Whiting in Paris

[jaybee]

(John Whiting in The Symposium) I'm off to Paris on Tuesday for another week. This time I'll be eating at half a dozen of the bistros most highly spoken of in Le Pudlo Paris, which, I'm told, is the guide that Parisians are most likely to consult. I'm interested in what, if anything, these well-thought-of-bistros have in common. Almost none of them are in the English language guide books, nor are most of them in either Michelin or Gault-Millau.

But I'm happy to take the gamble because there are so many Parisians who eat out constantly as a matter of course and who pay attention to what they consume. It's no big deal; more like the level of expertise at playing an instrument that people routinely had a hundred years ago and more. But it provides a foundation of diners who, if they are fed rubbish, know it and will make a noise.

John refers to a guide that is new to me. Do others have experience with it? What are the half-dozen places on your list? Will your Bistro experiences be shared with us, John, or at least linked to your web site? I am always interested in your take on such places.

[Steve Plotnicki]

Giles Pudlowski publishes a guide to France and there is a pocketsize version called Le Petit Pudlo. He is the food critic for a major daily newpaper, I forget which one. I buy the guide every few years, but to be honest, I haven't had much luck with his recommendations. Gault Millau is more reliable. One good thing about his guide is that he lists food merchants as well. So if you are travelling through the provinces and need a good cheese shop, his book will tell you where to find one.

[Bux]

Pudlowski's name and guide have been mentioned a few times on this board. You might do a search to see if anything significant has been said. I seem to recall his name from old issues of Cuisine et Vins de France. He used to review restaurants in a column. I'm not sure if he only reviewed restaurants in Paris, nor am I sure if he's a current contributor or not. I join Jaybee in his interest in hearing about John's experiences in Paris.

[Steve Plotnicki]

I'm actually holding a copy of his 2001 Guide in my hand. It's published by Michel Lafon. It's in hardcover. He lists 33 restaurants in France as having 3 rings, which is his equivelent of rosettes. The 2001 Gault Millau on the other hand lists 20 restaurants at 19/20 which is their highest rating. The 2002 (I don't have the 2001,) lists 14 three rosette restaurants.

[marcus]

I agree with Steve P. I've had some very poor experiences with the Pudlo. It is idiosyncratic and has a certain type of contrarian French sensibility, aimed at arbitrary differentiation, that I don't find appealing. Michelin and Gault Millau are far more objective.

[Bux]

Steve, as I recall, those rings are concentric are they not? A friend of ours once remarked that you could classify restaurants by luxury of service according to the number of saucers and plates that appeared under your coffee cup. I've thought of those rings as a representative graphic of that thought.

p.s. I realize John will be eating in places where he expects the proprietor will be spending all his money on things that will go in John's stomach and not on silly plates under his coffee cup.

[Bux]

I agree with Steve P.  I've had some very poor experiences with the Pudlo.  It is idiosyncratic and has a certain type of contrarian French sensibility, aimed at arbitrary differentiation,  that I don't find appealing.  Michelin and Gault Millau are far more objective.

The problem with objective reporting on restaurants is that most of us are going to be subjective. On the other hand, since I don't share anyone else's subjective opinions on food, I might be best served by an objective view. Subjective reviews are fine it you understand the author's prejudices and preferences and there's enough text for the ratings in numbers or stars not to matter.

The realization of how important the subjective is has been brought home recently by a number of different reactions to restaurants with the few people whose opinion I trust the most.

[Steve Plotnicki]

Well I think the issue here is the realiability of the publication. I once reserved at a small Alsatian restaurant that Pudlo recommended in the 14th arr., but really just at the intersection of Blvd's Raspail and Montparnasse. Pudlo loved it. He even listed a heart next to the listing which means it was one of his favorites. So I booked it for 12 people one Saturday night. When we got there, there was no food. Not only was the menu void of most of the Alsatian specialties I was expecting, it maybe had five choices listed on the menu. And they were out of something like two of the five choices. The restaurant was run by a single women, who seemed to be waiting sll of the tables as well as cooking the food. It was a disaster which was only saved by the amount of beer everyone drank. I don't have time for that sort of thing when I'm travelling. Like Marcus said, it is too idiosyncratic. I need more reliability then that.

[Bux]

That is just about the worst level of unreliability one can come up against. Far better to have the more basic information wrong, like the wrong phone number so you never made a reservartion.

Nevertheless, I've heard the worst reports about the restaurants I like the most. Lest my taste be entirely dismissed, some of them are restaurants you've written so lovingly about. There doesn't seem to be a restaurant that universally gets high marks. I'm about to say that's probably not true about the worst restaurants. We all agree about those, but the proof we don't is that the worst restaurants seem to stay in business.

[robert brown]

Gilles Pudlowski writes for "Le Figaro" and has a program on Gourmet TV in which he travels around France and pals it up with chefs as they make a meal for him and themselves. You have to read between the lines in the rare instance, but since he is everybody's friend, the Pudlo is essentially only useful as an address book of gastronomic resources. Since Gault-Millau no longer publishes what was a really good guide to Paris that covered more than gastronomy, the Pudlo Paris is the only publicaton of its kind. As for his national guide, I don't buy it every year either.