This is a review of Gourmandise’s new branch in Maadi. But before we get to that, let me tell you a story. The story sounds too good to be true. But like many things about Cairo, sometimes fact is better than fiction.
Once there was a fantastically wealthy man. This man was so wealthy he owned a boat. Not only that, but a boat with bedrooms. Not only that, this boat was so large it required its own onboard chef. The man was from Egypt; the chef was from France.
One evening, drifting somewhere in the Mediterranean, with cool evening breezes wafting over the elegant deck, hunger-sated with delightful cuisine, the French chef mentioned to his Egyptian employer that this was not all that he aspired to be. One day he wanted to make a culinary impact beyond the confines of a single boat. The man, who happened to have a building in need of a restaurant, was intrigued.
The building in question was Giza’s First Mall. The restaurant that was started as a result of that evening’s conversation is Gourmandise. The rest is history. Food, or at least bread, in Cairo has never been the same.
This column has profiled Gourmandise’s First Mall location before. In that article, we never really engaged with the place as a restaurant. The crowd’s a bit shishi; the location’s a bit stale; the location is somewhat out of the way unless you happen to be visiting the zoo. However, to this day they continue to serve up Cairo’s best bread, and some of its best ice cream. This much we already know.
What prompts this column is the opening of Gourmandise’s new branch in Maadi, next to Metro off of Road 9. This time they’ve made such an effort with a sumptuously crafted interior that we decided to venture beyond the bakery take-out desk and sit down for a full meal instead.
I think that Gourmandise, perhaps owing to the French passport of its muse, has always closely tracked Cairo’s French set. Gourmandise/First Mall is, after all, located a stone’s throw from the French Embassy. Lunch time you’ll find the place filled with French diplomats, discretely carrying out their enigmatic trade.
The new branch is for these diplomats’ spouses. These spouses, I suspect mostly wives, are anchored in Maadi owing to the French Lycee’s location there. I suppose they chafed at having to drive up to Giza for their bread, and have persuaded Gourmandise to peddle their glorious wares closer to home. The elegant and tasteful furnishings (warm colors, deep red chairs and pink display, lingering furnishings) ooze a feminine charm. On a recent visit, the place was full with the fervent chatter of female inflected French; not a man in sight beyond the friendly and attentive wait staff. Lest you feel unkindly toward France’s gender equality in the workplace, check out the recent New York Times article tellingly titled “where having it all doesn’t mean equality.”
French café food is straightforward. Serve up salads, sandwiches, and soups, perhaps a pizza or two for the kids. Serve it up alongside superb coffee and bread, and voilà. The new Gourmandise tracks closely to this script. On a recent lunch visit, we sampled the ‘Salade Parisienne’ with grilled chicken, goat cheese, and zesty Dijon mustard, a grilled chicken salad, and a bowl of tomato soup. The soup was excellent, not earth-shattering, but very competently done. The sandwich was, if it’s possible, boring but made exquisite by the delightful bread. The salad was a delight. But as my wife is fond of saying, French sandwiches are simply delivery mechanisms for the bread, and it would be difficult to serve up anything disappointing that comes sandwiched between ample slices of Gourmandise’s bread.
Gourmandise/Maadi continues to serve up the delightful range of catering and take out fare that we’ve grown to depend upon from the First Mall, including cakes (particularly the millefeuille… mon dieu!), cakes and chocolate, macarons, terrines and bread (baguette, old fashioned, olive, cereal and brown).
I feel like Gourmandise, diversifying to Maadi from the First Mall, is now open for a slightly more real segment of Cairo’s population than whomever the clientele of the First Mall happens to be. Gourmandise/Maadi marks two exciting departures for the brand: one, it turns it into a chain, and leads us all to speculate where the next opening will take place; two, it marks the emergence of a restaurant atmosphere more successful, I believe, than that of the First Mall. However, it is still established upon the foundation of superb European style bread, and hewing close to this script, it can’t go far wrong.
Details: 85, Road 9, Maadi. Tel: 2751 5155. Open from 7:30 AM to midnight.
Web: www.lagourmandiseegypt.com.
Lunch for two: LE130.
