Cooking French, the healthy way

NEIGHBORS

Chef sets up shop in Hoboken

Chef loves an audience

Oh la la, true delicacies -N

LOW ON FAT, LONG ON CHARM

Cooking French, the healthy way

Surprises seem to exist around every corner in Hoboken. Travel off the beaten track down Second Street to Jefferson Street and discover The Little Grocery, a shop so enchanting it feels as if you've wandered into a country kitchen in the south of France instead of a new gourmet store in the southwest corner of town.

Everything about The Little Grocery is very French, from the yellow walls to the hot red geraniums in the bay windows. Fine illustrations imported from France and cafe tables with French newspapers in decoupage grace the interior.

There's a wonderful selection of gourmet goods you don't ordinarily find on this side of the river, like asparagus mousse, exotic pates and unique cheeses such as Parisian Buttery Brie. But it's the delicacies owner Neamet Elsayed, a celebrated chef, whips up in the kitchen that makes this grocery special.

"My goal is to take French cooking from fattening to healthy," said Neamet, a Hoboken resident who opened The Little Grocery in June with his wife, Peggy Randall, a publishing executive who works for the Nation, a progressive news magazine.

He accomplishes this by cutting back on eggs and replacing heavy cream with cheese in his recipes. Neamet prepares all of the marvelous dishes in the deli case daily, from the bowtie salad with clams and salmon ($4 for a half pound) and Black Honey Glazed chicken ($7 a pound) to the homemade brownies and kiwi tarts. I've never seen mushroom quiche ($4.50 a slice) so thick and luscious.

"I make my own pastry," Neamet explained, noting he also uses puffed pastry to create the Egg Puffs ($6) filled with roasted peppers and garlic, which are heavenly and so robust they're a meal within themselves.

Since the kitchen is located directly behind the counter, you can watch Neamet create. He never minds an audience.

"I prefer it," he said.

No stranger to the spotlight, Neamet, who was born in Cairo, Egypt, is the former owner and head chef of the critically acclaimed Baladi Restaurant in Montclair.

Voted one of the top five chefs in New Jersey by Zagat's, he trained in New York's finest restaurants, including March, Arcadia and San Domenico.

A humble man who's not the type to brag, Neamet catered Madonna's 40th birthday party and has cooked for everyone from Henry Kissinger to Bono.

While he enjoyed a fast-paced career as a restaurateur, Neamet is happy to be running this chic little grocery, which allows him time to spend with his wife and three young children. In his spare time, one of his customers is teaching him a foreign language, which is French, of course!

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