Bacon and Butter Make Everything Better

About author / Amy Powell

World traveler; gourmet 30 minute meals; lover of exotic ingredients; winner on FoodTV's Chefs vs City; graduate French Culinary Institute. Her recipes will tantalize your taste buds.

Bacon and butter make everything better. This was the motto of the French Culinary Institute. Well, not officially, but any institution with “French” in the title might as well have this adage to go along with it. And seeing how I received my degree in the culinary arts from the French Culinary Institute, I think I am just as qualified as any to comment on the tag line that seems implicit in making or consuming French food.

Trite as it might sound, bacon and butter do, in fact, make everything better. Thank God for the French. Without them we might never have discovered salads of frissee with bacon lardon, chicken grand mere with vegetables and bacon lardon, and crème caramel with bacon lardon--just kidding on that last one. But really, thank the gods, and the French, for bacon lardon.

And thank the French for butter. Yes, vegetable oil is fantastic for frying and olive oil is the universally healthy and tasty fat that we have come to use almost indiscriminately. But butter… does it really get any better? Can a sauce really find the same gloss and balance on the palate when finished with oil as opposed to butter? I think not.

This is the time of year when we seek out these flavors of the French. After a summer of grilled meats and olive oil-dressed veggies, a Mediterranean diet has become a bore. The body almost craves the tastes and elements that stick to the mouth, cling to the bones, and linger along the cheeks with richness and depth of flavor. Enter the bacon and the butter that make everything better.

Even though the Indian summer seems here to stay in California, I feel a strange longing for the warm comfort of the French bistro. Although an intimate French café can be charming, I enjoy the hustle and bustle of the busy city bistro complete with tiled floor, antique mirrored walls, snobby waiters and plenty of people-watching. Now there's a Parisian vibe that really suits the richness of the food.

Sadly, if you're not in Paris, and if you're outside of New York--with the exception of a couple of rare, notable locations--the Paris taste is one that must be recreated in our own home. Even though butter may be making a bit of a comeback in the post-margarine era, bacon still has a long way to go before we find an appreciation for it beyond the breakfast table.

For all the rib-sticking food I long for, it's funny that a fish dish should be the one I crave the most. Fortunately, there are enough of my two favorite ingredients, bacon and butter, to make this healthy dish border on a cholesterol crisis. Vegetables as the base for lentils are sautéed in real and unadulterated butter. Salmon is pan fried in oil but finished with a syrupy balsamic and Dijon reduction that is balanced out with, you guessed it, butter. And no meal would be complete without the other key ingredient, bacon, which tops off my fish dish to take it straight from light Mediterranean to the body-warming bistros of the chilly Parisian streets.

So while my alma mater might take offense to my unofficial school motto, I stand by the idea of keeping the message simple, stupid. Because if there is a reason that the French represent the pinnacle of culinary greatness, it might be their knowledge that bacon and butter make food not just better, but nearly divine.

Serves/Makes: 4

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 medium carrot
• 1 medium leek
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 tablespoons tarragon
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 cup lentils, rinsed
• 3 cups water
• 1 1/3 pound wild salmon fillets, skin on, pin bones removed
• salt and pepper
• 4 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 2 teaspoons butter
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 6 slices thick-cut bacon