Where do you find the best pastrami sandwich? In Paris, the Reuben from Will’s Deli sets the standard with its crusty bread, its melting meat soaked in cheese, its just balance between the acidity of sauerkraut and the sugar of the Thousand Island sauce. The small Sentier sandwich shop is always full, and its owner, William Benitah, plans to duplicate the brand in the coming months in Paris and the suburbs.
However, nothing predisposed this 64-year-old entrepreneur to become the pastrami specialist: William Benitah was a vegetarian and worked as a salesman in the building industry. After his wife, Isabelle, convinced him to eat meat again, a cousin made him taste a pastrami sandwich in 2011 in Montreal that changed his life. He discovered “an explosion of spicy and smoky flavors, the tenderness of meat and the warmth of crusty bread. It was love at first sight! »
William Benitah then left his job and started making pastrami. It supplies luxury hotels (George-V), chef restaurants (Joël Robuchon, Yoni Saada), luxury grocery stores (Fauchon, Kaviari), pastry chefs and bakers (Cédric Grolet).
In 2020, driven by success, supported by Isabelle, and his sons, Simon and Sacha, he took the plunge and opened Will’s Deli to transform his raw material himself into the sandwich of his dreams.
Pastrami, was it a childhood memory?
Not a very good one! [A Paris, dans les années 1960], we ate it cold, without seasoning, it was quite bland. My mother bought it in kosher butcher shops or delis on the rue des Rosiers. She was Sephardic, and did not know how to prepare it; it is truly a product of Ashkenazi culture.
What is the history of pastrami?
He was born in Eastern Europe, probably in Romania [son nom vient du roumain « pastra », qui signifie « conserver »]. There, we ate a lot of potatoes and cabbage with pork. The Ashkenazim sought an alternative to the pig.
Most of them were quite poor and fell back on the cheapest meat: beef brisket, which is a tough, fatty part that needs to be simmered for a long time. They first put it in brine to destroy the collagen, then softened it in a vegetable broth. They realized that adding spices improved taste and preservation – pepper, among other things, is bactericidal. Once ready, the meat was placed on the sauerkraut to warm it up.
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