Salade Rachel

Salade Rachel is a French bistro classic whose name points to a vanished house speciality: a cold plate of warm-tempered potatoes, sour pickles, and smoked or salt-cured herring, dressed with a sharp vinaigrette and finished with a scatter of raw shallot. Created by chef Émile Lecoze at the Pavillon d\u0027Armenonville in Paris and named for the actress Rachel Boyer, it was originally built around a veal stock reduction and a tomato concassée, but the recipe in French house kitchens has long since settled into the bistro version that the name brings to mind today: a salad of boiled fingerling potatoes, marinated herring, beetroot for colour and a peppery horseradish-mustard dressing. Modern brasseries along the boulevards around Opéra and the Sentier, and a small number of bistros in the 8th and 9th arrondissements, still list Salade Rachel on the daily menu, and you will also find it in Lyon bouchons and in Alsace on the starter side of the carte. Eat it as a first course, or pair it with a tranche of grilled mackerel and a glass of Muscadet. The dressing should be assertive — sharp shallot, white wine vinegar, a tight olive oil emulsion — and the herring cut thickly enough to feel like the centre of the plate.