A Parisian dinner in Montmartre

Seasonal... that is the key word....my Parisian dinner in Montmartre is always in accordance with the season and I set up my menus taking into account what I find on the market stalls and bring home in my basket.
My cooking is always seasonal... comforting soups, stews or "pot au feu" when days get shorter and colder...
When spring is on its way we all long for the first fragrant strawberries, fresh asparagus and later summer juicy tomatoes on our plates. I am always very impatient to buy all these new vegetables from the stalls of my favorite street market and offer them to my guests at dinner in Montmartre...

Meanwhile you may still see a few beets, some celeri or cauliflower along with braised chicory or fennel in my recipes as I will be waiting for the first garden peas, asparagus and baby spinach sprouts.

Summer comes and I will go for southern influences....lots of zucchinis, eggplants and tomatoes seasoned with most fragrant herbs. We may have a "tian"of vegetables or a ratatouille like in Provence along with oven baked cod fillets or a "tagine" - a stew of meat and vegetables slow cooked with spices in Moroccan style

Fall, perhaps my favorite culinary time, will mean other fantastic vegetables. Some of them we had forgotten to cook, such as butternut squashes, Jerusalem artichokes, parsnips... that I will use in veloutés or gratins and serve along with duck confits or pork filet mignon in mustard sauce. This does not exclude my favorite oven baked cod fillets topped with Roellinger's most fragrant oil with cumbavas if you are not exactly keen on meat.
Before dinner we will raise our glasses filled with Saumur- wonderful sparkling wine from the Loire region- or Bordeaux if you go more for red wine- while nibbling different sorts of appetizers according to my fancy: cheese "goujères" -cheese puffs-, sardine or tuna rillettes on toasted baguettes, "verrines" of taramasolata with dices of beet root, little skewers of Moroccan style carrots.
It is always a four course meal and starter I may serve "velouté " of the season vegetables or a salad of different vegetables cooked or raw sometimes along with smoked fish or meat

There will always be cheese: a creamy Camembert, but also Roquefort, sheep milk blue cheese- or matured Comté or Cantal, fantastic cow cheeses...

As dessert I will serve my chocolate "fondant" - a most decadent chocolate cake- along with a salad of juicy and fragrant "maltaises" oranges in winter ...or in late spring the wonderful Gariguette strawberries... or to start fall, tasty peaches in wine syrup or even poached pears.
There will be Bordeaux wine served all through dinner - "with moderation" as the French law puts it and coffee will be served at the end of the meal....or rosé when Summer is on its way.
This is the general outline of my menus.

A few days before the date of the dinner party for which you have booked I will send you the details concerning what I will be serving you on that particular night, taking into account the food restrictions you may have and which you will have mentioned to me beforehand.

I am particularly keen on table decorating and, just like I do when I entertain my friends, I will be serving dinner in white china plates or more fancy ones . They will be laid on linen or cotton tablecloths, with matching or fancy colored napkins and always candles to light up the whole setting ...and the cheeks of my very special guests of the night. And there might be a logfire in the open fire place to warm you up and feel cozy when the day has been a little chilly or rainy...
I would like you to feel not only like hosts I would be entertaining for one paticular event, but like friends I have had for a long time.