Jump to content

Le Zouave

participating member
  • Posts

    113
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Le Zouave

  1. Has anyone read this story in Le Monde? It's in french, of course, but what it basically says is that Heston Blumenthal, like a couple of other chefs in Europe, uses quite a lot of "unusual" ingredients... The article (signed by Jean-Claude Ribaut, le Monde's food writer) also mentions a book written by a German journalist and published in Spain (No quiero volver al restaurante !), in which he explains that there's a project called INICON, funded by the European Commission, in order to promote "innovative technologies in modern gastronomy for the modernisation of cooking". Apparently, a German lab called TTZ has been and/or still is in charge of developping specific chemistry for chefs. What do you think?
  2. It's called l'Agapé, it's brand new and it's in the 17th, 51, rue Jouffroy d'Abbans. (It used to be the Baptiste.) Three menus: 39, 77 and 110 €. Oh, by the way: three ex-Arpège boys are in charge, including Laurent, the former maitre d'. I'll report ASAP.
  3. I havn't been yet, but there's a tiny place that openend a couple of weeks ago in the 4th, near Saint Paul: it's called les Côtelettes, 4 impasse Guéménée (01 42 72 08 45). I think they're close to the people who used to run Ramulaud, in the 11th. That'd mean great wine and good bistrot fare. I'll report ASAP.
  4. OK, now I found Jamsine! (I just forgot the "e" in the first place...)
  5. Fengyi, thanks again so much for all the info. And as usual, more answers mean more questions! What about Le Quai and Garden of Delights? I read some interesting reviews in the Wallpaper Beijing City Guide (aven though they don't mention food very much). I'll try to find more on Jasmine. Do they have an Internet site? I tried to find something, bit didn't succeed...
  6. Fengyi, thank you very, very much. I'll probably be in Beijing in April, and will check out "dining spaces" as well as yummy places. But the modern twist on Chinese food is part of what I'm looking for. What do you think of restaurants like the Green T. House or the Whampoa Club?
  7. I am planning an upcoming trip to Beijing, and I am looking for restaurants where I could have contemporary Chinese cuisine. I heard about the Whampoa, Green T. House, Lan and some others already, but I wanted to know if you had heard of new addresses of this kind, opened recently. Thank you very much for your help!
  8. This could be seen as a way to maintain a sense of exclusivity. Want to create a destination restaurant? Then make sure your visitors have to treat your restaurant as a destination. Lots of good restaurants make capital of their inaccessability -- from El Bulli to The Three Chimneys. If Ramsay were to open on the Champs-Elysées, he'd be squaring off against every other kitchen in Paris. No matter how good, the level of local competition would mean that the place risked being anonymous. But by opening in the sticks, he's creating a venue for American and British tourists who want the safety of brand recognition, and are prepared to invest time and money that will guarantee them a "dining experience". (My book, Ramsay and the Art of Chest-Hair Maintenence, is due in 2008.) ← Buy can he succeed only with American and British tourists seeking a "dining experience" -- whatever that means?
  9. Does Versailles really mean that much to him? As far as French foodies are concerned (and I'm one of them), we're quite surprised he chose the suburbs instead of Paris. And surprised, also, he waited until 2008 (february?), to open a restaurant in France. What do you think? ← Interesting you should mention this. I was surprised when I heard about Versailles too, but there's a good train service from central Paris and it is at least a 'suburb'. The destination in Ireland is in another county, up in the Wicklow hills with barely any public transport. It is a very expensive taxi ride for most people. I mentioned the 3* hat trick because this is one of the things that competitive Gordo keeps reinforcing... but then, if we subscribe to the theory that the company could be going public... it makes even more sense to just keep talking and toque waving. Maybe it is just another bit of hotel catering. ← True: there is a good train service, but no one (well, not that many people!) will take the train to have dinner in Versailles! Most of all because it's kind of far, but also because nobody's ever heard of Ramsay in France (yet?). And I think you're right: it looks like hotel carering. (From what I've heard, the brasserie will open first, and then, late february or early march, the GR restaurant).
  10. Baillardran, I guess? You'll find their shops here and there in Bordeaux. Check out their site here.
  11. Are Oum el Banine and Essaouira, both in the 16th, still open? Used to be quite good maroccan places...
  12. True! I remember one day, we told him we didn't really like one of the wines served (I think it was a rosé from Bandol, early 90s maybe, or even older). Basically, he told us we were not "able" to "understand" the wine — can you believe that? And by the way, I never saw Faure-Brac at the bistro du Sommelier, where the wine list is mostly impressive on cotes-rotie, but not as open minded as it can be in any average/hip/young/recent wine bar (and even old ones like Les Enfants rouges, for instance). A short PS and I'm gone: Bernardo hired six or eight sommeliers to help him at the Villa. Therefore, I don't know if he'll always be serving wine to his customers. But I do know that when he does (remember him at the George V, although I always found Mr Beaumard much more fun), you have some great time. Eric Beaumard: he'd be one of the best "3 star sommelier", as far as I'm concerned. And what about David Biraud, at the Ambassadeurs?
  13. The article says it might be at the Westin Trianon Palace, and that would indeed make sense, since the former chef, Gérard Vié, just retired from the restaurant Les Trois Marches.
  14. And he said in the Figaro last week that he had to give up the place in the 17th. Problems with the neighbours, apparently. So that probably means he's already looking for something else. But where, when?
  15. From what I've seen these past weeks, the answer is no.
  16. Rumours he was about to close la Ferme de mon père started in january 2005, but I havn't heard anything new since. Rumours he was about to open in Paris started... when? 1999? 2000? Again, nothing really new since, except he said last year that he had found a place in the 17th. We're still waiting...
  17. I'd say somewhere between 1200 and 1500 euros, depending on the restaurant and what you'll be doing. If you're starting as a "commis", for instance, you'll be closer to 1200, more or less. If you move to "chef de partie", you'll certainly make more. Good luck, and tell us where you've been hired.
  18. Still really OK, 39€ menu, nices wines.
  19. Those octopus pies called "tielle" in Sète: go to Cianni (in the covered market), and nowhere else. If you're staying some time in Sète, go to The Marcel, and order the "piste d'encornets' (let's call that a squid marinade) or the "moules farcies" (do I have to translate?). They also have a very nice wine list: go for the whites!
  20. I'd also like to add that the Villaret's list is indeed great (I had a 2000 vin de pays d'oc Les Creisses from the domaine Chesnelong, the other day, that was fantastic and a huge bargain at something like 25€), that Les Enfants Rouges in the 3rd has some great stuff as well (and very fairly priced), that le Verre Volé in the 10th is "the" place to discover some modern (and yes, mostly unsulphered, natural, biodynamic, you name it) winemakers, and that the new Zingots in the 10th has a very cool wine list. Gee, it's 12:42PM in Paris, and I'd be happy to open a bottle of white!
  21. Have some of you tried the Crémerie, rue des Quatre Vents in the 6th (close to Camdeborde's bistrot)? It's a tiny (and beautifull) cave a vins, with great italian charcuteries. Most of their wines are unsulphered. (And as far as LDG is concerned, it's a place that I like very much, although it's nothing more than a good neighborhood caviste: has anyone tried their cotes de provence, chateau de Roquefort?)
  22. Veyrat was in the list, actually: number 71... The other french places were: Taillevent (51), Auberge de l'Ill (53), Meurice (54), Roellinger (55), Les Ambassadeurs (58), Guy Savoy (59), La Tupina (79), Georges Blanc (81), Lucas Carton (88), Apicius (95) and le Clos de Cimes (Régis Marcon, #100).
  23. It's in french, of course, but here's generation.C's blog. http://generation.c.over-blog.com
  24. You can even have that table for 10 to 15, actually!
×
×
  • Create New...