Saint-Malo: Auteur du Beurre

If you love butter the way that I love butter, it’s worth making a pilgrimage to master butter maker Jean-Yves Bordier’s new restaurant Autour du Beurre in Saint-Malo, on the coast of Brittany. Bordier furnishes butter to many of the great chefs of France and has won renown for his seasoned butters, all of which are sublime: smoked salt, seaweed, yuzu (Japanese citrus), piment d’Espelette (Basque red pepper) and vanilla. His new restaurant showcases the wonderful, simple cooking you can do using his butters as condiments. Stopping by recently, we tried an excellent filet of turbot with cauliflower purée made with that heavenly smoked-salt butter, and a steak garnished with piment d’Espelette butter was just as good. Apple crumble made with the vanilla butter provided a fine finish.

In Paris, Bordier butters are sold at the Grande Epicerie of Le Bon Marché department store, Lafayette Gourmet at Galeries Lafayette and the Breizh Café in the Marais, among other outlets. Note that the butters make wildly popular presents for the folks at home—I wrap them in aluminum foil and stock them in Tupperware containers for long-distance air travel.

7 rue de l’Orme, Saint-Malo, 02.23.18.25.81. Lunch menu €12–€15; à la carte €35. Wines start at €14.

Prices are approximate, per person without wine.

Originally published in the October 2012 issue of France Today