RESTAURANTS : ‘Real’ Food With a French Flair--but Naturally

“What is the soup du jour?” asked Peter Sellers of a snippy waiter in one of the Pink Panther comedies. The waiter turned up his nose, sniffed, and replied, “the soup du jour is the soup of the day.” Sellers turned almost scarlet.

I know how he must have felt.

The first night I stopped in at Pascal, the new French restaurant in Newport Beach, I was confronted with a brand-new term: La cuisine reelle . That’s what chef Pascal Olhats calls his food. Never having heard this term before, I asked my server to translate. “Real food,” she said. “What else.” Oh.

Olhats’ concept of using fresh ingredients and combining them in a natural way may not be original enough to merit its own place in Larousse, but what this young createur turns out does merit praise. I predict a happy future for Pascal; his restaurant is a sure bet to be one of the summer’s hottest. As long as they keep the food real.

La cuisine reelle is light, natural, and aesthetically presented, with more than a splash of both southern France and Southern California. Some of the entrees recall dishes created by Michel Richard and his team at Citrus in Los Angeles. Other dishes are familiar and comforting. It is an ingenuous menu from an ingenuous young chef.

Olhats is from Normandy, but he began his restaurant career in Lyon at Paul Bocuse, did a stint in St. Tropez, and has a broad knowledge of his native cuisine. He has cooked in many well-known area restaurants--Piret’s, Chanteclair, and Cafe Fleuri at Le Meridien, to name a few. But this is his first solo effort.

He has created a restaurant with the look of a French country cottage: imported print tablecloths, latticed windows, watercolor floral arrangements hand-painted onto white brick walls. Many of the tables face a glass wall behind which Pascal and his assistants are busy at work. The overall effect is casual as opposed to luxurious, comfortable as opposed to elegant. What you eat may strike you the same way.

At dinner, you are immediately offered toasted rounds of baguette , to be eaten with Provencal tapenade (an olive pate) or smooth, silken anchovy butter. It is one of the most engaging beginnings you are ever going to encounter. And so natural.

Next comes the panier des crudites , a wicker basket filled with beautifully arranged raw vegetables--yellow peppers, a green bulb of fennel, orange carrots--all either whole or halved. They look almost too beautiful to eat. Two dipping sauces come with it, anchoyade (anchovies in a thick olive oil emulsion), and a delicate mustard sauce. Magnifique . Pity that these things are not included at lunch.

Appetizers are delightful. Provencal fish soup filled with baby mussels, whitefish and herbs is served with large croutons topped with rouille ; these are best plunged into the soup and eaten with a spoon. Smoked salmon from Norway is garnished with green asparagus and a light horseradish sauce. The salade maison has lardon s, a poached egg and baby croutons atop a bed of herbed greens. A salad of warm, tender lamb is redolent of sweet basil.

That same lamb, fresh New Zealand loin insists the chef, comes wrapped up in a light pastry crust lined with olive paste, making a wonderful main dish. Skip the tapenade if you are planning to order this, and it will taste all the more delightful. Sea bass, my favorite of all the entrees, has a green herb coating of fresh thyme and bread crumbs, atop a pool of red pepper coulis . Less arresting is a thick chunk of veal loin that comes with an oversized piece of sauteed sweetbread. Although well prepared, it is on the heavy side.

Most of the desserts are on the light side. Pascal’s lemon cake and cold meringue dipped strawberries are weight-watcher’s works of art. If you don’t want to overindulge, try ordering the fresh fruits with pureed dipping sauces. Even the chocolate raspberry confection has fluffy cake surrounding the chocolate part, instead of frosting. We get the message, M. Olhats.

Pascal and his wife, Mimi, come around to study your reactions; they are friendly people, and they manage to make you feel very much at home. How they will handle the big crowds is another question. There have been few crowded evenings at the restaurant, and the couple has purposely maintained a low profile. They say they are in no hurry to be discovered. I’d like to keep the secret. But I couldn’t do that. Why, it would be unnatural.

Pascal is moderate to expensive, a fine value in its class. There is a special prix fixe menu for $29, including appetizer, vegetable basket, fish soup, a choice of entree, dessert and coffee. Main dishes range from $16.95 to $23.95. The small and unusual wine list has many selections under $20. As a further commitment to naturalness, there is no smoking in the restaurant.

PASCAL

Plaza Newport, 1000 Bristol St., Newport Beach.

(714) 752-0107.

Open weekdays for lunch, 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Dinner hours are 6:30-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 6:30-11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Closed Sunday.

Visa, MasterCard and American Express accepted.