A strong black coffee topped with hot foamy milk, barely sweetened, served steaming in a thick cup. The hinge-drink of Parisian mornings, between sleep and work.

Why this dish? Like many Parisian intellectuals, Ozenfant frequented neighborhood brasseries and restaurants. The café-crème at the counter was the artist's daily ritual before the studio — the simplest and most repeated gesture of his Parisian day.

Before pushing open the studio door, I would stop at the counter. You drink it standing, elbow on the zinc, newspaper folded — a café-crème, not too sweet, the milk just frothy. It is a small thing, and it is everything: the warmth in the cup, the frank bitterness, the mind clearing. I maintain that a well-ordered day begins with a clean gesture like that one.

How it was made : Café-crème, heir to the 19th-century café au lait, was the queen of Parisian counter drinks. It was drunk standing, cheaper than seated in the dining room. Milk was heated by the steam of the large coffee machines that spread through brasseries of the era.

The contemporary twist : Serve it in a plain white cup on a geometric saucer, no latte art: the foam in a smooth flat surface, like a painted plane.

Amédée Ozenfant · Charactorium