Cèpes in the restaurant
Cèpes Season Is Here — and So Are We
There is a moment every autumn when French kitchens go a little quieter, then a little louder. Someone walks in from the market with a basket that smells of damp woods and warm nuts. The first cèpes of the season have arrived.
At LALA, that moment is one we wait for.
What, exactly, is a cèpe?
Cèpe is the French name for Boletus edulis — the same mushroom Italians call porcini and the English sometimes call penny bun, after the fat brown cap that looks like a bread roll left on a forest floor.
It is not a cultivated supermarket mushroom. Cèpes grow wild, in a partnership with oak, beech, chestnut and pine. They appear after late-summer heat meets autumn rain: typically from late August into October, with September often the sweetest month of all. That is why they feel like a season, not a staple.
A good cèpe is meaty without being heavy. The flavour is deep, nutty, a little sweet, with that woodland perfume you cannot fake with button mushrooms and a splash of soy. Cooked simply in butter, it tastes like the forest decided to sit down for lunch.
Why they belong at LALA
Mushrooms already belong in our kitchen. The vol-au-vent “LALA” is built on sweetbreads, morels and whatever is good that week.
Cèpes are that same idea, turned up: generous, fragrant, a little luxurious without being formal. That is how we like French food to feel on Lyndhurst Terrace.
A small note on the season
Cèpes do not wait. They bruise, they fade, and they disappear with the first real cold.
If you have been meaning to come for lunch, the roast chicken, or a late glass on the terrace, this is a good week.
See you at LALA.
À bientôt!
