Four years after the mad-cow scare that saw les abats banished from menus, the French are going head over heels for them—organ meats and other infelicitously named "off-cuts," including tripe, kidney, sweetbread, calf's head, pig's foot, heart, and testicle. At the new La Ribouldingue in Paris, you can tuck into breaded pig's snout and nostrils on a bed of salad, or maybe a dish of cow teats if you prefer. Eric Frechon is serving oxtail at the elegant Bristol Hotel, Jean-Pierre Vigato's tete de veau is a hit at Apicius, and Joel Robuchon showed what to do with a calf's tongue on his recent television show, Bon Appetit Bien Sur.
And it’s not just the chefs. Catherine Deneuve told the French press that she's nuts for pig's head, Jacques Chirac's appetite for calf's head is well known, and both presidential pretenders—Nicholas Sarkozy and Segolene Royale—have recently seen fit either to mention their love of offal or to be photographed eating it. Publishers are getting on the band wagon, too. A volume of recipes called Testicules, by Blandine Vie, has just hit the shelves. If you're curious about abats, head for the stand of Laurent Chiron(at the market in Boulogne-Billancourt) the next time you're in Paris. Chiron sells every known type of offal and is widely considered the best tripier in town.
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