We have been a fan of Olivier and his Frenchway Bakery and Cafe at his first location on west Academy and watched with interest as his new locale, mid-Academy was being assembled.  Then, we heard through the grapevine that he was also going into the former Bread and Circus location.  Having been involved in single restaurant openings ourselves, we knew what an under taking this would turn out to be.  Olivier needed to call in for reinforcements and as a result Raphael has transplanted himself from Nice and Antibes (the prompt for my digression yesterday).

D arrived to pick me up for our anniversary lunch with an armful of white lillies.  I gave him an NFL magazine, so you can tell who is the romatic in this marriage.  I plunked them into the bread-maker cylinder that was soaking in the sink, so that we could savour the little piece of time that we had eked out of our day.

I let D chose for us because I could have easily ordered one of everything but even with his decision-making powers we did not make it past the Appetizer selections.  And so three “little plates’ arrived at our table to share. 

The Tarte Tomate was a flaky and tender puff pastry filled with pesto and ricotta cheese and topped with grilled tomato and fresh herbs. The creamy cheese was the perfect balance to the sparkling tomato taste.

Next up were grilled vegetables with a fresh mozzarella and prosciutto (which was optional if you wanted a meatless item).  Even though we appreciate hot vegetables with a hot entree, these were served at room temperature which is the perfect manner to detect the nuances of taste variations.  The first time we sampled a plate of vegetables served in this way was at Cumpa Cossimo our world favourite restaurant located in Ravello on the Amalfi Coast in Italy.  Raphael’s preparation was equal to the very best.

Influenced by the “Frenchman” who is close to our family, we had to try the Petite Tourtiere Maison.  As compared to a Canadian Tortiere, this was more like a giant meatball surrounded by a flaky pastry.  Different and delicious!

We finished off with a tart filled with a sublime custard and a variety of fresh fruit.  The pastry had a cookie quality and made the use of a fork rather challenging.  Who were we kidding, we should have just picked it up with our fingers?  This selection had a “circle of life” feel to it as it look just like the cake that we had for our wedding 27 years ago. 

Kath’s quote: “Light, refined, learned and noble, harmonious and orderly, clear and logical, the cooking of France is, in some strange manner, intimately linked to the genius of her greatest men.”-Rouff Marcel

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