John Talbott

I had the opportunity recently to eat at a number of new or changed places (Les Ormes moved, Le Soleil is supposed to have a new chef); as always the info is subject to the "first meal bias." The following are my notes: L'Astrée, 3 rue Général-Lanzarec, in the 17th, was awarded three hearts by Figaroscope and they are well-merited. Open for about six months, it's a well-appointed restaurant with fine great food and fine service in a pleasant setting. The day I went, two of us had the 39E menu (3 courses, vs 29E for 2). We started with an amuse-gueule of a cold soup with a bit of melon and prosciutto; then I had an asparagus soup (it came hot or cold) with shaved chorizo on top, my copain had a mackerel cooked and sliced in 1 inch segments set on a cold platter with sauces all around (the chef is Japanese); then I had an entrecote of 5 hours which was rare and fantastically cooked and seasoned; he had a tuna (which he ordered knowing the chef would like sashimi) with beans which was equally good. We both finished with a chocolate moussy dessert; the bill was 115 for 2. A definite repeat for 4 persons. Les Ormes, 22 rue Surcouf, 01.45.51.46.93 is the new home of Stéphane and Régina Molé's restaurant of the same name that they just moved from deep in the 16th to the heart of the 7th. The menu has the same cover and many of the same dishes with the addition of an homage to the prior occupant, Le Bellecour. There was a superb amuse-gueule of crab on top of a potato and I followed it with a soup of very finely pureed lettuce with wonderful chunks of rouget, a quenelle de brochet that was huge like a souffle with a magnificent crustacean sauce (as Colette would say "a lot of animals sacrificed themselves for that"), and a tart of black cherries. It was opening day for the new team and there were several small hitches, none of which caused a problem (someone else's wine and check delivered to me and an initial "inability" to swipe the VISA card) and I think will not happen again. The menu is 5E more than it used to be (eg 35E) but that comes with the territory - my bill was 54E and I was well content. Le Duc de Richelieu, 5 rue Parrot, 12th, 01.43.43.05.64, very near the Gare de Lyon, is a throw-back to the 1950's and before. Imagine walking into a restaurant around Les Halles then; it's like that. Sure, the walls and windows and furniture are new, but the menu and the feel is old. Le Duc got top billing in both Figaroscope and Pariscope this week, for a good reason, it neither follows the routes of the great chefs or the formula for success spelled out by Olivier Morteau. It's a niche place, a blast to the past and once the New York Times writes it up pre-Summer, it'll be too late. But right now - go! The menu is 14.50E (cucumbers topped with fresh anchovies or a pâté de compagne, then pot au feu, blanquette de veau, saumon cru mariné, or tripes). On the carte are about 7 starters - terrines, rillettes, asperges and saucisse and 9 beef preparations, ris de veau, porc, mutton and coquilles. But you know you're in the '50's with the 5 cheeses at 5.8E and desserts like baba, chocolate mousse, crème caramel, framboises and fraises, apricot tart and millefeuille. The wines come in 15, 30, bottle and 85 cl portions and are all Beaujolais's except for one Côte de Rhône and two Mâcons and are very reasonably priced (21-22E a bottle and the labels look '50's ones, not like Sonoma labels the French are supposed to emulate to regain the market). There's a no smoking room, no cell phones were used and no language other than French was evident. I felt I couldn't go wrong and I didn't with rillettes d'oie and coquillles St-Jacques à la provençale and for Colette, who'll never come due to the massive ratio of animal fat to healthy fish oil, I had the mousse. But be warned, what you see is what you get - no stars, no innovation, just the golden oldies done the way they should be. (PS. After reading "Food Business," I've been trying to spot the freeloading critic who reserves for three and eats with one; today he or his clone got comp'd for the aperitif, ate with a woman with that parchment-browned skin that's had too many tucks and the owner spent too much time fussing over him to have been a friend. See, reading too improves the mind). Oh my bill - 46E. Les Papilles, 30, rue Gay-Lussac, is in a charming wine store that sells products of the Southwest (sausage, foie gras, confit de canard) and the 15 or so tables are surrounded by shelves and boxes of wine. It is another place Figaroscope awarded 3 hearts to a few weeks ago and loved the cooking of its young female chef. Many courses bear Yves Camdeborde's name. I had the 28.50E menu with a somewhat different tasting cold bisque d'hommard, a generous cassolette of braised porc with coco beans - very tasty, a well-affinated slice of brie de Meaux and a cappucino (mousse-like) dessert. The pot de vin de Gamay was very good. The bill was 37E. I'd recommend it if you were exhausted after just touring the Oceanographic Institute or lived nearby and it was "the cook's night out" but because of the limited choices it's not for a group, it serves food that my distaff crowd call "boys' food," it's not impressive enough to schlep over to on the RER. Le Vin dans les Voiles, 8, rue Chapu in the 16th is the space vacated by Stéphane and Régina Molé's Les Ormes two months ago (see two above). Tel 01.46.47.83.98. The new incarnation is as a Bistrot à vins, a goodly number of which are listed on the ardoise. For lunch there is a very reasonably priced 3 or 2 course menu (the latter 19E) with supposedly only one entrée, two plats and one dessert, but whenever I indicated I didn't exactly warm to one or the other dish, my very friendly host moved on to more, so indeed there were 3 entrées and 4 plats. I had a very nice cold shredded raie on salad and rumsteak (because I was serving chicken at dinner to friends or I would have had that). The wine, a Touraine was also nice; the whole thing was nice, but it's not Molé and it's a long way for just a nice meal. My bill was 31.40E. Le Soleil, 109, ave Michelet, 93rd, just opposite the Marché Michelet in the St Ouen flea market 01.40.10.08.08. I'd been there Jan 8, 2001 with a friend and had a better meal than he did but was never impelled to return. I ate there recently (5/30/04) and had a wonderful langoustines with a tartly dressed salad, St. Pierre that was fine inside with great sautéed vegetables but too toasted on top, then the best Paris-Brest I've ever had. The bill was staggering for the 18th or 93rd but not for the flea market (59.50E). I was confused because Figaroscope had said May 19th that there was a new chef from Jamin but the old chef (Louis-Jacques Vanucci) introduced himself to me to ask how I'd liked the meal and on being asked, said he was still cooking after 5 years there, but later I saw him introducing a younger guy to another table far away. So we'll see. La Table de Hélène (no, not that Hélène), is a one year old restaurant that David Applefield heralded in last week's "My Mercredi" as no smoking (oddly enough, Figaro's #3 Pizzaria, Salé et Pepe, just up the Butte is also no smoking). It's at 14 rue Duc in the calm part of the 18th (01.46.06.49.68). A three-course menu is 25E, which with a nice ½ bottle of Bourgeuil comes to 38E. I had two specials: minestrone with pesto, shaved parmesan and olive oil and a daube of biologic beef from limousin with a terrific dark brown sauce with tart olives. I wouldn't schlep kilometres to get there, but if you're in or near Montmartre, it surely beats almost everything else there. As I finish this, it's Sunday, May 6th and in France the commemoration of Jour J is well underway. I'd like to end this with a personal story that I hope does not break the rules of eGullet. As I got on the plane at Dulles last week to come to France, I helped an American guy a bit older than me onto the plane. He was in a wheelchair with a bag and oxygen running. He said he was en route to his house in Southern France. I said it must be a pain to travel like this and he replied "not like the first time, running up the beach." I was too stunned to reply - he thanked me and I could do no better than to say "no, I and we," indicating the French flight crew, "thank you." Oh, he said, tossing it off, "there were 50,000 other guys with me." I hope he eats well this week and I hope we, who enjoy French cuisine, remember him and our debt to him.

The week of May 31st Francois Simon's "Croque Notes" appeared this week in Saturday-Sunday's Le Figaro. In it he notes that each year British and American journalists flock to France in weather such as we're having and come up with some astonishing finding or other, such as the end of French cooking, cafés, markets or terroir (no translation; you know what it means). This time it is "Newsweek" that recounted the "death of the bistrot." He says one of its writers tried in vain to find a good roast chicken in vain at Gagnaire and the Café des Delices. Simon suggests instead going to Jean-Marc Boyer's Puits de Trésor (04.68.77.50.24) in Lastours, 19 kilometres outside Carcassonne, where Simon had a melt-in-your-mouth pintade. For the original article click here After all the restaurants with terraces Le Figaro gave last week, they came up with even more this week (for Mothers' Day) in the same Saturday-Sunday's Le Figaro: The Bristol hotel's patio Le Jardin des Cygnes at the Hôtel Price de Galles Le Jardin d’Ampère L'Hôtel Raphaël Le Pré Catalan La Grande Cascade Le Jardin de Bagatelle Galion (the boat) Terras'Hôtel Café des Lettres Café du Musée Jacquemart-André Café Marly Bistrot des Dames For Alexandra Michot's article with all the restaurants' descriptions, prices and coordinates you’ll have to buy the article by clicking here In Tuesday's Figaro Entreprises, (Monday was Pentecôte), Simon's "Table d'affaires" reviews La Muse Vin, 101, rue de Charonne 11th, 01.40.09.93.05. He calls it a cave-bistrot and one of its features is a wide selection of wines available almost at cost and food that sounds good (e.g., magret de canard with ginger) but only rates it a 3 out of 5 stars. For the whole review, please click here Wednesday, for the first time in my memory, both Figaroscope (2 of 4 hearts) and Pariscope's Time Out section listed the same place first (putting to rest the hunch that one simply followed the other's lead): Le Duc de Richelieu, 5, rue Parrot, 12th, 01.43.43.05.64, very near the Gare de Lyon. The lunch menu is 14.50, average 25E. Sounds interesting, albeit familiar (e.g. rillettes of goose, veal scallop, baba au rhum, reasonably priced wines) and heavy on meat and light on fish. It's run by the former Le Gavroche bunch from rue Saint-Marc in the 2nd. Le Figaroscope, once again listed the aforementioned 2-hearter first and provided it photo space ahead of the more highly rated 3-hearted restaurant, La Table de Joël Robuchon, maybe because it (JR) hardly needs the pub. As mentioned here before, it's in the old Seize au Seize space, 16, ave Bugeaud, 16th 01.56.28.16.16. You may already know, but it's quite similar to JR's Atelier but here you can sit at a table rather than a stool. The food and prices, however, are similar - average here is 80-100 Euros. The Figaroscope lists two other two-hearts, Al filo delle stagioni (Italian) and Le Sot-l'y-laisse, 70 rue Alexandre-Dumas 9th, 01.40.09.79.20 where Rubin et al were most impressed by the côte de bouef and lamb shoulder. The final one-hearter is Le P'tit Panisse, 35, rue de Montreuil in the 11th 01.43.71.37.90. For the whole review, please click here The second restaurant in Pariscope's Time Out section is L'Uitr (try to pronounce it - it comes out - "L'Huitre"). Well that's the theme; oysters on the ardoise as well as lots of fish. The prices are described as good (for fish in Paris), the bill averaging 30 Euros, a Muscadet at 22 E. It's at 1, place Falguière 01.47.34.12.34. They go on to list Sunday brunch places: Café Léa Alcaxar The Moosehead Quai Ouest As for Figaroscope's compendium, it's devoted to "theme restaurants" whose themes I won't give since I think they're pretty clear from the restaurants' names, if not write me; A toutes vapeurs Fromage Rouge J'Go (pronounce this one too = Gigot) Terres de truffes Rouge Tomate {now Rouge St Honore} Le Wok Ballon & Coquillages Pomze (another one that's onomatopoetic = Pommes) For the whole review, please click here Zurban, the relatively new (3 years) weekly competitor to Figaroscope, Pariscope and Les Spectacles, which is touted by Olivier Morteau as a good source of accurate reviews, has no website with its copy, but this week reviews a "wine bar" Le Cercle Tourne Rond, 7 rue Saint-Sabin, 11th, 01.40.21.02.51 which it says is good price-good taste. In this week's A Nous Paris, the RATP freebie, two restaurants are reviewed. The first is Le Relais de Sévres, 8-12 rue Louis-Armand, 15th in the Sofitel, which is entitled "In search of a Star." While it got a 3 out of 5 blocks, there were five "buts" in the review which alerted me to a problem; example: the roast lamb was creamy but lukewarm. As the review concludes: "The search goes on." The second restaurant is an old standard on the Butte de Montmartre, L'Oriental, 76, rue des Martyrs 18th, and while I said I wouldn't cover foreign food in this Digest, it's North African, which used to be French, so I'll pass on the news that it too got 3 out of 5 with no "buts," just the dilemma whether to have tagine or couscous. I'm catching up on some recent Time Out sections in Pariscope. In the 5-11 May one, they reported on the re-emergence of Gilles Epié, he of Bocuse, Ducasse and TV fame, just returned from L.A. He's opened a new place: La Petite Epié at 8 rue Mabillion (01.43.26.52.26) which blends traditional French fare and Hollywood/Rodeo Drive stuff (the examples they give for dessert are fondant de chocolate and fruit salad). The Time Out folks loved it at 35E. That week they also liked a bistro in the Batignolles area: l'Abadache, 89 rue Lemercier in the 17th (01.42.26.37.33). The reviewer(s) notes that there is a bit of Brit in the cuisine (watercress, Stilton and other English cheeses) due to his English wife's influence. 34E average. In the 12-18 May issue of Pariscope, they review a recently re-opened Spanish restaurant (La Paella) and a budget one (Les Trois Frères) that's been around for "over two decades." They then list a bunch of vegetarian restaurants: Foody's Brunch Café Le Petit March Marché A Toutes Vapeurs La Madonnina New Pondichery And in the 19-25 May Pariscope, Time Out reviews Djoon, 22, bd Vincent Auriol in the 13th - 01.45.70.83.49. They thought it was "really good" but its downsides are its location by the Bibliothèque National (Mitterand), its desserts and its "acid jazz." The other restaurant reviewed is a chef-owner-run bistro Le Manège de l'Ecuyer, 6, rue de la Sourdière in the 1st 01.49.27.00.64 It sounds classic (snails, sausage, andouillette, rabbit, crème caramel, etc.) and terrific - the average check - 34E. In their following compendium of "top fish places, they name: Iode L'Huître et Demie Restaurant Cap Vernet Ballon & Coquillages Taira Jean Miot reviewed the venerable Au petit théâtre, the 22nd of May in Le Figaro. It’s at 15, place du Marché-Saint-Honoré, 75001 Paris. 01.42.61.00.93. Closed Sunday and Monday. Menus 18-22-28 €. Carte : 35-45 €. It’s been in existence since 1790, and when the owner it transformed himself from charcutier to cuisinier it became best known for its classic porc preparations (but they also have carpaccio of St Jacques, bar with asparagus, lotte with an amoricaine sauce, farm rabbit cooked 7 hours. He called it a rare virtue in Paris. To read the entire article click here Friday May 4th, and since Mrs. Wells is absent in the IHT, they printed a Bryan Miller story on Cajun cooking which I suspect was in the Times. However, Le Monde Friday published 3 reviews in “Toques en Pointe” by Jean-Claude Ribaut: the first two are bistrots, evidently both originally conceptualized by Emmanuel Laporte: Les Feuilles libres, 34, rue Perronet, 92200 Neuilly-sur-Seine. Tél. : 01-46-24-41-41, open Monday-Friday and Saturday night and its annex - Entrées libres, 49, rue Madeleine-Michelis, 92200 Neuilly-sur-Seine. Tél. : 01-46-24-00-84. Open Monday to Saturday. Both sound very nice; e.g. thick foie de veau with capers; contrasting flavors of sweet & sour, etc. He also reviews a brasserie – La Stella, which has just reopened after two years. It’s open every day at 133, avenue Victor-Hugo, 75016 Paris. Tél. : 01-56-90-56-00. He says they serve lovingly prepared and simple dishes; excellents fruits de mer, navarin of lamb, tête de veau, blanquette, aile de raie, quenelles, home-made fries, pied de porc. Count on 35E a la carte. Please post comments in the the discussion thread and not in the digest thread.

Thanks Paul. At your suggestion I read and just posted notes (Book Notes on Food Guides Rounds 2 & 3) on the Olivier Morteau book as well. In some places it's just as amusing as Remy. Also John Whiting has provided me with an idea re: an American publisher for Remy which I'll pass on to my friends. It may yet happen.

I thought I would add some more impressions of two recent publications touched on in Michelin, Schadenfreude and Remy. For simplicity and to avoid confusion between subject and verbs, I’ll refer to the author of “Food Business” as the “authors” rather than Olivier Morteau, since as PaulBrussel said, the book is actually written by three food critics. N.B. These are not “book reviews,” but rather “bloc notes;” and whatever errors of translation and misinterpretation occur, they are mine alone not the authors’. Warning: If you are checking this site just to find out which book to buy for this summer’s trip to France, you’re out of luck, but you can skip all the pedantry and go to the last paragraph of the first review (as you always do) where some hints are given as to whom you can best trust. “Food Business: La face cachée de la gastronomie française” Éditions Générales First, was published in February 2004 and was written by three food writers who publish under the pseudonym Olivier Morteau. It is an interesting and easy read and I thank PaulBrussel for recommending it. As I mentioned elsewhere, the first chapter is devoted to an exploration of Bernard Loiseau’s suicide, raising the issue which they explore in greater detail later on – the mostly adversarial relationship between chefs and their critics. The second chapter starts out with some history. The authors relate how the first critic in France, Grimod de la Reynière, an aristocrat, developed a lot of enemies as soon as he started writing in 1803. He was followed by critiques in revues and newspapers; culminating in the “Michelin”’s adding food comments to its Red Guide, 20 years after it began. By 1953, there were enough food critics to have an association of such individuals. When Gault and Millau burst on the scene in the1960’s, they were largely seen as revolutionary, with predicable results; they were detested by the traditionalists and loved by the new chefs. In this history section, the authors note that throughout the chef/critic wars a basis of criticism of the critics has always been their lack of training, certification, etc., since they are essentially self-proclaimed experts. Another interesting issue concerns what writers write about; for example, the authors quote Jean Miot as differentiating between chroniclers who write-up only restaurants they can speak well of (a style he is supportive of, saying the worst one can do is to be silent) versus the journalist or critic, who calls them as he (usually male in France) sees them, refusing to “lie by omission.” Another contentious issue is whether an anonymous diner is treated less well than a known critic. They retell the stories of disguises worn by G & M and note that even when Christian Millau wore a moustache, he was spotted. Finally, they discuss paying for the meal, summing up the argument by introducing us to a fact of life: when Ducasse invited the press to lunch (free), only Emmanuel Rubin (who heads up the “What’s new” ratings each week in “Pariscope”) and Alexandre Cammas of “Nova” didn’t show. Much of the rest of the 2nd chapter is taken up with the sniping of chefs towards critics, such as their complaint that critics can criticize a single thing they don’t like that may have lasted a minute (an example, the music played while waiting for a table) while the chef works 100% on producing food every day. They sum up the chef’s sentiments that food critics need restaurants to exist but chefs don’t need critics. The title of the 3rd chapter is “The dictatorship of ‘Michelin,’” which pretty much sums up the chapter. Stars first appeared in1923; Bocuse was the first post-war chef now living to achieve three in 1965. The gain or loss of a star translated into a 30% change in business and those chefs who pushed the limits (Meneau and Lorrain) and lost a star, suffered at the cash register. Word of mouth suggested that the décor, toilets, napery or silverware counted as much as the food and chefs responded to the rumors. The authors give example after example of elevations after changes: Bocuse with toilets, Savoy with renovations, etc. Noticeable to the chefs was the fact that foreigners were and are more responsive to “Michelin”’s ratings than natives. The authors point out several inconsistencies made by the “Michelin;” one chef was sanctioned for misattribution of where products were from but another restaurant kept its stars after the chef left, some chefs get promoted quickly (the Pourcels), others equally well thought of (Bras), wait years, etc. They note that Hiramatsu didn’t even have to wait the normal year, he got his first star 4 months after he opened (that’s even counting the normal time it takes to print the guide once sent to a printer). Stuff such as the aforementioned, pushed by Cammas, Rubin and Crouzet’s attack on the “Michelin” in 2002 as having passed its prime, led to its devaluation. Then came the death of Loiseau and the wait for whether “Michelin” would downgrade it. (Ironically, in my opinion, is the fact that Dominique Loiseau, his wife, argued that nothing had changed and therefor they should retain their stars, but Loiseau prided himself on constantly innovating, changing and pushing the envelope – oh well). Seventy-three pages into their book, the authors first mention the dirty little secret of French restaurant ratings, that the big guys and big hotels spend a lot of money, not just on napkins and flowers but on press agents. Well-known but beautifully told here are the yearly visits that the big chefs make to “Michelin”, described as either on a level of importance of the French Minister of Foreign Affairs’ meeting with his ambassadors at the Quai d’Orsay or as being summoned to the principal’s office (my liberal translation of Loiseau’s statement that “On n’est pas à l’école). While the chefs may poo-poo the importance of the visit publicly, it surely sounds scary. The bottom line of the authors’ argument is that the “Michelin,” by its slowness to reflect change, its obeisance to aristocracy and tradition and its overwhelming power, shapes cuisine rather than honestly reflect it, although the authors can get few chefs to publicly state so. A juicy passage states that the red guide is a cult; with a god (the Director), a dogma (anonymity), a rite (regular visits), and a sacrament (the secrecy). The authors comment that it’s tough when reading the “Michelin” to tell the difference between a nice middling restaurant in the provinces and that run by a young creative chef on the rise. And, in a paragraph that will please most eGulleteers, the authors praise Yves Cambdebord’s independence from the “Michelin” and disregard of their wishes. They also praise Christian Constant and Christophe Chabanel for going against “gastronomic correctness.” The authors note that of the ten 3-star restaurants in Paris, seven are really run by big investor-groups, only two by chefs and one is privately held. The authors are scathing about the red guide’s refusal to indicate how they judge restaurants and especially why they don’t downgrade obviously tired establishments (my translation). They state that the red guide is followed slavishly by Americans and those chefs wishing our custom know this; on the other hand, François Simon says you might as well keep rereading the 2002 guide because the 2003 one is no improvement. While venerables like Daguin say they never once recognized a “Michelin” man, others say it’s easy because they ask for the toilets before the menu and give you advice about the sauces. The authors state acidly that to be an inspector it’s enough to have failed a career in administration. One restaurateur who insisted on anonymity for “fear of reprisal” said that most restaurants are only visited every two years. However, those to be promoted or downgraded are visited “a number of times,” and those with three stars are visited 12-15 times. The authors note that for 35 years there have only been three directors of the red guide (who arbitrate decisions and disputes) but that the newest actually does have hotel school training and he has promised reform and has even initiated a “style book.” Because Pascal Remy’s book “L’inspecteur se met à table” was published after “Food Business” and has spilled the beans about his estimate of the number of inspectors in France, I won’t go over the authors’ math calculations, but they were pretty clever in figuring it out (p. 98). They also dispute “Michelin”’s reputed sales figures calling them inflated. Chapter 4 recounts the predictable response to 40 years of “Michelin”’s monopoly on food guides given in Chapter 3, pitting Gault & Millau yellow guide against the jolly red giant. G & M’s start was modest in 1962, but by 1970 they had not only begun what would become for years a monthly magazine but an annual guide to rival the “Michelin,” albeit using 4 chefs’ hats and 20 points as maximums. In opposition to “Michelin”’s bare bones “name, address and serial number,” they wrote detailed and flowery (some thought too much so) descriptions of the setting, welcome, plates, and prices. The authors recount again the birth of the “Nouvelle Cuisine,” G & M’s give and take with Guérard, Chapel, Blanc and Senderens, and their respect for using seasonal products, that were not overcooked and were served in reasonable portions. In vast contrast to the inspectors from the “Michelin,” G & M were easily recognizable, made friends with chefs and publicized their standards as the Ten Commandments. The authors repeat what was widely known in the food world even then but less well known by Mr. Average Diner, that “everything could be bought” and that the boundaries between personal and professional roles were blurred, to say the least, but they maintain that G & M were at heart bohemians, so while they played “the game,” they never ripped anyone off. Their description of how G & M parceled out 15-20 regions to “barons” who ran them as protectorates where every restaurant in the area’s inclusion/rating/etc depended on these seigneurs soon became “very dangerous,” territorial and “very perverse.” The authors say if you call “Michelin”’s folks inspectors, G & M’s are “investigators.” Rather than being salaried at the “Michelin,” G & M’s reviewers were freelance or were paid royalties. They quote one champagne owner as saying that some were double agents, serving as both correspondents and wine sellers and at least one made the connection clear to a restaurateur. I must assume the authors’ and their publisher’s lawyers vetted this manuscript before publication because there have been no libel suits, but André Gayot, G & M’s #3 who left G & M “precipitously” for the US to become the publisher of GaultMillau in the “Anglo-Saxon” world comes in for some pretty rough comments (pps. 111-112). [Moderator's Note: Subsequent to the posting of this review, we have been informed by André Gayot that he has not only brought suit, but that on May 11, 2004, The Court of Nanterre (Tribunal de Grande Instance de Nanterre) has ruled that allegations made against M. Gayot were not supported by a serious, comprehensive and objective investigation and that in consequence they were defamatory. Radio France confirms this on their web site where on June 16, 2004, they reported that "The Tribunal has ordered First Editions (the publisher) to pay a provisional sum of EUR 10,000 to André Gayot, as recompense for the damage to his name. The court also ordered the suppression of the incrimating passage in any new edition of the book and for a notice of the court's decision to be placed in any unsold copies."] Also, if you’ve ever wondered how those Gault & Millau labels got on wine bottles and other products at Monoprix, the authors have the answer – they come thanks to a company called “Gault&Millau bis” run by two friends of Gault’s. Starting in 1984 there were trial separations of the two and by 1986 a “divorce.” “This was painful for the two comrades but fatal to Gault & Millau.” They note that the enterprise has been bought and sold several times, each time more catastrophic than the last. One investor apparently bought G&M to further his candidacy for mayoralty of Cannes. (I’m not making this up, see p. 114.) Some readers may recall the period during which the magazine replaced numbers and toques with goofy smiley/grumpy faces; and certain of you may be interested in which prominent politicos (you must remember Dominique de Villepin from his pre-Iraq invasion days) and entrepreneurs (you certainly know Jean-Marie Messier, late of Vivendi) became entangled in this mess, but too much of it is too “inside” to be of wide interest and too painful to detail, although it is more than a bit amusing to read. If you read French and love a good laugh, do read the section between pages 112-120; it surely beats most of what passes for humor these days. As the authors did with the “Michelin,” they performed a bit of math regarding expenses and revenues, numbers of correspondents and restaurants, etc. GM itself reports it only visits every two (goal) to three (probably more real) years and relies (as do “Michelin” and “Routard”) on questionnaires for prices, etc. The authors credit the Internet site of an American newspaper with the discovery that the preparation of the Guide is actually performed by a little company not by GM. However, at present, the authors say that even with its current much diminished distribution (16,000), its quality has improved. The concluding pages of Chapter 4 are sad; the authors try to rescue Gault and Millau’s (the people not the brand) reputation despite the nonsense perpetrated by its subsequent owners over the past fifteen years. They note that Gault at 70 was still an adolescent toodling about town in his new canary yellow Peugeot 406 but that only two chefs (Oger & Le Divellec) showed up at his funeral in July 2000, (despite the semblance of closeness with and to such luminaries as Bocuse, Troigros and Guérard). They end the chapter by quoting José-Marie Espiessac in “le Figaro” who said essentially that all guides have to fiddle with the ratings or they wouldn’t generate the publicity to generate sales. But everyone seems to agree that G&M has a bit to go now to regain its lost credibility. Chapter 5 concerns itself with the pluses and minuses of reviewing - but in truth reveals few minuses. It begins by saying that it’s well understood that the only chefs who seem unhappy with the guidebooks are those who got bad reviews. The authors entitle one subsection “It takes two to tango” (my translation) and despite the chefs’ statements to the contrary, they play the game too, because they know all too well that reviews bring business, even a 12/20 helps the caisse. As Simon says, nobody forces the chefs to issue you invitations, “comp” you and your guest to meals, give you gifts, slap you on the back, etc. But it works both ways. In the subsection “Press lunches,” they talk of the role of public relations’ firms in handling not only lunches but also weekends at Relais & Chateau’s, wine-tastings and cocktail parties. They come up with the astounding (to me) figure that 2-5 invitations a day are issued to food critics. Not surprisingly, for openings, there are all the trappings of photos, descriptions etc. They note that some critics “hunt” in bands with their “rabatteurs” (you look it up, this is a family website), while others like Pudlowski, work alone. Another staggering number, publicity for Ducasse’s epicerie “Be” in 2002 alone generated some several hundred articles. Lest you think the authors were tough on the red and yellow guides, listen to these quotations (by others) about Pudlowski – he’s a literary critic passing as food critic; he loves silk and palaces; and he’s the perfect mirror of a bourgeois gourmande. They detail his multiple sources of income, his habit of regularly changing publishers, etc. But they also give it to Jean-Luc Petitrenaud, who reviews for at least 5 publications. However, they are complementary to Jean-Pierre Coffe, who doesn’t talk about restaurants, ironically, since he’s one of the rare critics with actual restaurant experience, but rather of produce. Likewise, they like Périco Légasse who largely deals with good produce. At this point, halfway through the book (p. 148), they discuss Claude Lebey (really Claude Jolly), “the godfather” of the profession, who has written, edited, directed, served as an middleman – in short – “done everything, eaten everything, seen everything” in the business. His reputation was secured in the 1970’s when he signed up for the publishing house of Chez Albin everyone from Guérard to Maximin as well as G & M, Pudlowski and Simon. The godfather role apparently stems from his knowledge of everyone and role as headhunter who is able to hook up chefs with restaurants, etc., as if they were soccer players. The two guidebooks that bear his name are thought by the authors though to resemble reference guides more than food guides do. Now over 80, he’s unable to turn away from the game. Then there’s Marc de Champérard, whose “Guide” doesn’t cover anything but good “restaurants de terroir” and who is described as a hedonist. Like the other guides, the authors question the sales figures put out by Champérard’s publisher and note that he gets either not much or indeed bad press outside of a few regional papers. And then they finally get to François Simon, who has been mentioned at least twenty times before and has been quoted by the authors with a fair degree of respect. He is described as the opposite of Champérard and as “inénarrable” (priceless, too funny for words) and bringing a sharp, correct and literary style to gastronomic criticism. Although he wears a mask on TV and prides himself on going to restaurants undetected, he interviews chefs face to face for “Le Figaro” (and thus those guys at least know what he looks like) and he received a Chevalier-ship publicly from ex-minister Catherine Trautman in 1999 in the presence of many chefs including Senderens and Hermé. They note that he also pays his restaurant checks (apparently practically the only critic in France who does). The one zinger the authors aim at Simon is his association with the Zagats, whose guides the authors criticize as not the most reliable. The authors do not escape from the French tendency to love conspiracy theories; they posit the possibility that certain chefs can in essence stuff the ballot box chez Zagat, thus skewing the results. The remainder of this chapter deals with the “secondary” critics, “Bottin” (ex-“Kléber-Colombes”) which tests only a few hundred restaurants a year but claims to get 12,000 letters a year on which they truly judge them (the authors note that Bottin “dangerously” follows the other guides and has never discovered a single restaurant), Jacques Gantié (the Pudlowski of the South)’s column “Saveurs” in Nice-Matin and his “Guide Gantié” (he is described as representing nothing but liking bullfighting, women, cigars and bon vivants) and Roland Escaig’s “Bible” which has no stars, no chefs hats, no forks, etc. In a subsection entitled “Grandeur and décadence,” the authors note that the gastronomic press and guidebook business is in trouble at present: the costs keep going up but revenues from advertising are down; nobody can truly keep a national team of reviewers; thus all the guidebooks rely more and more on the local press. However, since businesses and holiday destinations depend on the guides, regional committees of tourism are forced to support the publications, whether by providing train tickets, cars, hotel rooms, etc. On their part, to create “buzz,” and ultimately sales, the guides increasingly “find” new young chefs who are elevated rapidly to star status. Then there’s the inflation of the pure numbers of places covered. The authors imply that the guides fiddle with the ratings, too, to create “events,” not agreeing with each other’s upping or downing. They condemn one writer (unnamed) for a national daily who is at the same time an author of a guidebook and represents restaurants to the media. Things get so tangled that one press agent noted that one guidebook listed his personal telephone number instead of that of the restaurant he was promoting, but that year he got so few phone calls that he knew that the guidebook was pretty useless. The authors also note that it’s hard for critics and their wives, who are wined and dined by and with the chefs, to write a bad review of the restaurants. More – each year the guidebooks are launched with a champagne buffet costing 75-80 Euros apiece for several hundreds of persons, the bill footed by a champagne company. Another tale – the authors recount that in October 2003, Pudlowski called up a number of chefs and implied that they were being considered for the award of laureate of the year - the hitch, to be chosen, they had to put on a dinner for 400 persons; and apparently only one chef (Jacques Decoret) refused. The authors say that one of the few groups that refuse to play the “buy the critic one or several dinners game” is/are the Costes. You’ll either have to believe me when I say that the authors give a lot of ammunition to those who feel that the food criticism racket in France is just that and the critics are really on the take, or read pages 164 and 165 yourself. Some of the tricks they recount that the critics use are simply juvenile – such as one national journal’s critic’s reputation for reserving a table for three when the critic always dines with only one other person – but wants the extra elbow room. However, the authors note, “sometimes he pays.” Another always eats with some celebrity and several of his or her friends, justifying it as good publicity for the restaurant. This same personage makes sure to have a good cigar with his digestif; spends entire weeks at Relais & Chateau’s; drinks only the finest bottles of wine, etc., etc. Who knows if any of this is true or even true about one person, but it sure sounds like chapter and verse, especially when the authors “explain” this behavior as due to the underpayment of the critics – that’s got to be their public excuse. The chefs on their part excuse their largesse either on simple fear or their pretext that they get valuable advice on dishes from the critics (sure!). The authors also say that a well-known ruse by free-loaders pretending to be critics is to state that you’re a reviewer for some little-known Anglo-Saxon guide, or a confidential one or one that has limited circulation. Chapter 6 is about all about money and the chefs (as if the rest of the book isn’t). I faced it with some trepidation and I was not disappointed. I guess if you’re a chef or an investor or never read “Burgundy Stars,” you might be curious how much everything costs and what the numbers of covers are, etc. However, luckily, before the authors get to those specifics they give some more current history. The authors attribute many changes in the environment of French cuisine to the “new Cuisine,” among them, chefs becoming creators not executors, moving out of the kitchen into the dining room, and out of the restaurant into the TV studios and magazines. This led to developing and improving their properties, reaching its apex with construction of heliports for the rich and famous. Then they expanded; Vergé, already possessing five stars, moving into the US and Japan; at least 8 others followed. Most recentlycame the annexes, endorsement of products and other lines of business, such as hotels, boutiques, books, etc. Artists were transformed into businessmen, all the while denying their venality, what the authors several times refer to as a code of “omerta.” If asked, “how much do you make?” the response was “art has no price.” Chefs’ salaries “often passed 150,000 Euros.” In working with Casino (the Troigros) and Monoprix (Martin), they not only made more money; they became “showmen.” With all this, they inevitably lost touch with cooking; Ducasse admitted that the majority of chefs have not made a dish in 20 years. The authors only list four chefs (Boyer until he retired, Pacard, Thorel & Passard) who have stuck to their pianos. Apparently chefs’ magazines are replete with ads and/or articles on “industrial” products available to substitute for the actual thing. They do compliment Savoy, Rostang and Dutournier for having smaller bistrots in Paris where you can actually eat well. Not that they’re doing it for charity; Savoy is calculated to make fifteen million Euros a year, of which 2/3rds come from his spin-off’s. The authors conclude that the frozen meals carrying big chefs’ names, purchased in supermarkets, are no better than brand X. Next they discuss the chefs’ books, which have increased in numbers and revenues greatly in five years (in 2003 there were 300 new titles with sales of six million). The more prolific turn out a book a year. Once again, no one admits venality; it’s all to educate the public and fulfill a “passion.” The authors say that in the 1980’s chefs were stars, but in the 1990’s became magazine personalities, often cherished as the French “exception” to the big bad American cultural wolf. As one might expect, sometimes the books are authored by the chefs, sometimes ghostwritten and sometimes written “with” someone. They also note that the books range from being devoted to cooking seasonal products to being devoted to one thing, e.g. olive oil. The authors then write several pages on each of the big guys (not a woman there, until Flora Mikula emerges briefly on p. 218) who have gone from being just a chef to a brand-name; they are not surprisingly: Bocuse, the emperor of Collonges; Loiseau, the king of marketing (NB, the day I wrote this paragraph I received a letter from Mme Loiseau inviting me to Saulieu for a special night, dinner & breakfast for just 225E; his expertise lives!); Guérard, spa man; Robuchon, just plain Joël; Blanc, the first in his town; Ducasse Incorporated; Veyrat, under his hat; the Pourcel twins and others. This is where it got boring for me with more numbers - of revenues, books sold, meals served, etc. - than I needed to know. But for those interested, the numbers are all there on pages 191-212. The last pages of the chapter are devoted to a discussion of the tightening profit margins which they date to Gagniere’s bankruptcy in 1996 in St Etienne, “forcing “ (my interpretation) the chefs to get ever closer in bed with the banks and investors. André Daguin, better known to Americans now as Ariane‘s father than as the former chef in Auch and head of the French restaurateur association, is quoted as saying that the independent chef is currently an “endangered species.” The authors make clear that in the big Parisian hotels, the principal investor/owner calls the shots and the chef is but the “booster.” The authors give numerous sad examples of talented chefs out on the streets due to disagreements with the “management.” They wind up on a positive note, however, stating that Ducasse has discovered the formula for success in picking top rank, well known hotels and writing contracts for his enterprises to his advantage; the investor/owner runs the hotel while Ducasse runs and profits from the restaurant. Chapter 7 deals largely with the relationship between chefs and others: other chefs, foodies, Freemasons, politicians and TV. Chefs in general are individualists and often snipe at each other rather than cooperate. As only one example, Robuchon is reported by the authors to have said of Ducasse “I’m not like Ducasse who has five or six press agents.….me, I’m busy cooking.” They say that there is currently a real crisis in French cuisine, which was even reflected in the “New York Times'” article of August 10th 2003 suggesting that the innovative cooking was coming nowadays from Spain (e.g. El Bulli) not France. In contrast to the chefs’ wars against each other, they cite Ducasse’s project which involves inviting a young chef from the provinces to cook every two weeks at the Plaza Athénée. The authors then discuss the associations of chefs, which they describe as a little game or translated more liberally “a joke.” Le Divellac says running such a group is like herding cats (my translation of the sense behind his words). Their antics, coming together, then resigning, then splitting up again, are detailed on pages 230-238. Suffice it to say that the authors note that despite the great number of chefs’ organizations (grouped as Master’s, star-holders, Young chefs, the classicists, the modernists, provincialists, etc), their meetings, their courses and their prizes, not one has been truly effective. Then there are the brotherhoods, academies, circles and clubs of foodies, who meet periodically, best known of which is the Club of the 100. There is also much discussion of the link between the big chefs and freemasonry, which I’ve never fully understood anyway, especially why feelings get so heated, so quickly, when the subject is raised in France. The chefs are prominent among Freemason’s Lodges, generally keep a low profile advocated by the organization and only Robuchon advertises his affiliation. The next section deals with the chefs’ relationships with the politicos; from Giscard d’Estang to Chirac and indicates that the federally-supported national council for culinary arts, established by Jacques Lang in 1985, spends 1,500,000 Euros a year and questions - on what? One answer is the new “Harvard University of Cooking” in Reims established to promote such ideals as the French version of “slow food.” And finally, there are the relationships between the chefs and TV chains which go back to the days of Raymond Oliver in the 1950’s but have led to entire channels devoted to food (sound familiar?), all tied to one or more big chefs. Chapter 8 carries the Franglais version of the book’s English title; e.g. “Le Food biz” and starts right out summing up the message, as: “It’s a business like any other.” The total for the industry is 27.33 billion Euros a year, but restaurant revenues amount to only 300 million Euros a year of that and the big guys (making over 60E a table) represent only 2% of the market. In another way of grasping the difference; there only 50 chefs who are the media darlings but 150,000 in total, working in some161,000 restaurants throughout France. By doing the math, the reader quickly sees that the bulk of business is generated by the likes of Flunch, Buffalo Grill and McDo’s. However, 25% of French people do not eat out at all, because it’s too expensive. The authors say that the traditional restaurants repel customers and imply that unless the gastronomic sector starts to change, it will be drowned out by fast food places and the chains. Ducasse says we must “scale down a bit, we’re not museums.” The next subsection deals with the restaurant chains of all sizes (eight to the hundreds) and types (fast food, brasseries, bistrots and “fine food”) and there’s no way I could list them all. But it suffices to say that while we may think we’re eating in a chef-owned little bistrot, we might be sadly mistaken. In the next subsection, the new sociology of the restaurant, the authors discuss changes in eating habits at present in France; noting that it’s not unlike the situation that exists between high fashion and ready-to-wear clothes. They note that someone can dine at a three-star restaurant for 200E one night and lunch at a Pakistani run sushi bar for 20E the next day; fusion cooking, trendy restaurants and hip places have all eaten into the chefs’ territory. With very different styles, goals and formulae Conran and Ducasse have both been successful. Conran, by attracting “beautiful people” like Madonna and Naomi Campbell pulls in 30 and 40 year olds to fill 750 covers in one restaurant alone. In Paris in 1997 and 1998 the Barfly, Spoon and Lô Sushi places introduced world food in a big way. Big investments (up to 10 million Euros); but big profits too. Now, décor is as, if not more important, than the food (rediscovering a wheel Michelin did a half-century ago). Now the investors hire the designers before the chefs and one no longer talks of restaurants but of places. Mme Loiseau quoted her husband as saying “French cuisine has lost its soul/spirit (both are implied); it’s no longer the chef or the product that counts; it’s the decorator.” And a handful of decorators do nothing but design restaurants. Again, the authors go on and on (pps. 282-283) citing chapter and verse. If that’s not enough, the new guys add disc jockeys and celebrities who are regulars or investors and everyone rocks all the way to the bank. A sad ending to the book, but wait, there’s hope. The epilogue discusses the future that is hoped for from the incoming generation of new chefs, who are sometimes only young in spirit, who have trained in the great kitchens, who can juggle food and finances, who innovate constantly and who use miso more than wine sauce. The authors give as examples Jacques Decoret (Vichy), Pascal Barbot (L’Astrance) and Gilles Choukroun (Le Café des Délices and now L’Angl’Opera), followed by a list of seven others of whom the ones in Paris are Christophe Beaufront (L’Avant-gout), François Pasteau (L’Épi Dupin) and Nicolas Vagnon (La Table de Lucullus). The authors insist that the revolution of this new generation began in Paris with the “gastro au bistrot,” or “néobistrot,” such as those run by Cambdebord and Constant following this formula: take some far out corner of town (in a gastronomic desert), a nice place that doesn’t cost a fortune, get an outgoing owner who’s the friendly face of the place and top it off with a recognized talent and prices that defy the competition. The symbol of this new breed is the absence of the toque, not because the chefs are unhygienic or aren’t serious about cooking and tradition but because it demystifies their role. They’ve earned their stripes and know what its like to be a flunkey in the kitchen, part of a regimented, dehumanized bunch of employees and they will do their best to break this mould. The authors maintain that these brigades of regimented underlings in the kitchens of the great restaurants resulted in neither the best food nor a respect for products and meanwhile, a lot of baksheesh passed between food purveyors and chefs or their seconds-in-command. The authors say that the new chefs refuse to play this game or maintain the code of “omerta.” They’re better educated, grew up in a more open society and are more open to innovation. They also don’t try to attract the demanding and fussy customers who slavishly follow the “Michelin” or “Gault and Millau.” They quote Nicolas Vagnon (La Table de Lucullus) as refusing the best bistrot award from Lebey because he wouldn’t organize the great buffet described in Chapter 6 and above. And it turns out that he hasn’t suffered financially for sticking to his principles. The new chefs are sure that word of mouth will fill their tables more than TV appearances. So if cooking and chefs can adapt, can reviewers? The authors think so. The new reviewer is more of a journalist, working, reporting, wondering, being curious, shaping, filtering, they say. They simply want to practice their trade honestly and freely, acting as a mirror, not as a shill. They remain anonymous, pay their checks and love food as much as eating it. So, to what should we foodies turn? They mention “Le Figaroscope,” “Nova,” “Zurban,” and “Gambero Rosso” in Italy, as well as the food writers Alexandre Cammas, Julie Andrieu, Emmanuel Rubin, spiritual son of François Simon and maybe Luc Dubanchet, with a new publication “Omnivore.” The authors end the book on a strange and not fully thought out note of hope for change; that is, that the future will not be formed by the mediazation of food, as was the Nouvelle Cuisine, but by the new chefs working together rather than against each other and they imply, that in the future, maybe even the chefs and writers won’t see each other any more as enemies either, since the “media are the motor for French cooking.” ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you’re interested in another view of who these “new chefs of tomorrow” are, here’s one. The Routard “Petits restos des Grands chefs,” covers almost 200 restaurants of the “c.o.t.” It’s pretty, nicely written and while leaving some new places out (see my Digest) of May 17th where Jean-Claude Ribaut of “Le Monde” complains about their omissions - it does a pretty good job. The pluses are the pictures of restaurants and their interiors; you won’t wander into the wrong place. The minus is that there are no stars or numbers; thus, for example, the hugely over-rated Salon d’Hélène (Darroze) gets the same amount of space as the much mourned (by eGulleteers and others) La Régalade and vastly superior but goofily-named Ze Kitchen Galerie. It will inevitably be compared with “Le petit Lebey des bistrots parisiens” which has 340 restaurants, does give ratings and costs 4.40E less, but in fairness “Lebey" doesn’t cover la France profond and the “Routard” does. Edited by John Talbott 12/28/04 to eliminate duplicative links and a spelling error.

I'm not sure I'm guilty of writing that article but I will post my notes on Olivier Morteau's book; I should be finished by Saturday. And yes, I'd love more information on Andy Smith to pass on.

Thanks PaulBrussel I got the Olivier Morteau book from Amazon.fr for 10E and the first chapter is entirely about Loiseau and states very clearly that he battled depression and perhaps bipolar (manic-depression) disease for "30 years." The authors deplore the use of Loiseau's suicide as a reason to flay guidebooks, reviewers etc, esp Francois Simon and name the named chefs who were guilty of "piling on." Mrs L. gets a very sympathetic treatment. FYI I found the book easy reading without the sometimes too-clever words used by the aforementioned F Simon, altho Morteau says time & again he, Simon, is the one "independant" reviewer in France - by that I take it to mean, not on the take. (I assume somewhere on eGullet Shlumberger's (sp) story of NYTimes reviewers not being lily-white, exists.) To answer Markk, Remy's book is to be published in German, Italian and Japanese I believe but no plans yet for English (this is from the horse's mouth, a friend of mine stayed with the publisher two nights ago). Indeed, the publisher wanted my opinion if it would sell in the US and I said yes - if anyone out there knows of an interested publisher I'd be glad to pass the info on (he, the French publisher just started his small house, and apparently is not fully connected with international rights folks yet.)

I've been twice to L'Oursine and he's nowhere in sight; I will ask directly next week.

The week of May 24th Francois Simon’s “Croqué Notes” in Monday’s Le Figaro discusses a restaurant run by Régis Marcon in Saint-Bonnet-le-Froid (04.71.59.93.72). He loves it, so if you’re down St. Etienne way it sounds like looking it up would be worthwhile. One gets the idea from his column that readers of “Croqué Notes” think it merits three Michelin stars not the two it has. To read it all, click here Francois Simon’s “Table d’affaires” Monday in “Figaro Entreprises” is a review of the venerable La Marée in the 8th. The title of the review says it all: “The tide (La Marée) is steady.” The years pass and the boat doesn’t move; indeed he thinks if you call to reserve in 100 years, it will be there. He says it’s all quite good but nothing dazzling either. To read it all, click here The Figaroscope “C’est nouveau” team on Wednesday gave two hearts to Le Safran, in the Hilton Arc de Triomphe which featured shrimp and avocado with wasabi, a “Hilton Burger” and a chocolate-raspberry macaron. The other four restaurants that were reviewed all got one heart; they were Premiers Pas, La Scuderia, La Table and Café Jules. For the entire article, click here Years ago the Metro/Bus system – le RATP – put out a weekly handout newspaper that was pretty pathetic. Just in the last while, however, A Nous Paris has been upgraded and when they reviewed L’Ourcine April 26th I realized they were serious. There’s no website, you have to pick up the hard copy as you enter any Metro station, but it’s worth consulting. This week, P.T (Phillipe Toinard) gave Rageneau, 202 rue St-Honoré, in the1st – telephone 01.42.60.29.20 - 3 of 5 hits. It’s largely a snack place between meals but it also has real food, for example, cod with a “crumble” of basilic tomatoes, olives and lemon and a reasonably priced (22E) Côtes-du-Rousillon. It’s open from 8 AM all day, 7/7. It’s that time of year, clearly; when folks want to sit on what is often euphemistically called the “terrace.” Certainly in the Bois de Boulogne it is, but on a sidewalk on a downtown street, it’s a bit less romantic. Three weeks ago, Pariscope’s “Time Out” section listed their favorites as: L’Espadon Restaurant du Palais-Royal Le Parc aux Cerfs Kastoori La Gare And this Wednesday’s Figaroscope gave this list of restaurants with terraces: La Terrasse du Parc Petite Cour Café Lenotre Terrasse Mirabeau Cinnamon Bertie Fontaine Gaillon Café Corazza Café Marly Café Véry Restaurant du Palais-Royal L’Espadon Il Cortile Park Le Petit Théâtre Bristol Le Cinq Maison du Danemark Laurent Maison Blanche Cour-jardin du Plaza Hotel Raphaël Le Sud La Gare Le Totem Roland-Garros Apollo Closerie des Lilas Noura Pavillion Montsouris Bistrot de Breteuil Fontaine de Mars Maison de Amérique Latine Bermuda Onion Académie de la Bière Café Maure de la Mosquée Café de la Nouvelle Marie Chantairelle Léna et Mimile Mauzac Chai 33 Le Guvinac Club Med World Café Bibliothèque Le Brespail Mélac Viaduc Café Boca Chica Café Beaubourg L’Estaminet Georges Grissli Fous d’En Face Marianne No Stress Café Auberge du Clos Le Papkika A. Beauvilliers Also in Wednesday’s Figaroscope, Francois Simon chose the terrace at Montalembert (3 rue Montalembert in the 7th - 01.45.49.68.03) for his “Haché Menu.” His bottom line is “It is perplexing to say the least, but the lovers of translucent (no real translation) food will be at home if they have good company.” However, his wait for it sounds insupportable (56 minutes by his watch). The bill was 85E for two without wine. Please consult the original article here Then in this week’s “Time Out” section in Pariscope they reviewed two more restaurants. Le Marsagny, 73 av Parmentier (01.47.00.94.25) as if it were new but it’s been around for a couple of years. The reviewers loved the “neighborhood” bistro quality of the place, the food and the 17E wine; menu at 20E, average bill 35E. The second restaurant was a Café” Le Cannibale at 93 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud in the 11th (01.49.29.95.59). The chef is a Melbourne-trained woman who cooks with a Middle-Eastern influence and they especially loved the desserts. The plats du jour are 8.90E and the final bill averages 28E. This week the compendium lists Indian restaurants: Gandhi-Opera Ganesha Corner Aux Comptoirs Arti Le Gange My ecopy of David Applefield’s My Mercredi didn’t arrive until I’d posted last week’s Digest but has a fine list of chocolate stuff and where to get it compiled by Sarah Thompson. It has: Gateau au chocolat coulant at Pamphlet, 38 Rue Debelleyme (3rd M: Filles du Calvaire) 72% chocolate bars at Pierre Marcolini, 89 Rue de Seine (6th M: Odeon) Chocolat amer macaron at Laduree, 16 Rue Royale (8th M:Madeleine) Banana chocolate mini-pave at Boulangerie de la Place, 10 Place d’Italie (13th M: Place d’Italie) Chocolat nougat ice cream at Berthillon, various spots on Ile St. Louis (4th M: Pont Marie) Fondant au nutella at Boulangerie Beaudet, 99 Rue Monge (5th M: Censier-Daubenton) Fondant au chocolat at Loir dans la Theiere, 1 Rue des Rosiers (4th M: St. Paul) Brioche aux pepites au chocolat at Florence Finkelsztajn, 24 Rue des Ecouffes (4th M: St. Paul). Hot chocolate at Steiger, 20 Rue des Capucines (2nd M:Madeleine) Please consult the original article here Addition: Last week, I noted that Francois Simon’s “Table d’affairs” was reviewing Chez Jean, 8, rue Saint-Lazare in the 9th. Because of a computer glitch, the entire article wasn’t on Le Figaro’s website but this week I got a hard copy. He gives it 3 out of 5 stars for the cuisine and 4 for Qualité/Prix with a menu d’affaires of 32E. But, when I looked at the carte in the window it was one of those impossible places that has two not always appealing choices for each course – e.g. 2 entrées (a hot waffle with white asparagus or haricots verts with a remoulade of smoked magret), 2 plats (poached salmon or rabbit thigh) and 2 desserts (marinated strawberries or a chocolate granité). If you have those it is indeed 32E but by taking average prices a la carte the bill looks more like 82E without wine and coffee. Correction: I reprinted the information printed in Le Figaroscope last week that Le Vin dans les Voiles (ex-Les Ormes) looked like it was open Sundays; but it is not; it is closed Saturday at lunch and all day Sunday. Please post comments in the the discussion thread and not in the digest thread.

I had the opportunity of eating at Le Troquet today and it was very good. There are 6 starters, 6 mains and 6 desserts without counting another 8 specialties on the ardoise. The starters included a lentil salad with chicken, young vegetables with coquilles, a soup with champignons and a poêlle of sardines with a terrific sweet/sour sauce and sweet pimento – which I had. Mains included magret de canard, cochon, and a shoulder of lamb plus salmon, merlu and daurade with a timbale of herbs which was very piquant – which I had as well. Desserts included a lot of fresh fruits – I had a brochette of pineapple with a caramel glaze. I should mention that everything looked great. The bread was from Poujauran. It was 41E with wine. The 3 course menu is 26E and if the table wants all 6 mains it’s only 37E each. The specials ranged from a terrine of foie gras (8E plus), morilles (14 more) and a cote de veau for 2 (25E more). The sole problem was a couple two tables away having a fight in English but I guess that could happen anywhere and given it's proximity to UNESCO, is to be expected. I left very happy. I’ll not let another 2 years go by before going again.

The French-American food dictionary I mentioned long ago is A-Z of French Food, by Genevieve de Temmerman and Didier Chedorge, it’s 22E at Brentano’s (versus about $50 on Amazon.com) – it was revised in 2001 and is published by Editions Scribo Paris. My copy here cost 135 FF eons ago and I recall you could also order it from someplace in Connecticut. Right near it on the shelf at Brentano’s was a similar sized book called Marlings (?) Menu Master for France for 13E which looked interesting too. Regarding Fish translations, which is somewhere on this thread, there's another Zagat-sized book called McClane’s Fish Buyer’s Guide, AJ McClane, Owl Book, Henry Holt, NY, 1990 is my edition, which has most fish listed by their French (and English and Spanish) names in the index.

[it's luxe, but have you seen Verat's little inn on the lake?] Yes - it's very impressive. And to think he was almost belly-up a while back.

As for the hotel, I'd second Bux's recommendation for the Imperial Palace; it's luxe but very convenient with access to the Champs de Mars if you're a runner and a car park. I much prefer to stay out South-East in the mountains but most chambres d'hote want a week or several days and you've got to bring your own linens, towels etc.

Outside of Veyrat (and I haven't been in a couple of years) there are two places around Annecy that I would highly recommend. The first is the Ferme de Lormay (Chez Albert) in Le Grand-Bornand 33 km from Annecy (better known as a skiing destination). It's not in my Michelin but is in my 2003 Gault/Millau as only a 12 but it's very special. The guy (Albert Bonamy) prepares great rustic cuisine with gutsy terrines, well-thought out mains and terrific tartes. The few times we've been there, the cars have all had Paris or local license plates which I think is a good sign. We went for lunch and then hiked around as did most customers (it's at the end of a very long road up a valley (the Bouchet). (You can cut up to Switzerland if you wish to afterwards) It's closed quirky times (May and the first part of June, Sept - mid December, Tuesdays; so check 04.50.02.34.29). If you must stick around Annecy in the evening, the Brasserie St Maurice, 9 rue du college 04.50.51.24.49 is not bad (it's surpring fusion-y cuisine) but not like Pere Bise in its heydays. I would caution you against eating at Ciboulette, it's not up to it's ratings, and L'Atelier Gourmand was not as good the 2nd time as it was the 1st. Despite its awful name, Super Panorama - perched high above Talloires, offers a terrific place to have lunch if it's sunny and the sailboats are out, etc. This may seem a bit bizarre, but just thru the Mont Blanc tunnel in Courmeyer (Italy) is a place we drive to from Megeve, Courcheval, etc to eat called La Maison de Fillipo (39.01.65.86.97.97). It's the Italian counterpart of the Ferme de Lormay, good, indeed great rustic cooking. It's the sort of place where the sausages, terrines and bread already on the table with some red wine, alone are a meal, but then you're faced with antipasti, and so many courses before you get to the pastas you're flagging. However, somehow you can make it thru the mains and desert and cheese and there's just enough room for a grappa. Our last bill was still way under $100. I'm a bit worried that they now have a website http://www.lamaison.com/ but maybe that's a sign of times not a sign of being over-touristed. We've usually eaten there at night but during the day the "other side" of Mont Blanc is perfect for hiking. It's closed in November and Tuesdays as well as June though, so depending on when you hit it - it may or may not be closed.

The Week of May 17th, 2004 Monday in Le Figaro, Francois Simon, in “Croque Notes,” discussed l’Auberge de la Charme, near Dijon; the meanderings of Daniel Hébet (from la Mirande in Avignon thru Ladurée in Paris to the Jardin du Quai in L’isle-sur-la-Sorgue); and a new Guide Routard with 200 “little restaurants of great chefs” for 16.90 Euros. Click here for the full story. Jean-Claude Ribaut in Thursday’s Le Monde does a much longer piece on the same book and defines the “little restaurants of great chefs” as the annexes of the big places, bistos of the former seconds and the restaurants less known run by the chefs of tommorrow. His very lengthy article takes issue with the chefs and restaurants not included – too many to mention here but he does give coordinates for two – the Bistrot de l'Etoile. 75, avenue Niel, 75017 Paris. 01.42.27.88.44. which has menus for lunch at 25 and 29E and La Table de Joël Robuchon. 16, avenue Bugeaud, 75016 Paris. 01.56.28.16.16. For the whole tirade Click here. Simon’s review of Chez Jean (A good plan) in the Monday Figaro Entreprises is available to purchase from their archives but not on the website which still shows last week’s review of the Tour D’Argent. It shows a tantilizing bit of the review in the shopper’s cart though, stating that “Frederic (somebody) having taken over the closed-up, classic restaurant Chez Jean on the rue St-Lazare is working hard now in the classic tradition….” And there it stops. I’ll attempt to get the hard copy later. For the moment here are the coordinates: Chez Jean, 8 rue St-Lazare 9th 0101.48.78.62.73 Wednesday’s Figaroscope had 1 3-hearter and 2 2-hearters. The 3 hearts went to L’Astrée, 3 rue du Géneral-Lanzerac in the 17th – tele 01.45.72.27.00 with a 29E menu at lunch and 39 and 58E menus at dinner (average bill 50E). Rubin and team call its food inspired and remarkable with good respect for the product. They note the room is Tuscan, the chef Japanese and the food French. One dish – escargots and shitakes with potatoes on the shell is described as Japanese rustic. The lead photo and 2 hearts went to the new star in the 16th-space given up by the Les Ormes group who decamped for le Bellecour (see last week’s note) in the 7th; new name – Le vin dans les voiles, same address - 8 rue Chapu and unless the review has it wrong, it’s open Sunday for lunch and dinner – a real find. [Correction: The information printed in Le Figaroscope last week that Le Vin dans les Voiles (ex-Les Ormes) looked like it was open Sundays; but it is not; it is closed Saturday at lunch and all day Sunday.] The carte is 30-35E and sounds different from that of Les Ormes, for example; blanquette of fish with a saffron sauce, but still good. The other two-hearter is a Lebanese snack-restaurant in the Marais – L’Escale du Liban. The one hearter is Juste Avant, a néorétro bar à vins near Les Halles and a broken plate was awarded to Concordia which had “miserable” Thai shrimp. For the full version click here. The longer compilation piece by the whole team (same website) was on restaurants outside Paris: Les Paillotes in Ville-D’Avray Cazaudehore in Saint-Germain-en-Laye Le Tastevin in Maison-Lafitte Maison Fournaise in Chatou L’ile Saint Germain in Issy-les-Moulineaux Hotellerie du Nord in Auvers-sur-Oise (Van Gogh territory) L’Ecu de France in Chenneviéres-sur-Marne Saint-Clément in Arpajon And Le Soleil in Saint-Ouen (really just past the peripherique, Metro Porte de Clignancourt, opposite the St Ouen flea market) with a new chef who just came from Jamin. Its address is 109, ave Michelet 01.40.10.08.08 It features fresh products daily on the blackboard. Simon himself went to one of the restaurants in the outlying areas for his "Haché Menu," also on the same site: Pouilly Reuilly in Le-Pré-Saint-Gervais where a very good 25E menu allowed two to eat for 121E. You need a car or taxi but he’s enthusiastic. Again see same URL. The May Condé Nast Traveller listed three Paris restaurants among its 66 new “hot tables” (it’s quite bizarre because there are 67 on their website). They were: L’Atelier de Jöel Robuchon L’Atelier Maitre Albert Stella, a renovated brasserie with new owners in the 16th, classic bistro dishes that run $16-44 The website for the full article is here. The RestoaParis website wrote up L’Etage, 43, avenue des Ternes in the 17th 01.43.80.19.28. Sounds like it’s targeted to the young with “électro” music, bistrot fare (tartare of beef, confit of duck) at 14E for a 1st and a main or a main and dessert and a big room upstairs (80 seats) for private parties. For the full version click here. May’s Travel & Leisure mentions three places: Delicabar, mentioned also in last week’s Digest Michel Chaudun, the chocolatier at 149 rue de l’Université Boulangerie-Pâtisserie Vandermeerch 278 ave Daumesnil For full piece click here. Finally, I finally discovered the reason why Patricia Wells has not contributed to the IHT in a while. Deep within her page --click here-- she indicates that as of May 6th she will be in the US for two months promoting her book The Provence Cookbook. She says that she’ll resume July 15th. Please post comments in the the discussion thread and not in the digest thread.

I wouldn't worry too much in better restaurants and better known bistros. Even in small, new, out of the way places, they'll have one person who can translate and if stuck will find a willing patron (like me) whom they know speaks English. The only problems arise when dishes or prearations have goofy or idiosyncratic names, eg "beef prepared the way Colette likes it," a "soupe of St. Remy with squid," "nontraditional rice pudding" but they do that in the US too. Bear in mind that almost all the French take years of English in school, but they often don't want to speak it because they don't want to make mistakes (one could come up with some cultural stereotypes and psychological explanations here). There is a nifty little (about 3.5 x 6 inch, or the size of a Zagat) French-English Food dictionary sold at Brentano's (37 Ave de l'Opera). It's usually on the second table on the right as you enter from the ave de l'Opera entrance. I'll come up with the name, publisher etc for you next week for you. But don't let a lack of language interfere with your intention to visit. However, that said, learning and using a few basic phrases from a beginner's phrase book goes a long way, eg "Bon jour, Excusez moi de vous deranger, Je ne parle pas francais, Au revoir, etc." and it goes without saying, don't shout in English when the going gets tough. I've been watching people for over 50 years in Paris and the reception one gets when struggling to speak even a few primative words is quite different than when one makes no effort. Have fun. Eat well. And don't sweat the details.

The one I recall (without my notes) is the Maison Rousseau.

I would second Gourmet de Seize; I've been there twice in the past 18 months and found it excellent both times. I hope this is not gratuitous but I assume everyone know Lyon is one of the few cities, other than Paris, to have its own food guide which is quite good, esp in giving the provenence of the chefs. One other thought; the oyster joints in the Halle de Lyon, cours Lafayette, are terrific for a light "supper" after an adequate dejeuner. Bux notes correctly that the oysters aren't as good in non "R" months but they'll do.

Yes I've been about 4 times, but not since 2001. I too, cannot say why not, because the food was consistently good and well priced. The others I ate with, however, were not as impressed as I was. If you go give us an update. Thanks

I telephoned yesterday and rather than answer my queries about Yves' date of departure and re-emergence, the lady at the other end was more interested (perhaps naturally) on my making a reservation to eat under the new chef.

The Week of May 10th, 2004 Monday in Le Figaro, Francois Simon contributed two columns. In the first, at the bottom of “Croque Notes,” he remarked on the continued expansion of the Guy Savoy empire. Savoy has just bought Chiberta on rue Arsène-Houssaye in the 8th. The architect Savoy used at L’Atelier Maitre Albert (see below), Jean-Michel Wilmotte, is redoing Chiberta as well and it’s expected to open in July. In addition, Simon notes that the venerable left bank restaurant le Bellecour, 22 rue Surcouf in the 7th has been bought by “des gens épatants,” e.g some pretty impressive guys, who previously plied their trade at les Ormes on rue Chapu in the far reaches of the 16th. Simon says run or at least call 01.45.51.46.93. The full review is here. In his regular section reviewing established, e.g. not new, restaurants for business-folks in the “Entreprises” supplement Monday, Simon reviewed La Tour D’Argent, noting that it is a true living legend in Paris which remains superb despite its dated preparations which are a bit tired. He doesn’t tell us what the bill was but notes that it was “memorable.” No eGulleteer needs the coordinates but they are: 15, quai de la Tournelle, 75005 Paris (01.43.54.22.31). Closed Monday and Tuesday at lunch. The full review is here. More on Guy Savoy (above) appeared in the Paris Woman part of the “At Your Service” website where L’Atelier Maître Albert was glowingly reviewed. The restaurant was also designed by Jean-Michel Wilmotte after the old restaurant was completely gutted. The menu is described as short but everything looked desirable. Descriptions of everything they had can be found in English here. The bill was 45-50 € per person without wine. It’s at 1, rue Maître Albert, Paris, 75005 (01.56.81.30.01). Dinner only every evening from 6:30 pm to 11:30 pm. Wednesday’s Figaroscope came up pretty dry for good new French places. The picture and one heart went to Le Marquis, 15 rue Dupleix, 15th, 01.43.06.31.50; “nothing much original, nothing more than honest, just a 5-7 kitchen [translation mine].” Two hearts went to a Japanese restaurant (Bizan) and a sandwich/Caesar salad/cheesecake place (Cojean). However, all was not lost, as Francois Simon had a good 13E lunch special (total bill 39E for 2) at Le Repaire de Cartouche, 8 blvd des Filles-du-Calvaire in the 11th, 01.47.00.25.86. See article here. In addition, the compilation article following “What’s New” featured meals under 30E in the following restaurants: 182 RD L’Enredgeu L’Ourcine Au Gourmand La Grande Rue Café Moderne Le Vin de Zinc Café Panique La Table d’Anvers De Lagarde and L’Authentic Also on Wednesday, Bonjour Paris announced Yves Cambdebord’s departure (using the past tense) from Le Regalade, foretold on March 13th by Francois Simon; the opening of Joel Robuchon’s La Table de Joel Robuchon (formerly Seize au Seize) at 16 avenue Bugeaud, 16th Metro: Victor Hugo. T: 01.56.28.16.16; and the impending return of Ghislaine Arabian at an unnamed restaurant. In the “Paris Bites” section of Paris Notes for May 2004, Rosa Jackson reviewed ex-Les Muses chef, Yannick Alleno’s restaurant Le Meurice, which has been around for at least 18 months, and Gilles Choukroun’s L’Angl’Opera, which just opened this spring. Choukroun was previously at the Café des Delices, which he’s hanging onto. While she’s pretty positive about the former, she does ding the vol-au-vents as not “tasting of much,” the young Bordeaux as “not the quality you’d expect,” and the food as not “jumping off the plate,” but “luring you in bite by bite.” About L’Angl’Opera, she summarizes by saying she “cannot say the meal was a great success.” As others have noted, the menu descriptions are backwards, e.g. “Vapeur, coriander Thai, pestoketchep, granny-smith….et saint-jacques” (i.e. steamed, Thai coriander, catsup with basil, Granny-Smiths and scallops in that exact order) and she describes ingredients as “tough and harsh-tasting,” “tough and stringy” and “prettier to look at than to eat.” If you want to read the entire review, you’ll have to subscribe here or get a friend to give you the user ID and password which are printed on page 2. For my views see this thread. Le Meurice is at 228 rue de Rivoli, 75001 (01.44.58.10.10). L’Angl’Opera is at 39 ave de l’Opera, 75002 (01.42.61.86.25). Both have websites. The May issue of the James Beard Foundation reports that “Jean-François Piège, former chef of Michelin three-starred restaurant Alain Ducasse at the Plaza Athénée, is now heading the kitchens at Le Crillon.” In addition, a Texas-American, Pamela Chauve has opened a restaurant in the new Hotel Walt (previously reviewed in “What’s New” in Figaroscope) on avenue La Motte-Piquet whose food is said to appeal “to both French and American diners.” This month’s issue also mentions L’Angl’Opera (see above) and describes the food as “surprising and idiosyncratic.” The chefs have changed at Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Market; Wim Van Gorp replacing Eric Johnson. Time Out’s April issue April issue has reviews of: Delicabar, in Bon Marché, 26 rue de Sèvres, 7th (01.44.39.80.00) ZenZen, a Japanese restaurant on 4 rue Bray, 17th. (01.53.81.00.75). Les Fables de la Fontaine at 131 rue Saint-Dominique, in the 7th, (01.44.18.37.55) already adequately reviewed in Figaroscope. Patricia Wells is probably off traveling because she missed her biweekly column last Friday, replaced by Julian More who had an article on B&B’s with wine in Aix-en-Provence; we’ll check in next Friday at the IHT site. Digester’s Note: This is the first of a series of weekly digests of news about restaurants, largely serving French or fusion food, predominately new, in Paris. I have included French and Anglo-Saxon sources, originally written in both French and English, most of whose content is accessible on the Internet. I have not included detailed descriptions of individual dishes, both because it is my belief that good restaurants change their menus regularly and because, except for places like Chez René or Rouge Tomate, {now Rouge St Honore} I don’t want to go somewhere where only one dish or ingredient can be trusted. I welcome feedback on content, sources I’ve missed, level of detail or anything else for that matter. JAT Please post comments here and not in the digest thread.

Hard to know; the piece I posted a while back (March 16th) ( http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=29006&st=0 ) noted that Francois Simon said that it would be the first days of May and the 5/5/04 Bonjour Paris ( http://www.bonjourparis.com/pages/articles/articleId/1276 ) says "Yves Camdeborde....has [past tense] hung up his coppers..." Why not telephone?

It's all relative and you have to average it out like income averaging on taxes. In 1985, recall, it was 10 francs/dollar, the pound at par, and the lira over 2000; what a difference a few years makes; we stayed at the Villa D'Este and Pere Bise, arriving at both unannounced, the ailing Francois II Bise(http://www.perebise.com/uk/sommaire.htm) sent over some wine to go with our cheese, and we ate like kings.

A friend is going to be in Kuwait City for 3-4 days. Anybody got any advice? Thanks.

Do you want to do art with your food? Because not too far from Reims are three great temporary exhibitions (Rubens in Lille, Rubens vs. Poussin in Arras and Watteau and the fête galante in Valenciennes) and one fabulous new/renovated museum (Matisse in Le Cateau-Cambresis). We had a great 3 days a few weeks ago there. On the other hand if you want to do Boyer et al, stick to Reims. Between Paris and the north it's pretty much a culinary wasteland, altho', once there, things are fine.

Not Hiramatsu, see P Wells recent review where she trashed it. My last meal at La Regalade was 11/27/03 and I paid 99 Euros for 2; L’Epi Dupin I cannot put my hands on right now. But let’s say 100E/2 is your range. I’d go for: Au Bon Accueil, 14 rue de Monttessuy, 7th, 01.47.05.46.11, 70E/2 on 1/2/04 Ze Kitchen Galerie, 4 rue des Grands Augustins, 6th, 01.44.32.00.32 – 1/5/04, 80E/2. La Maison du Jardin, 27 Vaugirard, 6th, 01.45.48.22.31 - 2/19 30E/1 Le Beurre Noisette, 68 Vasco de Gama, 15th, 01.48.56.82.49 - 54.50/1 on 12/31/03 Le Pre Verre, 01.43.54.59.47 - 8 Thenard, 5th (Maubert/St. Michel), - 2/18 36E/1 L’Equitable – 1 rue Fosses Saint-Marcel, 01.43.31.69.20 5th, - 2/20 43E/1 Petit Pontoise, 5th, 9 rue de Pontoise, nr Reminet, 01.43.29.25.20 - 51 E on 2/22 La Dinee, 85 rue Leblanc 15th, 01.45.54.20.49 2/27 - 52.30E/1 Café Constant, 139 St Dominique, 7th, 01.47.53.73.34, - 31.70E/1 Les Fables de la Fontaine 131 St-Dominque, 7th, 01.44.18.37.55 45. - 50E/1 on 4/2. L’Ourcine, 92 Broca, 13th, 01.47.07.13.65, 42.50E/ 1 on 4/20 Rouge Tomate, 34 Pl due Marché St Honoré, 1st 01.42.61.16.09. 4/28/04 Under 100E/2