"IF you are what you eat, then I only want to eat the good stuff," says Remy, a rodent with extremely refined taste in Ratatouille, the new animated movie from Pixar. If that culinary bon mot sounds vaguely familiar, it might be because it was first coined by Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826), a renowned French epicure who wrote about the pleasures of the table in his famous tome The Physiology of Taste.

"Those persons who suffer from indigestion, or who become drunk, are ignorant of the true principles of eating and drinking," he wrote. Brillat-Savarin was nothing if not picky, but for him a great meal was not necessarily an elaborate one - the simplest meals pleased him most, as long as they were perfectly cooked. Indeed, the food critic portrayed in the film - an acerbic old codger - might well have been patterned on Brillat-Savarin himself.

Judging by the number of bistro-style restaurants and cafes here in Singapore, classic French fare featuring authentic home country recipes from grandpere and maman appear to be gaining in popularity. BT asked the owners and chefs of four such establishments to each showcase a dish or two that represent the essence of classic French cooking. All were in agreement that simplicity is the key to a traditional dish. As it turns out, however, achieving a high level of simplicity is not as easy as you might think.

At Le Bistrot, which offers a good selection of typical French fare, chef-owner Lee Chin Sin chose to feature Blanquette de Veau (veal and vegetable stew in white wine sauce), a traditional home-style dish which seems to have fallen out of favour. As prepared by Lee, the veal chunks are tender and flavourful, with a sauce that is intense but less creamy than expected. He sometimes thickens the sauce with cream but doesn't emulsify it with egg yolk.

"I cook the way I like to eat," says Lee, who trained in Paris at the Cordon Bleu school. "I wouldn't seek out novelty for the sake of it, although we do offer traditional dishes with a slightly different twist." He adds: "If you look at what's happening at the top restaurants in Paris, many are still embracing classical techniques and putting together very careful versions of classic recipes, such as Poulet en Vessie (chicken cooked in pig's bladder). Just as it's tough to fry an egg very well - on the other hand, this type of dish has appeal because it has familiar taste, so people go for the familiar, non-threatening, very consoling choice."

Lee also suggested Nougat Glace as the dessert counterpart to the Blanquette de Veau. It is made from almond praline, whipped cream and Italian meringue, all of which is folded together and frozen.

French onion soup might seem to be the quintessential bistro dish, and while it is a popular choice over here for both lunch and dinner, French people themselves tend to find it a little too heavy. According to Philippe Nouzillat, executive chef at Brasserie Wolf, onion soup is more of a late night supper dish, traditionally eaten by the bridal couple very late on their wedding night, probably to counteract the alcohol that has been previously consumed. The onion soup at Brasserie Wolf (main picture), however, would be welcome at any time - rich, intense and piping hot.

"Simple food is more difficult to do well," says Nouzillat, who reveals that the secret to a good onion soup is the time and care it takes to prepare it. Basically, it involves sweetening the onions in butter for three to four hours at low heat, adding Madeira wine, reducing the beef stock, then adding water to simmer for a further two hours or so. "With classic food, you cannot do new things to it," he says. "You have to adapt, sometimes improve on it, but you have to respect the basics."

According to Wolfgang Lapper, owner of the Esmirada Group (which includes Brasserie Wolf), France held the culinary reins for so long in Europe primarily because it had the best access to high-quality produce. "It takes a knowledgeable chef to know how to put it all together," he says. "The most important thing is to respect the produce - you first have to select the right product, then cook it properly and, of course, have the passion too."

At Choupinette, a five-year-old cafe on Bukit Timah Road that somehow conveys a sense of being in France, owner Agnes Verrier offers Croque Monsieur, the French version of a grilled ham and cheese sandwich that might sound basic, but is the very definition of comfort food. Choupinette's version, comprising ham, bechamel sauce and emmental cheese, is a wonderful blend of separate ingredients to form a tasty whole. According to Verrier, the dish must always be served with a green salad and French fries.

Verrier, who hails from Provence, says the bechamel sauce has to be stirred non-stop for 20 minutes. It also contains a sprinkling of nutmeg. The cafe also features items such as boeuf bourgignon (beef stew), with recipes taken from her grandfather, who ran a well-known restaurant called L'auberge des Gorges du Loup. She cites the steak tartar at L'Angelus in Singapore as another good example of simple cuisine done well.

"In Choupinette, the appeal is because there is a sense of continuity and I don't change anything - they get their Croque Monsieur prepared the same way they got it five years ago," says Verrier. "I serve the same items all day long. A bistro is like that - you eat whatever you want, whenever you want."

The cafe also features a variety of breads and pastries, including flavoured macarons that are possibly the best in town. She says the high humidity here makes it difficult to make a proper baguette, the French loaf that is a symbol of France. "In France, they bake baguettes three times a day because the shelf life is about three hours," says Verrier.

Aware that steak frites (steak and French fries) is the second favourite dish in France (couscous takes the number one spot), one-time magician and food critic-turned-restaurant owner Gabriel De Balasy had a notion to open a one-item restaurant to complement L'Angelus, his higher-end Parisian bistro in Chinatown. The result was Les Bouchons, a culinary one-trick pony that is surprisingly popular in Singapore - so popular, in fact, that he and partner Philippe Hoyez recently opened a 'Left Bank' outlet in Robertson Quay.

Les Bouchons has been serving steak and fries since 2002. De Balasy echoes the others when he says: "The secret is to remain simple - good food is always very simple and straightforward. We just concentrate on what we're good at." Of course, there are a few details, like getting the right meat and potatoes.

"It's a magical dish, a perfect combination of ingredients," says De Balasy, who says that as a child, he would have it twice a week or so. "The irony is, it is difficult to find good steak frites in Paris these days." He adds: "You don't need to be a good cook to do it well, but it is a dish that is always in the national consciousness."

Le Bistrot, 2 Stadium Walk, #01-03 Singapore Indoor Stadium. Tel: 6447-0018.
www.lebistrot.com.sg

Brasserie Wolf, #01-13, The Pier@Robertson,80, Mohamed Sultan Road. Tel: 6835-7818

Choupinette, 607 Bukit Timah Road, #01-01. Tel: 6466-0613

Les Bouchons, 7 Ann Siang Road. Tel: 6423-0737.

Les Bouchons Rive Gauche, 41 Robertson Quay, #01-01. Tel: 6733-4414