Red Mullet, Fifties Fashions and Brigitte Bardot
When I can’t sleep I recall favorite meals rather than count sheep. High on the list are the dishes of red mullet I’ve eaten at Le Chaufourg-en-Perigord, my favorite inn in la belle France. So perfectly does the chef there cook this gorgeous little fish that often I’ll order it two evenings in a row.
But it’s not only the food that enchants at Le Chaufourg; the setting is sublime. Georges Dambier and his cousin Agnes have created an spot so enchanting that J and I have been there five times. On one anniversary J said he’d take me anywhere in the world to celebrate and I didn’t hesitate a moment. The photo of us at a table next to tall open doors leading to Le Chaufourg’s gardens remains one of my favorites.
But that photo is just an enlarged snapshot. The loveliest two photos in my home were taken by M. Dambier, one of France’s best and best-known fashion photographers of the 50s and 60s before he returned to the Dordogne valley of his youth to run an inn. One depicts a young Brigitte Bardot, the other the fashion idol of my teens; Suzy Parker. Copies of both appear — on side-by-side pages — in the luscious new book Paris Fifties: Regards de Mode.
If you love fashion and fashion photography, you should treat yourself to this book, available from Amazon.fr.
And if you live in a part of the world where you can buy fresh red mullet, don’t tell me how deliciously you prepare it. Envy is such an ugly emotion.
Tuesday, December 30th, 2008 at 4:52 pmand is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
January 1st, 2009 at 5:02 pm
i had to google red mullet – what makes it distinctive? you should include the pic of you and j next to the garden here!