Ho ho ho! We hope that you’ve enjoyed counting down the days before Christmas with a new Bûche de Noël every morning. Our final cake, boasting edible fungus and a silver saw, comes from Pierre Hermé. Happy holidays, everyone!
Bruno Verjus checks into L’Auberge du 15, François-Régis Gaudry scouts a “top-level” sushi spot, and Adam Wayda falls victim to Hermé’s flacks.
Talbott is taken by Claude Colliot, Simon is smitten with La Laiterie, and a blogger discovers the secret to getting free macarons at Pierre Hermé.
- Thierry Richard has a man crush on Pierre Jancou…
- Adam Wayda is not connecting with the émotion at Pierre Hermé…
- Gilles Pudlowski is meditative on Sola…
- P-Wells puts Passard against the wall and warns that ”anyone who serves langoustine carpaccio should be shot.” She goes on to say that L’Arpège is no better than a hospital cafeteria or a “vegetarian cult restaurant of the 1970s.” Her fighting words put us in the mood to revisit Scandal’s The Warrior (it totally holds up), and now we can’t stop imagining that Patricia Wells and Patty “Smyth” might actually be the same person. As Barbra said, “has anyone ever seen them in a room together?” [Patricia Wells]
- Talbott returns for another helping of French food presented like a Japanese garden at Qui Plume la Lune. Today’s “delicious!” and “wonderful!” menu includes foie gras sushi, fish soup in a fluffy emulsion, and the delightfully named rhubarbapapa dessert. [John Talbott's Paris]
- Alexander Lobrano says that Sassotando, a new restaurant near Parmentier, is Tuscany in Paris for Bobos. This headline is hanging in the air (of my imagination) like a taunt – will Aaron respond to call Lobrano a hack? Will he dispute the claim that Gianluca de Simone has created one of the best lists of Italian wines in town? Am I creating drama where before there was none? Probably, so let’s return to the food: a “superb homemade ravioli stuffed with rich winey ragout of roasted duck” and “some of the best roasted rabbit I’ve ever had.” [Hungry for Paris]
- Amy shares the enviable details of her family’s meal at Le Cinq, where the highlights included duck with roasted white peach, a sheep’s milk sorbet with olive oil and tapenade, and a towering Eiffel Tower chocolate dessert for the guest of honor, Halle. Our new friends from Philadelphia were visiting Paris on a trip sponsored by the Make-a-Wish Foundation, and discussion in our forum resulted in a free chocolate tour from Context Travel and this special lunch from chef Eric Briffard. You can read more about the family’s adventures in Paris here, and many thanks to Julian Tort for organizing the lunch.
- Lobrano shares his enthusiasm for Sur Mesure, the new 40 seat showcase for Thierry Marx’s “bold haute cuisine” inside the Mandarin Oriental. He says the menu will demonstrate Marx’s “prolific gastronomic imagination, commitment to healthy eating, and fascination with both Japan and new culinary techniques,” including ”light and beautiful compositions like L’Oeuf Eclate, a richly imagined declension of a hen’s egg with a roll of scrambled egg white, an egg yolk, and a small savory square of Parmesan custard.” [Hungry for Paris]
- We ate cake. We drank wine. Pizzas were delivered. It was really windy. There were cupcakes, cute dogs, and cuter children. No one fell into the canal. We wore party hats. It didn’t rain. In short, our first birthday party was a great success. Thanks to everyone who came, and for those who missed it, we’ll see you next time!
- Adam has drawn some early conclusions in his quest to chronicle the city’s top croissants. In this test of three shops, Des Gateaux et du Pain wins for its moist interior which “compresses on your lips and doesn’t spring back so much as it succumbs to their light weight.” Ahem. Pierre Hermé is a close second, but Ladurée is “just a step or two above mediocre.” [Paris Pâtisseries]
- Figaroscope presents their rankings for the city’s best strawberry tart, awarding 1st place to Gérard Mulot, 2nd place to Jacques Genin, and 3rd to Dalloyau. See all ten triumphant tarts, plus an explanation for why several top contenders didn’t make the cut. [Figaroscope]
Trends
- Along with strawberries and green asparagus, the recent weeks have delivered a bumper crop of delicious bitch-fighting within the Paris food scene. Last week found Rubin complaining about the posers at Septime, FRG attacking Vivant and vice versa, Chrisoscope attacking Bruno Verjus, Le Fooding, Pierre Jancou, Pudlo and Caroline Mignot, Jean-François Piège proclaiming that he doesn’t make food for bloggers, and Yves-Marie Le Bourdennec calling Pudlo “un vieux petit bourgeois confit dans vos tristes certitudes” in one of the (+35) comments on his blog.
Announcements
- Attention, bread lovers! The city of Paris is once again recruiting civilians to participate as judges in the annual Grand Prix de la Baguette competition, to be held May 3. Our own Phyllis Flick was one of the lucky last year. [Mairie de Paris]
Happy Plates
- Of the “poularde Racines” she had for lunch at Vivant yesterday, Sophie Brissaud says: “It’s before dishes like this that one becomes aware of the limits of human vocabulary,” and so she’s forced to call it, simply, “delicious.” [Chez Ptitpois]
Happy Plates
- Caroline Mignot spends her Sunday afternoon eating fried chicken on the terrasse at Drouant. I really must become friends with her. [Table à Découvert]
Sweet Teeth
- Adam calls for more carrots! in his Métissé, the new macaron flavor from the spring collection of Pierre Hermé. He can’t taste the cinnamon either, in this combination of the aforementioned + orange, which makes him feel like Hermé “was phoning it in here. ” [Paris Pâtisseries]
Happy Plates
- François-Régis Gaudry digs the futuristic chainmail décor at Les Tablettes, the new restaurant in the former spot of La Table de Joel Robuchon, and has high praise for (ex-Lasserre) chef Jean-Louis Nomicos and his signature royale of fennel and sea urchin. [L'Express]
- Alexander Lobrano pays a visit to Nomicos’ ex (now shacked up with chef Christophe Moret) and says that “in a world gone GAP, Lasserre still delivers an exquisite, classical unself-consciously French experience of gourmet dining.” He’s also impressed by the coquettishly named Lily Wang and would go often if it weren’t so expensive. [Hungry for Paris]
- Sophie Brissaud applauds Saturne and its “semi-viking” chef after enjoying his ”paleolithic crudité” of raw sea scallops with root vegetable shavings. [Chez Ptipois]
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