11/14/2022
The History and the Development of the L'Entrecote Secret Sauce
Background:
In 1959 Paul Gineste de Saurs purchased an Italian restaurant called "Le Relais de Venise - L'Entrecote" (the Venice Inn) in the 17th arrondissement of Paris, near Porte Maillot. As descendant of the Gineste de Saurs family in southern France, he was seeking to establish a market for the wines produced by the family's Chateau de Saurs winery in Lisle-sur-Tarn, 30 miles northeast of Toulouse. He was modeled his restaurant after the Cafe de Paris bistro in Geneva, which had been serving steak-frites in this way since the early 1940s since its founding by Arthur-François (Freddy) Dumont. Although the lineage is not clear, the Paris restaurant attributes the origin of the sauce to Dumont's father-in-law, one Mr Boubier.
The butter sauce itself is often referred to as Cafe de Paris sauce whose recipe remains a trade secret to this day.
Paul Erdman, the famous American writer, says in his best seller, The Last Days of America, "We went to Cafe de Paris in Geneva that has the best entrecote sauce of any eating place on earth."
In place of the previous Italian menu, Gineste de Saurs decided that the restaurant would offer the traditional French bistro meal of steak-frites as its only main dish, with no other menu options.
Where most restaurants served steak-frites with herbed butter, Le Relais de Venise served the dish with a secret complex butter-based sauce. A simple salad of baby butter lettuce topped with walnuts and a mustard vinaigrette with a baguette was offered as a starter. Not until the end of the meal did the menu offer some choices: a variety of cheeses, and dessert (fruit pastries, profiteroles, and others consisting mainly of ice cream, chocolate sauce, meringue, and whipped cream). The "entrecote," meaning "between the ribs," steak is a special cut used in France. It is similar to rib-eye and filet mignon in the USA.
The steak with the sauce and frites are served twice in small portions for freshness. Typically, the entrecote is served on a bed of the sauce, on a stainless steel platter kept hot atop a trivet with a warming candle in the base.
The Restaurants Today:
Three separate groups of restaurants, each operated by one of Paul Gineste de Saurs' children, carry on the secret sauce formula and unique restaurant theme he originally established.
The restaurants' atmosphere is a key part of the formula, and is as important to their success as their cuisine. Each group has some decorative touch to distinguish it from its siblings: the Relais de Venise – L'Entrecote group has mural paintings of Venice and sconces whose lampshades depict Venetian gondoliers; the Relais de L'Entrecote group features early-twentieth-century posters advertising liquor such as Amer Picon, Wincarnis, and Cherry Chevalier; and the L'Entrecote group has a color scheme of yellow-and-black stripes and plaids.
In all three groups, every restaurant has the typical look of a French brasserie with wood paneling and wall mirrors, closely spaced tables, and bench seating in red upholstery. All the servers are women, dressed in black uniforms with white (or yellow) aprons (no male staff). The restaurants do not take reservations, thereby ensuring that all tables can be fully in use at all times. Typically, this means that diners must wait in line to be seated, often outside the restaurant.
"Le Relais de Venise – L'Entrecote" Restaurant Group:
Following the death of Paul Gineste de Saurs in 1966, his daughter Helene Godillot took control of the original restaurant at Porte Maillot.
Her branch of the family has a second location in Barcelona. Helene's son, Patrick-Alain Godillot is taking a more active role in the restaurant.
Three additional locations operating under license, two in London and one in Bahrain. Another is scheduled to open in New York in 2009. The license-holders for the London, Bahrain, and New York locations are Steven and Michael Elghanayan.
"L'Entrecote" Restaurant Group:
In 1962, his son Henri Gineste de Saurs opened a restaurant similar to his father's in Toulouse, 30 miles from the family vineyard at Lisle-sur-Tarn. He subsequently opened additional locations in Bordeaux, Nantes, Montpellier, and Lyon. Henri's daughters, Valerie Lagarde and Corinne de Roaldes, are taking a bigger role today.
"Le Relais de L'Entrecote" Restaurant Group:
Another daughter, Marie-Paule Burrus, adopted the name Le Relais de L'Entrecote for her group of restaurants. Her branch of the family has four locations of its own, three in Paris and one in Geneva, as well as four others operating under license, three in Beirut run by Premier Leisure and one in Kuwait City.
The Geneva location occupies premises that once housed the "Bavaria," a brasserie established in 1912 which became a favorite haunt of international officials during the early years of the League of Nations. The Bavaria was used by Ian Fleming as the venue for a brief episode in his 1959 James Bond novel Goldfinger.
Since 1981, Marie-Paule Burrus has also headed the family's Chateau de Saurs winery with her husband, Yves Burrus, an icon of Switzerland's Burrus family of industrialists. Paul-Christian Burrus and Geraldine Burrus are more involved in the operations today.
Secret Sauce Re-invented:
Steve Szirom first became acquainted with the mysteriously addicting sauce in 1974 while stationed in Toulouse, France on three year-assignment for Motorola. He became a regular to the L’Entrecote in Toulouse and resolved one day to recreate the recipe.
There was only one main course selection on the menu and the waitress, clad in black and white, only asks how you want it cooked (they refuse to serve it well-done, don’t even ask). As soon as one is seated, the salad comes to the table along with a basket of baguette bread. The salad is nothing more than dressed baby butter lettuce with walnuts sprinkled over it. The vinaigrette was mustardy and delicious.
The steak, sliced and tender, served with a buttery, herby, creamy, savory sauce creation. It blends perfectly with filet mignon or rib eye, pommes frites (shoe string French fries), and red wine.
Every American who ate at the restaurant raves about it. There is a cult following of aficionados on the web who comment on the sauce's merits and debate the sauce’s ingredients.
The recipe remains a fiercely guarded secret and attempts to imitate the sauce have been largely unsuccessful to date.
Thanks to Debra Rosenfeld’s culinary skills, Steve Szirom was inspired to work together with her to develop the sauce. The sauce was first secretly expropriated from a L’Entrecote restaurant for taste analysis.
Beginning in 2009, and after a year of trial-and-error with dozens of false starts -- voila -- the sauce was perfected, equaling the famous Cafe de Paris sauce.
Concocted with a blend of 12 natural ingredients, the steak sauce has captivated the palates of hundreds of diners in the past several years who have been invited to Steve and Debra’s “L'Entrecote secret sauce” tasting dinners.
