Thanks to Coralie Satta’s venerable Ghini’s French Caffe, the South of France is on our destinations bucket list.
We want to visit Satta’s native portside city of Marseille, where she was first introduced to her signature dish Eggs Provençal by her grandmother Victoria.
It’s sublimely simple — thick slices of locally-sourced vine-ripened tomatoes charred and sauteéd with fresh garlic, olive oil and French thyme and served with sunnyside-up eggs cooked in the same pan until the egg whites are crispy.
Because everything is made in one pan, the eggs soak up the juices from the tomatoes infused with the herbs and every bite is redolent with those bright flavors. You take a bite of the egg, the yolks oozing over the tomato, then soak up the drippings with the crunchy, chewy toasted La Baguette Bakery bread made fresh next door.
It’s like summertime on a plate, and it’s our secret favorite dish that you won’t see on any other menu in Tucson.
“It’s my grandmother’s recipe,” said the French-born Satta, which explains why when we Googled “eggs Provençal,” the first thing that popped up was Ghini’s French Caffe.
The dish has been a cornerstone of Ghini’s, 1803 E. Prince Road, since Satta opened in 1992 when she was just 21. Ghini — pronounced like Lamborghini — was the childhood nickname given to her by her father Norbert, who owns La Baguette at 1797 E. Prince Road.
Brunch time customers fill the dining room at Ghini’s French Caffe, 1803 E. Prince Road.
Satta fell in love with French cooking after watching her grandmother cook when she was as young as 2.
“She would put me up on the counter and I would help her every single meal,” she recalled. “I would peel the potatoes ... or pick the ends off the tomatoes or strawberries.”
Provençal cuisine leans more Mediterranean, with a focus on fresh and locally sourced. Sauces are often tomato-based and brighter than their cream-and-butter centric north France cousins, and dishes are seasoned with fresh herbs including rosemary, thyme and lavender.
Satta remembered that her grandmother baked her eggs Provençal, something Ghini’s can’t do given the pace of the restaurant. Victoria would start by broiling the tomatoes. When they were soft enough, she would add fresh garlic and olive oil and then crack the eggs. The whole dish would go into the oven and all the juices would converge and bake into the eggs and the tomatoes.
“I have eaten at some spectacular, very expensive restaurants and that lady cooked better than all of them, hands down,” Satta said.
Satta’s family left France for the United States when she was 6. After graduating from Sahuaro High School when she was 17, she returned to France and landed a staging (intern) position with a restaurant where her uncle worked as a server. She also cooked for a resort in Vermont before coming home to Tucson to help her dad with his bakery, delivering bread to his wholesale clients.
The space next to La Baguette back then housed a yogurt shop and when she had down time, Satta would help out the owners. When they announced they were closing, she decided to slip in.
“I had no money. I think I had $500 and a bunch of credit cards,” she recalled.
George Romo, the kitchen manager at Ghini’s French Caffe, fires up a fresh batch of breakfast potatoes during brunch on July 11.
Satta’s goal was to showcase the nuances of southern French cuisine, with its emphasis on locally sourced, non-GMO and organic — philosophies that were longtime guiding principles for her and cooks in France and became widely accepted American food movements long after she opened her restaurant.
“In France, it’s not just about getting full. It’s a whole thing. It’s a big deal,” she said. “I wanted to teach people how beautiful food can be. Food is amazing.”
Ghini’s menu includes a wide selection of toasted Les Croques sandwiches, breakfast sandwiches, stuffed crépes, French toast, omlettes and craft cocktails including mimosas. A pet-friendly restaurant, Ghini’s has a “Pampered Pet Menu” that includes scrambled eggs and a puppaccino.
Ghini’s is open from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesdays-Sundays; the bakery is open 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesdays-Sundays.
