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He invited me to his place for pâté, rillettes and wine.

The honor of the pre-dinner nosh, meanwhile, usually falls to charcuterie, a category of cooked or cured meat like dry-aged ham, potted pâté, or rillettes.

You’ll find marvelous “piggy” rillettes, bordered in an inch of fat, under the heading “French things we pretend are Italian,” for instance.

None of the sides are as compelling as the steaks themselves and a few of the browner items, like the lukewarm bone marrow-onion “gravy” served with the rillettes, seem to have lost their pep on the trans-Atlantic voyage.

Two fine, hollow Yorkshire puddings accompany a jar of steak-and-bacon rillettes.