Illustration: Ryan Inzana
After moving here two years ago from her native France, Alexia Duchêne hasn’t had to venture far from Le Chêne, the old-school, “unapologetically French” West Village restaurant that she and her husband, Ronan Duchêne Le May, opened earlier this year. The couple lives above the restaurant, and most of her routines — brunch at the Commerce Inn, twice-a-week stops at the Union Square farmers’ market — keep her downtown. When Duchêne, who became one of France’s biggest culinary stars as a 23-year-old Top Chef finalist, first got to New York, she was thrown off by some American customs, but now she’s mostly adapted. “I’ve become more of a beverage person since moving to America,” she says. “In France, people don’t really carry drinks around while they’re walking. People go to a coffee shop, have their coffee, and leave. Now, it’s impossible for me to not be carrying around a little drink.”
Wednesday, October 1
Market day. I have a couple of vendors I make sure to visit: She Wolf for their sticky, sweet-smelling maple oat bread and Halal Pastures Farm. The couple that own the farm are Egyptian. I have a strong connection with Egypt because my mom grew up there and cooked a lot of Egyptian food. I have some family there, and it’s just a very special place for me. They often have herbs that you can’t find anywhere else in New York, and Diane always makes me try whatever’s in season; today, she literally force-feeds me arugula and tomatillos at nine in the morning. I also grab tomatoes from Eckerton Farm.
On my way out, I stop by the New York Dosa cart in Washington Square Park. The dosa man has been selling in the park for 20 years, but he isn’t always there, so I’ve started following him on Instagram just to make sure. He makes the most amazing vegan dosas from the Puducherry area of India. I order everything on the menu to split with my husband and my sous chef, Mathis, and grab plenty of mint chutney and tamarind sauce.
I also stop by an herbal stand and get a few ashwagandhas for the week and one extra to sip on my way back. They’re delicious — and not too sweet.
We have family meal at the restaurant at 3:30. Every day, I assign parts of family meal to different people — that means that it’s not just one person doing everything. Today, it’s a lovely vegetable frittata with a green salad.
I try not to snack during service, but my sous chef is addicted to French fries. At least once a night, I’ll catch him in the corner by the fryer, dipping fries in our fig oil mayo. Tonight, I join him and have a few, too.
Thursday, October 2
After my morning workout, I go to Sorate. There are things I love and hate about this place. I love that they make proper matcha, but I hate how long it takes. I’m very into tea and matcha, but I don’t do weird drinks. I prefer something very straightforward; all the syrups and such are not my thing. Today, I get a sobacha — a toasted buckwheat tea. I love it, and I also love that it’s pre-made, so all they have to do is pour it, which means I get to skip the line.
Back at the restaurant, I order a “Smoke Show” sandwich from Counter Service, which I split with Ronan. It has chicken, jalapeños, cheddar, and a red-cabbage slaw — it’s quite spicy.
Ronan works the front of the house, and we also live right above the restaurant. People ask us all the time if we get sick of each other, but I honestly don’t think we see each other very much. During service, I’m in the kitchen, and he’s at the door. The first interaction we have every night is at 9 p.m. when I get out of the kitchen and ask, “How was your day?”
Still full from lunch, I skip family meal. I make myself a matcha before service with coconut water, lemon juice, and salt. I started making matcha around four years ago because, honestly, I never felt that coffee shops added quite enough matcha. I like my matcha incredibly strong; people would be shocked. I usually add two full tablespoons of powder.
After service, I snack on some sourdough with soft butter, really nice canned tuna, sliced tomatoes, and Truff hot sauce.
Friday, October 3
This morning, I take a walk to the new 12 matcha spot. The space is so beautiful and I love their minimalistic approach. I have the “Americano,” which is just water and matcha. I’m lucky today that there are no lines; some days, there’s up to an hourlong wait. In New York, I feel like the bigger the line, the more people want to join it because they think that whatever the line is for must really be worth it. Fair, but as a European, I hate lines and cannot comprehend them.
I’m so busy working and in meetings that I don’t have time for family meal, which gives me the perfect excuse to pick up a tuna melt from Daily Provisions — without spinach. I get grossed out by greens in a warm sandwich. I love how simple this sandwich is — just tuna with a bit of onion and mayo, cheese, and bread.
Later, I try the foie-gras terrine that Mathis made the previous day. It’s perfect. We press steamed foie gras into a terrine mold and add some perfectly cooked artichokes in the center. It literally melts in my mouth.
Saturday, October 4
Second weekly market day. Immediately after, I meet Ronan for our weekly ritual at Commerce Inn for breakfast. Since he always arrives first, he’s secured a corner table outdoors and already ordered me a freshly squeezed orange juice by the time I arrive. We get the BLT — simple and well made, with thick bacon, fresh tomato, a nice amount of mayo, and some crisp lettuce. On the side, we also get some sweet pickled cabbage, fries for him, and a potato hash for myself.
Saturdays are a bit slower for us, despite the fact that it’s a big service. We’ve already prepped throughout the week, so everything is done. In the afternoon, I drink an iced roasted barley tea alongside my usual two bottles of water.
Family meal is light: a small plate of rice and a fairly basic fish curry made with trims of halibut, carrots, onions, and a bit of star anise.
Later that night after service, a guest offers me a glass of 1990 Hermitage from Jean-Louis Chave. It’s delicious, powerful and vibrant. As happens every Saturday, I go to bed late — and starving.
Sunday, October 5
I wake up at 9 a.m. and go to Aura in Noho for a massage to relax from the week. Then, I go and try a mango coconut drink at Hey Tea nearby. I saw it on Instagram and I liked the look of it. It’s a bit too sweet, rich enough to be a dessert, but the bits of tapioca are fun.
I meet Ronan, and we have lunch at Ceres. Our friends Julian and Jake opened Ceres around six months ago, and in the beginning we used to go at least a couple of times a week. Then they blew up on social media and now the lines are absolutely insane. Today, they ask us to come and try their new clam pizza. It’s divine. Crunchy and a bit sour from the crème fraîche and lemon juice. You can taste the ocean with the amount of clams they pile on. I can’t stop eating it.
I take a four-hour nap and wake up at 6 p.m. ready to head to Lei for dinner. To me, Lei is the perfect restaurant. The wine list is nice and balanced; the food is great. A lot of wine bars lean French, with charcuterie and cheese, which is fine, but it’s refreshing to have something different. We have a bottle of Rully La Pierre Ronde. Annie, the owner, is sitting at the table next to us and also pours us a glass of the Japanese Pinot Noir, which is super-delicate and fresh. It tastes like a bowl of berries.
We order pretty much everything on the menu; my favourites are the cat-ear noodles with the lamb and cumin ragù and the fried whiting with seaweed powder. It’s all very light — a perfect match with our wine.
Monday, October 6
I go for a walk with our Shar Pei, Ralph, and decide to stop by From Lucie for a sweet treat. Lucie is from a small town in Bordeaux that happens to also be where my husband’s parents are from, and apparently they know each other. I love her desserts — American style, but with a French touch; rich, but still light. We sit at one of the tables in front of the shop and have a warm, fudgey chocolate-chip cookie and a carrot cake with a fromage frais cream, tangy and not as heavy as a cream-cheese frosting would be.
Back home, I make coffee for Ronan. I don’t drink coffee, but I’m addicted to the smell of it in our apartment; it feels like home for some reason. I also love the ritual. I love taking the time to make a drink — or make anything really — properly.
I nibble on a piece of bread that I bought at the market and give a few pieces to my dog. I used to feed bread to ducks all the time with my grandma in Normandy; there’s something about the way my dog picks at the pieces that reminds me of that.
We stay home for dinner and order sushi from my favorite takeout, Sushi 35 West. I’m really into sushi, but takeout sushi is notoriously bad, especially in France. What I love about Sushi 35 is that they’re only delivery. I’ve only been deceived by them once out of the dozens of orders I’ve placed, so I think that’s pretty good. It’s super-fresh and comes in beautiful packaging. It feels like receiving a gift.
We watch Adolescence, which is extremely intense, but the sushi is satisfying enough to calm me down when the tension is too high. I have my usual: two king-salmon nigiri, two toro nigiri, one raw-shrimp nigiri, one shima-aji nigiri, a crunchy tuna roll and two sea-urchin nigiri (my little treat). As always, we wish we’d ordered a dessert, but as always, we forget.
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