut in squares
- A hard-cooked egg or two, cut in quarters
At the moment of serving, a dressing of salt, pepper, wine vinegar, Provençal olive oil. and Dijon mustard is mixed and poured over the vegetables before the tossing begins. Sometimes the luxury of diced tuna fish is added. In any case, the procedure is simple to follow at the American table, and we entreat you to try it. Salade niçoise can be served as an hors-d'oeuvre, or farther along on your menu. And the color of this salad almost rivals a Turner sunset!
Once in a while you encounter a really different restaurant, one whose dishes are as individual as they are enticing. The secret behind such a phenomenon is usually a rare cook, one whose culinary personality colors the entire establishment. Such a place, it seems to me, is the RESTAURANT ST. MORITZ at 5 rue Congrès, a few steps from the Casino de la Méditerranée. The gifted chef, Monsieur Marti, has lofty and original ideas of what constitutes cooking of la grande classe, and his menus reflect his individual approach. Each of his dishes is a carefully studied chef-d'oeuvre, whether it be filet de sole gratiné au champagne, poularde maison, coquilles St. Jacques amoureuse, or any one of a dozen other specialties. The street façade of St. Moritz is appealing, and the interior resembles a very dressy Swiss chalet. The atmosphere is intimate, quiet, and luxurious. Rose-tinted tablecloths and napkins glow under soft lights. The place has a certain enchantment, all right. If I were twenty-two, possessed of plenty of money, and had a movie starlet to beau around (three preposterous postulates), I would dine at the St. Moritz almost every night.
For the gourmet who seeks a rich return for a moderate investment there is an exceptional restaurant in Nice called PETIT BROUAND, at 4 his rue Gustave-Deloye. We found the prix fixe meals here to be quite extraordinary, since they included both fish and meat dishes on the menu. Usually it is one or the other, rarely both. These ample repasts are served in a large, formal paneled salon with maroon hangings. The service, by comely Latin maids also in maroon, is excellent, and the addition which they compile for you should be a pleasant surprise. Petit Brouand gives generous value, but without deserting its high culinary standards,
You hear a lot about fragrant regional cookery along the Mediterranean shore, but you encounter precious little of it in the palaces, the hotels, and pensions of this sea-front metropolis. The high seasoning of la cuisine niçoise alarms the tourist, according to many a cautious maitre d'hòtel, and so the traveler finds himself in the safe, inoffensive veal, chicken, and beef routine. Only a few good restaurants are hold enough to toss caution to the wind and garlic in the mayonnaise. One of the best of these is CHEZ GARAC, a cheerful place at 2 boulevard Carnot, near the old fishing port. They don't attenuate the Gallic fragrance here! Their Niçois version of bouillabaisse leaves no doubt as to its virility. Yet their classic loup grillé au fenouil is subtlety itself. Some of the most fragrant wines from Bellet are in the cellar to make your Mediterranean meal an aromatic success.
Beaulieu-sur-Mer
If a vote were taken among qualified gourmets to determine the foremost of all Mediterranean restaurants, the honor would probably descend upon a perennial favorite, LA RESERVE, in Beaulieu-sur-Mer. Over a period of years La Réserve has represented the ultimate in luxurious appointments, in Lucullan food and flawless wines. It occupies a majestic site at the water's edge where you will find a little port for your boat. a swimming pool of filtered sea water, and a tropical garden shaded with palm trees. The building looks a little like a glorified convent from the outside, but the interior décor, far from being severe, is exquisitely inviting, in the finest modern French tradition. There are some thirty beautiful rooms for guests. One doesn't succeed in describing the cuisine of La Réserve by heaping superlatives upon it. The most glowing adjectives in my thesaurus sound flat and inadequate when applied to the superb artistry of Monsieur Potfer and his chef, Monsieur Benfilon. Here is one of the great restaurants of France, and thus of the world. As such, it has to be expensive, If you are forced to economize, it is better to do one of two things: leave La Réserve off your list temporarily or quit when you are ahead at the roulette table at Monte Carlo and invest your winnings in a sumptuous dinner at this seraphic seashore shrine. It's an investment you'll never regret. We did precisely this eleven years ago. and the memory of our mullet grilled over vine cuttings and our coq au vin du Rhin served on the terrace of La Réserve has never dimmed.
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