Our Paris Writers
Blogger Buzz: Around My French Table is Here, Enfin!
Sep 1st
Well, according to Amazon, Around My French Table is officially out in the world! It’s a surprise to me, since I thought the book wasn’t going to be available until October 8, but it’s a great surprise – I’m thrilled it’s arrived. And oh how I hope you will like it!
The book is filled with my favorite recipes (more than 300 of them) for what I think of as ‘elbows on the table’ food from France. It’s the unfussy, delicious food that my friends and I make in France. This is not a by-the-rules book on French food. It’s not Mastering the Art of French Cooking (what else could be?). And it’s not a book of traditional French food (a Basque tortilla made with potato chips is hardly traditional), although it’s got its share of time-honored recipes – I can’t wait for you to try the Cheese-Topped Onion Soup! Instead, it’s my personal take on the bright, fresh, simple food that’s being cooked today in the country of my heart. Oh, and there are lots of stories and lots of gorgeous, gorgeous pictures by Alan Richardson.
> Continue reading at Dorie Greenspan
Blogger Buzz: Le Fooding celebrates its 10th birthday with an all-star lineup of chefs
Sep 1st
Le Fooding celebrates their 10th anniversary this October with an incredible lineup of 18 of Paris’s best chefs who will take turns cooking for 72 hours non-stop in homage to ‘La Marmite Perpetuelle” –the continuously bubbling pot– a reference to Madame De Marme’s 18th century establishment on what is now the rue des Grands Augustins, where she sold capons simmered in a large pot over a fire that never went out. Legion says that the fire lasted nearly 100 years and more than 300,000 capons were cooked, one after another, in the same stock.
Here is the schedule:
October 1
00h00- 4h00 : Inaki Aizpitarte (Le Chateaubriand) ; 4h – 8h : Yves Camdeborde (Le Comptoir du Relais) ; 8h – 12h : Christian Etchebest (La Cantine du Troquet) ; 12h – 16h : Alberto Herraiz (Fogon) ; 16h – 20h : Stéphane Jégo (L’Ami Jean) ; 20h – 00h : William Ledeuil (Ze Kitchen Galerie)
> Continue reading at Paris Notebook
Blogger Buzz: Playtime
Sep 1st
Nouvelle adresse découverte sur Food Intelligence. Vendredi soir dernier, un dîner à 4 était tout trouvé pour goûter un peu, voire beaucoup. Situé rue des Petits Hôtels – jetez d’ailleurs un œil à celui qui se glisse en retrait de la rue derrière sa grille, un arbre immense semble vouloir le cacher un peu plus, c’est en dehors du temps et de Paris – dans un quartier plutôt discret en bons plans restos (une fois sorti de Chez Casimir et Chez Michel), nos amis voisins semblaient ravis. Un décor 50′s, pile dans la tendance annoncée, Mad Men, fashion, design… On sent qu’aucun détail n’est laissé au hasard, ça fonctionne bien, l’œil est séduit. On se prend même à imaginer que Joan Harris arrive pour prendre la commande. Non, c’est une charmante jeune femme aux airs de Jean Seberg (moins dans les formes plantureuses de la secrétaire de la série). En salle, on aperçoit aussi la patronne Viveka Sandklef, la chef suédoise qui exerçait à Indigo Square à Bagnolet. Adresse que je n’avais pas eu l’occasion de découvrir, mais dont j’avais toujours entendu du bon et du bien. La carte arrive, les intitulés sont longs, mais divulguent des ingrédients appétissants, curieux, des associations étranges.
> Continue reading at Table à Découvert
Blogger Buzz: Le Saotico in the 2nd – a solid, solid meal by the team that made Le Reminet great
Sep 1st
5.5 Le Saotico, 96 rue Richelieu in the 2nd (Metro: Richelieu-Drouot), 01.42.96.03.20, currently open only weekdays 8 AM – 8 PM, has been open Madame Surcouf informed me for only three weeks and Alexander Lobrano has already written it up on his “Hungry for Paris” Diner’s Journal. In the article/review, he notes that Madame and M. used to run Le Reminet on the Left Bank, one of his and my favorite places.
That resto had maybe 30 covers and this two-story place has about double that number, in very commodious space. We were supposed to be five and for that we needed to be able to communicate. Even with the four that showed up, I’m glad we were on the second floor.
> Continue reading at John Talbott’s Paris
Blogger Buzz: Q-TEA restaurant in the 9th – home-cooked Chinese
Aug 31st
Q-TEA restaurant, 19, rue Notre-Dame de Lorette in the 9th (Metro: ND de Lorette) is a place a Chinese/American woman who lives in Paris I know came across in her neighborhood and indicated that it had real “home” (that is from scratch) Chinese cooking. I asked what area in China and she all over. Even though it seats only 14, 8 of us were able to sit at one table and share the food and wine (it’s BYO).
While each dish takes about 20 minutes our hostess said, once they started appearing, they came in prompt succession and if I’ve got it right, we had a salad of bitter cucumber and some kind of sliced sweet pear, Shanghai spring rolls with bok choy, fish with slightly hot red pepper on cellophane noodles, a seafood, tofu and XO marmite, chicken croustillant (that I thought was the hit of the evening), turnips stuffed with shitakes, a whole fried bass (my #2), a mango/melon melange and a vanilla “milkshake.”
> Continue reading at John Talbott’s Paris
Blogger Buzz: La Terrasse at the Galeries Lafayette in the 9th – high prices, high quality
Aug 30th
4.5 La Terrasse on the 8th floor roof at the Galeries Lafayette, 40 blvd Haussmann in the 9th, 01.42.82.34.56 (but getting to them via phone is like dealing with american airlines), open only for lunch store days, thus closed Sunday, is open from March-Sept. A friend who’d been asked me why I was going since it’s just fancy soups and salads and I had no good answer, but today I needed a light place I could eat early at since I’m going to a Chinese banquet tonight.
I chose a seat with a view towards the side of Sacre Coeur I don’t usually face and regarded the menu: expensive soups, salads, sandwiches and pastry and ices by Herme. OK, I’m a big boy, I knew what I was into.
> Continue reading at John Talbott’s Paris
Blogger Buzz: 37m2
Aug 30th
Disons que le nom ne laisse pas vraiment augurer ce qui se passe ici, à part sur une surface de 37m2. Ah vous aviez compris? Pardon. Adresse du printemps dernier, franco-taïwanaise, me dit une amie du quartier. “On y était hier soir à dîner, ça va te plaire : ils font du poulet frit 
les saveurs sont délicates, c’est très bien présenté…” Le “poulet frit” fait référence à Momonoki raconté quelques jours plus tôt et mon amour de la friture. Rue Rodier dans le haut 9e, non loin du métro Anvers, en lieu et plat des Radis Roses. Un trio aux commandes de cette adresse, dont une chef d’origine taïwanaise passée chez Guy Savoy en pâtisserie, hmm. Dans ce bout de resto blanc, à la rose fraîche sur chaque table et pas tellement plus d’éléments de déco, une douzaine de couverts, un comptoir derrière lequel on bat les bubble tea (avis aux amateurs, ces thés glacés, parfumés et garnis de billes de tapioca qu’on retrouve aussi chez Zen Zoo) et notre serveur aux airs de Sliimy (peut-être la coiffure uniquement), dont l’expérience en restauration semble peser léger, mais dont les attentions et les sourires rattrapent le tout en un rien de temps.
> Continue reading at Table à Découvert
Blogger Buzz: Batofar in the 13th
Aug 29th
An unusual place, an unusual experience, and an unusual result.
Batofar, Port de la Gare (or more descriptively, really down at Seine-side, Left Bank, alongside 6-8 other boats) in the 13th, 01.53.60.17.00 (but no reservations when they’re serving outside), is open lunch and dinner except for dinner Sundays and Mondays. It reopened earlier this year with a ”new team, [new chef], new spirit, methodical cleaning” and positioning between jazz joint and restaurant (said Figaroscope at the time.)
Usually when I go to a place, I’m calculating a rating between 0 and 10 in my mind as I move through the meal, and this time, I realized there was no one “summative” one and instead I had to break it down into components.
The location: 6-8, because if you live within access to the #14 Metro, it’s a cinch (a half hour for me from the deepest 18th), otherwise it’s a schlep.
The setting: 8-9, beautiful situated as it is between the other such boat/soiree/restaurants, facing the lovely Gardens of Bercy rather than ugly towers of F. Mitterand’s Library with the neat Beauvoir double-swooping bridge just West.
> Continue reading at John Talbott’s Paris