HUDSON VALLEY CHEF’S TABLE

Even the smallest sparks can trigger great fires. At Cafe le Perche, that spark was bread—in fact, one particular baguette. This baguette was baked in La Perche, a town almost smack in the geographical center of France; it was so delicious, so haunting, and so poetic that it inspired Allan Chapin to try to re-create it. To that end he disassembled an eleven-inch, seventeen-ton wood-fired oven (complete with a manually rotated baking stone) and had it shipped from France to Hudson, New York, where it was mortared into a basement of a former bank on Warren Street. The American bakers that Chapin hired to man this oven didn’t exactly know what they were getting into.

Traditionally, the kitchen-classrooms in culinary schools feature the sort of steely equipment that comes to life when you press a red button. According to Cafe le Perche’s GM, Jennifer Houle, the morning routine at Cafe le Perche is far different. “It’s purely rustic. You have to load the fire and then manually vent it to get it to the right temperature. There are so many factors that not only affect the bread-baking but also affect the oven: the humidity, the wind, the temperature inside, the type of wood that we’re getting delivered. There’s a learning curve to working with this oven.” Faced with a toolbox of rocks, fire, and wood, Cafe le Perche’s bakers found themselves working, essentially, in the Stone Age.

Then there was the challenge of re-creating the unique flours of France in the Hudson Valley. To help, Chapin imported Daniel Lambert, who baked the original baguette in Le Perche that inspired Chapin’s Hudson homage. Armed with a sack of flour that he smuggled from France, Lambert consulted with Wild Hive Farm in Clinton Corners, New York. The result is Cafe le Perche’s proprietary blend of locally milled soft white pastry flour and hard red wheat flour.

Meanwhile, there was Cafe Le Perche’s Warren Street building’s potential to exploit. Built in the 1830s, a time when bank deposits were not insured, the Hudson River Savings Bank relied on impressive architecture to instill faith. According to Houle, “The original concept was just to open a bakery. But when I saw the bones of the building, I thought, ‘This is just stunning, we need to do something more with this.’” The remodeling was peppered with happy discoveries. Says Houle, “We found that grille behind the bar in the carriage house. It was the old teller cage from the time when the building was a bank. We used whatever we could find that was original.”

Consistent with Chapin’s commitment to locally milled flour, Cafe le Perche’s sourcing is hyper-local. Says Houle, “The original chef and I were at International Culinary Institute together, and the farm-to-table movement was huge. It was just a no-brainer to source our eggs, flour, milk, vegetables, and the proteins in the Hudson Valley.” The kitchen at Cafe le Perche works in conjunction with Blue Spruce Farm in Ghent, New York. According to Houle, “It’s not a commercial farm—they primarily work with us. What we do is send them a list in the spring of what we would like to use for our menu and they plant the seeds. And we go out there and pick whenever we want—it’s been a partnership for the last two years. As the farm is growing, we’re growing with it, and using more of its stuff. We have plans to use more land for things like herbs, berries, apples, and peaches.”

CAFE LE PERCHE ROAST PORK SANDWICH

For the onion jam:

6 large yellow onions

4 tablespoons canola oil

2 teaspoons ground coriander

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 cup apple cider

1 cup apple cider vinegar

1 cup water

2 tablespoons salt

4 tablespoons granulated sugar

For the house-made mustard:

2 cups yellow mustard seed

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

½ cup ground mustard

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground white pepper

1 tablespoon honey

1 cup dry white wine (e.g., Pinot Grigio or Sauvignon Blanc)

½ cup rice wine vinegar

For the braised kale:

2½ pounds kale

5 teaspoons canola oil

1½ teaspoons minced garlic

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

¾ cup dry white wine (e.g., Pinot Grigio or Sauvignon Blanc)

2 quarts chicken stock

2 tablespoons salt

1 tablespoon ground white pepper

For the pork tenderloin:

1 (1–1½ pounds) pork tenderloin

¾ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground black pepper

½ cup Dijon mustard

2¼ teaspoons minced rosemary

2¼ teaspoons minced garlic

1 tablespoon olive oil

For the assembled roast pork sandwiches:

8 tablespoons unsalted butter

8 half-inch-thick slices Cafe Le Perche rustic bread

12 ounces roast pork tenderloin, sliced thick

16 slices gruyère

8 ounces braised kale

4 tablespoons onion jam

4 tablespoons house-made mustard

16 slices Roma tomato, thinly sliced

To make the jam: Halve the onions and slice them thin. Heat a large pan over medium heat and pour in the canola oil. Add the sliced onions to the oil and sauté over medium heat until the onions are tinged with gold. Add the coriander, cumin, and cayenne and sauté for 3–5 more minutes, or until the onions are caramelized. Add the cider, cider vinegar, water, salt, and sugar and cook this mixture until the liquid is reduced to a thick syrup and the onions have a jamlike consistency. Remove from heat and reserve.

To make the mustard: In a mortar and pestle (or using a spice grinder), grind the mustard seed and crushed red pepper together until it is a coarse powder. Pour the mixture into a small bowl and then add the ground mustard, cumin, salt, and white pepper. In a separate small bowl, combine the honey, white wine, and rice wine vinegar. Slowly whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and continue to whisk until the mixture is fully incorporated. Refrigerate the mustard for at least 24 hours prior to use.

To braise the kale: Rinse the kale and trim the thick center stem from each leaf. Heat a large pan over medium heat and pour in the canola oil. Add the garlic and crushed red pepper to the oil and sauté for 2 minutes. Pour in the white wine and continue to cook until the liquid is reduced by half. Add the kale, chicken stock, salt, and pepper. Cover and cook for 10 minutes, or until kale is just tender; do not overcook.

To roast the pork loin: Preheat oven to 350°F. Place the pork tenderloin on a metal rack and then set the rack on a large, foil-lined sheet tray. Rub the pork with half the salt and half the pepper, then spread Dijon mustard over the entire tenderloin. Sprinkle rosemary evenly over the mustard, then season the pork again with the remaining salt and pepper. Spread the minced garlic along the top of the loin and drizzle with olive oil.

Place the pork in the oven and roast it until a thermometer inserted into the center reads 140°F (about 12–15 minutes). Remove the loin from the oven and allow it to cool for at least 1 hour.

To assemble the sandwich: Heat a frying pan over medium-low heat. Butter one side of each bread slice and place the slices, butter side down, in the pan. Fry the slices until they are crisp and golden on one side. Remove. Meanwhile, on an oven-safe pan, place the sliced pork in a single layer topped with eight slices of gruyère. Next to the pork, lay the braised kale. Top with eight slices of gruyère. Broil until the cheese is melted and bubbling.

On four of the untoasted sides of the bread, generously spread the warm onion jam. Onto the untoasted sides of the other slices, spread the house-made mustard. Layer the sliced tomato over the onion jam, then divide the kale and gruyère onto the tomato. Top this with the roasted pork and gruyère. Close the sandwiches, cut them on a bias, and serve with salad.