Raquel Carena
Mama Carena !
By Laurent Feneau

Between bistro tradition and totally inventive cooking, Raquel Carena always gets a big round of applause, even from the greatest chefs. The chef of the chefs!

Do you know Raquel's story? How she fled from Argentina, how - without knowing anything about cooking - she settled down for the first time 1987 at the top of Rue de Belleville and how, twenty years later she's hobnobbing with the greatest chefs all over the world?- With Raquel Carena, it's other chefs who can describe her the best! From Olivier Roellinger to Pierre Hermé, passing by Yves Camdeborde and Inaki Aizpitarte, … they all have their set place at Baratin. Baratin? Strange name for a no-nonsense restaurant … With Raquel, everything is fresh and new like a young girl. The products are daily handpicked, and the dishes dealt with quasi-dogmatic simplicity and limpidity. " For me, the best restaurant in Paris is not a palace, but the Baratin, a restaurant in Belleville where Raquel Carena cooks things I understand," confides Inaki Aizpitarte from the stoves of the very trendy Chateaubriand. It's interesting that the most famous chefs come to her small Belleville bistro to enjoy her cooking. "I never go more than a fortnight without eating at that great little patina-finished café where I know Raquel Carena will whip out some simple and delicious market cooking," says Pierre Hermé.

Absolute nonsense?
"Patina-finished," no doubt … Here there's no valet parking or trendy clients. A small café in a pot-holed street, a minimalist bistro decorated in old ceramic tiles and a teeny kitchen. Basically, just a "petit trouc," as she says with her charming Latino accent.
Sweltering sunshine, half-closed iron curtain, its time for Beaujo the cat to take a nap, and for Raquel, a short break. She is ready to tell her story with her smiling face, fine nose and head held high. When she arrived in France, she discovered cooking by reading "La Cuisine du Marché" by Paul Bocuse … She first tried the chicken with estragon, then a blanquette de veau, then the poule au pot… basically all the French classics … which fired up her instinct and she merely added her own personal touch.
Her cooking has naturally evolved after twenty years, but the essential is still there. "I really try to maintain the essential, favouring the simplicity of flavours, but I still also love making my "casserole dishes" which are the traditional ones from when I started," she confides. It's probably this dual cuisine that makes this restaurant so popular. Between two "bistro-like" dishes, you may suddenly witness a new creation, a new preparation and an entirely new taste! … deliciously inspired pollack tartar, foie gras squares in broth, a raspberry crumble ...

Argentina in Paris
Spatula high in the air, she resembles a fairy, but she has no secrets to hide, just as there is no mystery surrounding her. Raquel's recipe is to not have one! "I always work instinctively. It just comes! Sometimes an idea can be taken from here or there … but mainly I have to adapt to what the market has. I really have no choice as it's Philippe who does the shopping!" she says, bursting out laughing.
Because Baratin's story is also that of a duo not like others. Raquel and Philippe live their life together as they work in the kitchen together. Raquel is in charge of the solids and "Pinuche" - for regulars only! - is in charge of the liquids. The wine cellar is large, and the choice written on the slated menu has been carefully compiled making your ultimate order rather overwhelming at times. It pays to ask "Pinuche" for some advice. If you feel ready to attempt luring him to your table with a smile and a curious attitude, he will immediately shed his somewhat grumpy appearance and distant attitude to become the sweetest and most helpful of men! This game is definitely worthwhile as "Pinuche" has a priceless wine knowledge and flair. Having said that, the chef also knows some things about liquid, but of another kind. Initiated by Roellinger himself, broths are her secret, and for which she knows all the ins and outs. "Water is essential in my cooking as for any product it's important in the sense that it allows a meat or a fish to have the best flavours," she explains.
Comfortable with who she is and sure of what she does, Raquel makes absolutely no concessions to the culinary trends of the moment. A set menu? "I really don't like that! How sad to eat the same thing as your neighbour …" The new generation of women chefs such as Hélène Darroze and Anne-Sophie Pic? "That really doesn't interest me…"
In short, this cook from Argentina knows what she wants. Yes, she's got character but she also knows how to listen, observe … the proof is how her kitchen door is always open, so she can occasionally glance out to the dining room to see if her guests are happy. For Raquel what is important is "the pleasure of making others happy." Such as for the wedding and 40-year birthday party of Pierre Hermé, where she successfully organized and prepared both - "my most wonderful kitchen memories," she admits.
When the great chefs don't come see her then she goes to visit them, like for Andoni Luis Aduriz, who she visits regularly. There is no doubt that this Argentinean chef has good taste as the Mugaritz (Aduriz's restaurant) has just been elected the fourth best restaurant in the world ….
Raquel's cuisine art is not listed in any gourmet food guide which is just as well being that she is "unlistable!" Also someone like her doesn't flee an Argentinean dictatorship to be suddenly judged by these dictating culinary critics.
She is not interested in the stars of Argentinean generals or guidebooks. Perhaps the only ones she'd like would be from the Big Dipper and its "casserole" that we can sometimes observe shining in the Parisian sky when leaving Raquel's restaurant with its head and heart up in the heavens.

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