We equate frozen food with drunken Mama Celeste purchases and boxes of peas but a new retail outlet arriving on the Upper East Side wants to take those freezer-burned images and transform them into visions of haute cuisine. Say hello to Babeth's Feast, the brainchild of Le Pain Quotidien investor Elisabeth de Kergorlay, who wants to bring the frozen food stores of her native France to American consumers. “When I lived in Paris I would host lavish Sunday buffets with all kinds of dishes from my local frozen food store - quiches, soups, tartares, gratins, and the always popular chocolate lava cakes,” de Kergorlay says. “Through clever presentation, my guests never suspected the dishes were frozen and they unanimously voted me a fabulous cook.”
The idea of frozen tartare sounds a bit strange, but things like quiche, gratins and casseroles could certainly stand up to the freezing process. The store separates their products into categories including breakfast, sides, butcher shop, pantry items and more, each with their own color-coded labels. The company, which also includes Crumbs Bake Shop founder Jason Bauer, even hired photographer Gilles Bensimon, also known as "that guy Tyra Banks always talks about on America's Next Top Model," to photograph what each product looks like post-defrosting. Signature dishes will include French offerings like Coq au Vin and Gratin Dauphinois to American "favorites" like Lobster Mac & Cheese and "Franks in a Blanket."
"...tied with rafia" (courtesy Babeth's Feast)
The company tells us that ingredients are locally sourced whenever possible, including seafood from Maine and other products from a Hudson Valley farm. 80% of the products just needed to be thawed or heated—via microwave, oven or stovetop—while 20% will be "uncooked meat, fish and simply blanched vegetables." Throwing a fully prepared entree into the oven sounds convenient, especially for a last-minute meal, but doesn't buying frozen protein make dinnertime a little more complicated? Unless you're someone who "plans ahead" and "has it together" or whatever.
Added convenience means spending a little more than you would for fresh, but the company insists costs are budget-friendly: appetizers hover around $3.50 per serving and main courses around $7 per serving. Once the store opens in the spring, staff can also help plan a menu in addition to demonstrations on how to prepare the goods. If you're not confident in the kitchen this could be an easy way to fake competence and impress a new significant other. Remember: cooking can be treacherous.
