Café de Paris sauce facts for kids

An "entrecôte Café de Paris", a famous steak dish. Even though it's called "Café de Paris," this special sauce actually started in Switzerland.

Café de Paris sauce is a special creamy sauce that is mostly made from butter. It is usually served with grilled beef, especially steak. When this sauce is put on a sliced entrecôte (which is a type of rib eye steak) or a faux-filet (a sirloin steak), the dish is known as "entrecôte Café de Paris."

The Story Behind the Sauce

The Café de Paris sauce became very popular in the 1930s. It was made famous by the Café de Paris restaurant in Geneva, Switzerland. At that time, the restaurant was owned by Arthur-François (Freddy) Dumont. The entrecôte Café de Paris is still the restaurant's most famous dish today.

The Café de Paris restaurant says that Mr. Dumont's father-in-law, Mr. Boubier, was the person who first created the sauce. Today, the restaurant even sends its special sauce to other restaurants around the world. These restaurants then serve it under a special agreement. You can find this dish in places like Lausanne (Switzerland), Lisbon, Porto, Dubai, Kuwait, Riyadh, Hong Kong, and Stockholm.

The Café de Paris restaurant in Geneva, Switzerland. This is where the famous sauce and its steak dish were first created.

There are also other groups of restaurants, like the Entrecôte restaurants, that serve a very similar sauce. These restaurants were started by the family of Gineste de Saurs. You can find them in many big cities like Paris, London, New York, and Dubai.

What's in the Sauce?

Secret Ingredients

Both the Café de Paris restaurant and the Entrecôte restaurant groups keep the exact recipe for their sauce a secret. They don't want anyone to know all the ingredients or how they make it.

However, a newspaper in Paris called Le Monde once reported some of the ingredients for the sauce served by Le Relais de Venise – L'Entrecôte. They said it included poultry livers, fresh thyme, cream, white Dijon mustard, butter, water, salt, and pepper.

Two servings of entrecôte Café de Paris. One is cooked rare (less done) and the other is well done.

According to Le Monde, the recipe involves cooking the livers and thyme in one pan. In another pan, the cream is slowly cooked with mustard and thyme flowers. Then, everything is mixed and strained into the cream. As the sauce gets thicker, butter and a little water are added. It's all beaten until it's smooth, and then salt and pepper are added. But, the owner of Le Relais de Venise – L'Entrecôte told a London newspaper that the Le Monde report was not correct. So, the exact recipe remains a mystery!

How It's Served

The Café de Paris restaurant serves its entrecôte steak on top of the sauce. The dish is placed on a special platter that is kept hot. This is done using a trivet with a small warming candle underneath. When it's first served, the sauce looks like a thick, whipped foam and is a brownish color. But as it melts from the heat, it turns into a creamy, greenish liquid.

The Entrecôte restaurants serve their sauce as a creamy, pea-soup-green liquid right away. It doesn't separate as easily and is usually less salty than the original.

Café de Paris Butter

It's important to know that "Café de Paris butter" is different from the classic Café de Paris sauce. Café de Paris butter is a type of compound butter. This means it's butter mixed with many different herbs, spices, and other flavors.

Some common ingredients in Café de Paris butter include mustard, marjoram, dill, rosemary, tarragon, paprika, capers, chives, curry powder, parsley, shallot, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, and anchovies. All these ingredients are whipped together into the butter. Then, the butter is shaped into a roll using aluminium foil and chilled. When the dish is served, a slice of this flavored butter is placed on the hot meat. It then melts, adding a lot of flavor.

See also

In Spanish: Café de Paris para niños