magazine
From luxurious Paris hotel breakfasts to simple French-style coddled eggs, discover alternative breakfast recipes and cocktail ideas
The Hôtel George V Paris prestige signature breakfast
Four Seasons Hotel George V Paris
We Brits like our breakfast – and a proper one to boot – whereas our French friends simply dunk a croissant in a café crème, or quickly devour an espresso and a pain au chocolat on the hoof.
Admittedly, a ‘Full English’ fry-up isn’t the healthiest start to the day and might therefore be best reserved for a special treat.
My last visit to London coincided with the much-lauded opening of the newly renovated Simpsons in the Strand, a venerable eating house that dates back to 1828, beloved of Churchill, King George, Disraeli and Dickens. Their breakfast menu features ‘The Ten Deadly Sins’, which, apart from all the usuals, includes a lamb chop and a devilled kidney.
It’s said that the Queen Mother was smitten with the eggs served at the Goring Hotel, almost within spitting distance of Buckingham Palace. Their ‘Eggs Drumkilbo’, named after the kitchens of Drumkilbo House in Perthshire, once owned by Robert the Bruce, are made with Cornish crab, aged caviar and native lobster.
Closer to home for those of us who live in France, an impressive breakfast can be enjoyed at the Hôtel George V in Paris. Their prestige signature breakfast includes a glass of Charles Heidsieck champagne and Caviar Scrambled Eggs, Cocotte Egg with Foie Gras and Black Truffle, or Blue Lobster Omelette. All for a mere €115.
A cheaper option if you’re getting bored with run-of-the-mill boiled, poached, fried or scrambled eggs is to get coddling. Line a cocotte dish liberally with butter, lay a quarter-inch disc of soft bread at the bottom, grate a small amount of cheese on it, then crack the egg on top, adding a little salt and pepper. Gently lower the dish into a pan of simmering water so that it reaches halfway up the dish.
Let it steam for up to seven minutes or longer, depending on how soft or hard you like your egg. Serve it with a pretty garnish of blobs of red and black lumpfish caviar.
Then tear off a bit of a baguette and give it a good dunking à la française.
Off with a bang
To help kick-start your working day, there’s nothing more invigorating than a Breakfast Martini, whose special ingredient is orange marmalade.
It was invented by the cocktail maestro Salvatore Calabrese when he was running the bar at the Lanesborough Hotel in London. Pour three parts gin, one part Cointreau (or Grand Marnier), a generous splosh of freshly squeezed lemon juice and a spoonful of marmalade into a shaker with ice, and shake vigorously. Double-strain into a chilled glass, finally adding a slice
of lemon.
If that’s not feisty enough, and you’re nursing a hangover, then you need the so-called ‘Suffering Bastard’, invented in 1942 to cure World War II troops’ hangovers: a heady mix of Cognac, gin, lime juice and ginger beer.
A great start to the day.
