fresh_a

and I'll be updating mine soon...

Modern, bistro - Ami Jean

I didn't

Actually Del Burgo has signed , it just hasn't been made public yet. He'll b at Jamin next year, behind the stoves..

This is a mikado, John, the French kids love it after school as a "gouter".

No. Now it's going global...

Can't wait!

I will definitely go for dinner this week, and keep you all posted. Please do the same!!

Young wunderchef Inaki Aizpitarte has left La Famille and opened an apparently pretty cutting-edge restaurant in the new MAC/VAL contemporary art museum in Vitry sur Seine , in the Paris 'burbs. They just got three stars in the Figaroscope, and I was wondering if anyone had been there yet? Someone I know went for the opening and thought it was pretty great, with inventive dishes like liquid boudin noir and liquid purée, and frozen "Intuit" beef in olive)oil ice. Anyone been? Figaroscope review (in French) Omnivore review (in French) Here's what their own website says about it: The restaurant Le Transversal with chefs Laurent Chareau and Inaki Aizpitarte offers different eating suggestions. For lunch, the "garde manger" menu with hot and cold raw products: the "variations du jour" with recipes inspired by bistrot cooking. For dinner, the "miniatures", a tasting menu consisting of ten dishes, followed by the "zoom", a close-up on one of these dishes. Snacks are available at any hour during the day at the Transversal.

It's NOT the LC anymore!

Is not coming from Reims a disadvantage?

Looks a little shakey to me... then again when I met Pudlowski recently, he asked me to get him a three-star Michelin at the last minute on a busy night, and when I did, he said forget it, I feel like Vietnamese and went to Diep.

Ghislaine Arabian is still in Japan as far as I heard. Also, didn't know that Ms. Rostang actually cooked. Thought she just ran L'Absinthe...

I've never seen you drive!

Kind of like driving in France. If someone pulls out in front of you in a dangerous manner, and you flip him off, nine times out of ten, the driver will get extremely angry, gesticulate, and not understand how you can judge his driving. I've seen this many times. There seems to be a certain trait in some (or a lot of) French in that they hate being told what to do, or any negative comment in their regard, whether they were in the wrong or not.

I went, too, and also has lunch in that Italian osteria they imported from Venise with chef-owner, staff and all! Wasn't bad. Also met a kilt-wearing Scotsman who makes "Le Gar Normand" apple cider...

It's easy to announce on a huge public board like this how bad a restaurant is, without giving any specific examples--but if you give specifics, it makes you look credible and responsable, instead of just dismissing places offhand...

How has the Cinq ruined special occasions?

easyJet's recent Paris Insider guide looks pretty cool...

Saturday, Piege's all meat menu....

Great interview here with Camdeborde, and him dissing Senderens, and explaining his beginnings and philosophy on French gastronomy, the Michelin guide, etc...

cojean?

As far as I know, the name is for the moment unchanged. As for continuing the Goncourt tradition, I have no idea, but can ask...

It's always going to be a quality establishment, and has been one of my favourite two stars in Paris, but changes are a-coming, and I can't guarantee perfection with an imminent chef-change..

Yes. The decoration will be redone to a contemporary style similar to Mon Vieil Ami, but the cuisine will be a notch higher, as will the service. But they don't quite want to make it a pricy gastro.