In Sainte-Christophe-en-Brionnais, in the Bourgogne region of eastern France, at a place called Restaurant du Midi in the high street, I found steak frites that almost matched the ideal I remember from a weekend in Paris in 1970. The steak was a large thin sirloin which was, I thought, unusual because I had been led to believe that rump was always used. It was accompanied by the crispiest thin chips imaginable and, almost as important, soft lettuce, which used to be the only kind you could get before iceberg swept the board. Don’t try to cook more than two steaks in a pan or they will stew and not fry and brown.