Executive Briefing
Can canned beans have their tinned-fish moment?
Also: Ghia’s latest bottle design (and numbers). And, what’s Magic Spoon working on?
By Dan Frommer on Saturday, April 15, 2023 at 8:00 am
One of the low-key best dishes in Paris is the wine bar La Buvette’s small plate of giant white beans, drizzled with good olive oil and topped with citrus zest and some crunchy sea salt. That’s it, and that’s all it needs to be.
To prepare the beans, founder Camille Fourmont doesn’t soak and braise for hours — she cracks open a can.
“Look for cans or jars of plump judión, gigante, corona, or any large, tender beans you can find,” she writes in the La Buvette cookbook.
The specific ones she recommended on my recent visit are Spanish judións in brine by Rosara; a mid-sized jar seems to cost around $12 online in the US. The beans are so flavorful and creamy that when properly drizzled and zest-topped, they disappear instantly. (Try it at your next cocktail party.)
“Today, I suppose that gros haricots blancs & zeste de citron have become La Buvette’s ‘famous’ beans,” Fourmont writes in the book, “but I say it with a wink — can beans from a can truly be famous?”
I’ve been thinking about canned beans since speaking with Kat Kavner, the co-founder and CEO of Heyday Canning (pictured below, right).
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