Crêpes in Paris

Like Julie Powell, author of Julie & Julia, I plan to cook a lot of Frenchy things while in France. Instead of cooking through Julia Child’s book, I’ll be referring to the great Michelin-starred chefs in France. The names that come to mind are Joël Robuchon, Michel Roux, Michel Guérard, and Alain Passard. Crêpes are quintessentially French. On the busy streets along the Seine, you’ll find food stands selling crêpes. With so many vying for your business, it took me a week of resisting to finally give in and buy one. Why? Because I’m a DIY type of person. I need to know the savior-faire of things and crêpes are no exception.

I think of cooking as a fun challenge. Specifically, how do I make a dish — throw me a challenge, say vegetarian — and still make it undeniably tasty. My sister-in-law describes my cooking as predominantly French. I admit it. I do gravitate towards Michelin stars, so I feel very much at home in Paris.

So, when it came to crêpes, I knew I had to refer to Michel Roux’s recipes. How could you go wrong with a pastry chef who’s held three Michelin stars for 25 years? Okay, you can if you try to improvise, get creative, and think you know better. Instead, follow the masters. Do not deviate. So what did I do? I didn’t follow the recipe, precisely. Ten years ago, I would’ve been disappointed with myself. Today, I find that you can be flexible with a little cooking experience under your belt. I only had cream and not both cream and milk. Give me a break! Sometimes, these high-falutin chefs expect you to have the entire supermarket at your disposal. When you follow their recipes to a T, you end up with an overflowing pantry you can not practically eat your way out of. Trust me, I speak from experience.

So, with some slight deviations, the crêpes in my kitchen away from home still turned out parfaite, or perfect in French. You have to have crêpes fresh, because you need to get that slightly crispy texture that contrasts with the spongy, chewy texture. Let it sit for a while and all you get is spongy. So when you make it yourself, it can’t get any fresher than right off the pan.

The fraises, or strawberries, here are amazingly delicious, too. For this crêpe, there was probably only one gram of added sugar. (Another plus to making it yourself: you know exactly what you’re putting in your body.) The strawberries and bananas were enough to sweeten the entire dessert.

Crêpe batter is so versatile. You don’t have to use up all of it in one go, unless you’re making gâteau de crêpes (a cake made from stacking crepes with pastry cream sandwiched in between). So for breakfast the next day, I made this champignon (mushroom) and cheese crêpe fashioned in galette style with my leftover batter. An egg on top would’ve made it even better. When you get the batter right, you can get creative and invent a million flavors of crêpe. I saw some nice fresh black truffles at La Grande Epicerie de Paris the other day. Wouldn’t that make a nice crêpe? Or how about some avocado crêpe instead of avocado toast? You can have a different flavor every day of the year! And all you have to do is master one great recipe.