Digest: 2007 Paris Restaurant News & Reviews

[John Talbott]

The Week of January 1, 2007

I omitted digesting a fabulous article from the Figaroscope of December 20th that told of upcoming openings:

Right Away:

Bath’s in the ex-Beatilles spot {my review is here}

Bonpoint in the 6th is opening a tea salon

the Moulin de la Galette in the 18th has been taken over by the French-Moroccan team from Chamarré

Bains Douches in the 3rd is making a “tentative” come back

l’Eclareur opening as a bar-resto

Soon afterwards

a new restaurant will open mid-Jan-Feb at the Musee des Arts-deco

Les Grandes Marches will reopen under the hands of the Bernard Group (which runs the Brasserie Lipp, Mood, Toastissimo, Quick etc.)

Copenhague/Florica Danica/Maison du Danemark will be reprised by the Blanc Group (which runs Pied de Cochon, Procope, La Lorraine etc.)

Pavillion Puebla will be brought back as a resto-gallery by the Chez Vincent team

Much later

Jules Verne, and the other places at the Eiffel Tower will come under the hand of Alain Ducasse et al

Haagen-Dazs will open a “concept food” place on the Champs-Elysees

the Thai chef, Oth Sombath, (ex-Elephant Bleu, Banyan will open a showy place in the 8th)

a Japanese star will open a place in Montmartre (rue Burq)

Gilles Choukroun (l’Angl’Opera) will undertake a project at Printemps

Bilboquet will perhaps reopen under the Costes’ direction

Fauchon will open a restaurant

the waltz of the great chefs will continue at the Palace Hotels (esp the George V)

Marc Veyrat will leave the Alps for Paris.

There is also an article in this pull-out on the new trend to serve tapas/mezze/snacking at Le Pinxo, Le Passage, Le Boudoir de Helene Darroze + Les Sensing.

Monday, Elvira Masson (dinner) and Alexandre Cammas (dinner) reviewed l’Arome, coordinates given before, that they call bistronomique (a word invented by Sebastien Demorand to describe Mon Vieil Ami) and run by Eric Martin, ex of l’Ami Marcel, where the food is well priced (23 € for the menu) at lunch but pricier for this area at night.

Monday, Alexandra Michot in Le Figaro counseled about how to detoxify yourself after the excesses of the New Year by consulting herb stores, pharmacies, spas, tea places etc.

And on Wednesday, Jean-Claude Ribaut in Le Monde wrote about boullions after the fetes which he maintains is the best way to treat the excesses.

Wednesday as well, Cécile Alizon in Le Figaro wrote of a food home delivery service called the dinners of Berenice that provides two courses for 17 € a person and 20 € for three and {Digester’s Note : looks pretty good.}.

Saturday/Sunday in Figaro Madame, Sophie Grezaud had an article on great galettes that included: Lenôtre’s that looks like gold and had lemon and raspberries, Fauchon’s with chocolate/praline and Dalloyau’s with cherries.

Saturday/Sunday, BP published a scoop by Margaret Kemp on Lebey’s naming Le Cameleon the Bistro of the Year and republished an essay by John Talbott on “The Culinary Children of Christian Constant” as part of their “Best Of” issue of the newsletter.

The December issue of the monthly cutting edge pub oMni, ex-Omnivore, featured a long article about William Ledeuil, who espouses an “evolutionary” approach to cooking at Ze Kitchen Galerie and a briefer one on Petter Nilsson of La Gazetta.

Heather Stimmler-Hall, who writes Secrets of Paris listed her favorite places: Astier, Chez André, Le Costes, La Palette, Le Cameleon, Sinorama, Ma Bourgogne + L’Esprit Tchaï.

Please post comments here and not in the Digest thread.

[John Talbott]

The Week of January 8, 2007

I just plain missed digesting an article in Expatica by Sophie Nicholson on the innovations shown at the Salon Paris Fermier in October that included chocolate foie gras, kiwi liqueur, black current mustard and catsup.

Over the weekend, Sophie Grézaud in Figaro Madame told of truffles, several ways, and where to buy them: specifically olive oil with truffle at La Maison de la Truffe, mustard at Fauchon, vinegar at Hédiard and mayonnaise at the Caviar House Prunier..

Monday, in A Nous Paris, courtesy of co-host Felice, several restos were featured. Top billing (4/5 blocks) went to Spring, 28, rue de la Tour d’Auvergne in the 9th, 01.45.96.05.72, closed Sundays, evening (only for the present) menu for 4 courses for 36 €, where they loved the pintade lightly minted with a gratin of leeks. They also gave 3/5 to the old-fashioned bistrot, La Cantine de Quentin, 52, rue Bichat in the 10th, 01.42.02.40.32, lunch formula 14 €, brunch 16, a la carte 30 €, closed Mondays, where they liked the ½ liter Cotes du Rhone, lamb with thyme and rosemary and chocolate/praline dessert. In the “in-places” section, they wrote of another old (1930’s style) bistrot Mosca Libre, 3, rue Victor Masse in the 9th, 01.48.78.55.60, closed Sundays, menu = 25 €, cooking French food with a Sicilian twist, Palestinian olive oil, Indian spices, Laotian and Sri Lankan tea, South American chocolate and Ethiopian coffee; serving items such as polenta with spinach and grilled swordfish.

Wednesday, Emmanuel Rubin was back in Figaroscope with his “C’est nouveau” that awarded 2 hearts to Les Fougeres, 10, rue Villebois-Mareuil in the 17th, closed weekends, menu-carte at 32 €, lunch formula at 22 € {where it sounds like he had a better experience than I did} eating eggs with mushrooms, tete de veau and pear with anise ice. He also gave one heart each to the Louvre Ripaille, 1, rue Perrault in the 1st, 01.42.97.49.91, closed Sundays at about 35 € a la carte for what sounds like pretty good food: Royan raviolis, sautéed petoncles and baba; La Bastringue, 67, quai de Seine in the 19th, no telephone, closed Sundays, lunch formula 10 €, a l carte 15-20 € for runny (not cooked enough) eggs and filet de sandre; the Italian Impro’vista in the 9th and the Japanese Meiji in the 8th.

In their Dossier, the Figaroscope crew listed chestnuts every which way:

Veloute Cappucino fashion

La Villa Corse

Sausage

Thoumieux

Veloute chestnuts with foie gras

La Cerisaie

Purée

Chez les Anges

Cake

Maison de la Lozere

Mont Blanc

Angelina

Mont Blanc and Trifle

Pinxo

Cold Soufflé

Bistrot d’a Cote Flaubert

Ice cream

Martine Lambert

Bread

Maison Kayser

And also: sausage with chestnuts and apples at Le Clou, veloute of chestnuts at Bath’s, scallops with chestnut polenta at Jardinier and pannacotta with chestnuts at the Rose Bakery.

On his part Francois Simon, ever the imp, got a 2 € cornet of chestnuts for his ”Hache Menu.”

Wednesday, the English language GoGo Paris featured a nice review of the Argentinian beef place Unico in the 11th.

Also Wednesday, Paris Update’s Richard Hesse wrote a nice review of the pseudonymous Leo Fourneau’s book “Bon Appetit, Messieurs!” (Paris, Editions Grasset, 260 pp., 16.90 €) that Margaret Kemp talked of in November in Bonjour Paris but since one must be a Premium member to read that piece, this article gives Americans a nice idea of what Thierry Wolton, ex-Elle food critic’s gripes and goodies are.

And on Wednesday, Jean-Claude Ribaut in Le Monde wrote about the judicial/financial trouble encountered by Marc Meneau, famed chef of l'Espérance in Vézelay. It recounts his rise and fall and seeming recovery due to a more reasonably-priced menu of 85 euros with wines and coffee but indebtedness in the millions of euros. Inevitably, Francois Simon in Saturday’s Figaro used Marc Meneau as an example of the perils of the 3-star places and how even the best (Ducasse, Legendre, Martin) must ally themselves with big groups or renovate, make tunnels and heliports and go through all sorts of contortions to stay alive.

Thursday, Gilles Pudlowski returned to the lists with his usual melange of items in Le Point. He says he’s following two places recently taken over by big groups: La Maree in the 8th by the Groupe Blanc and the Brasserrie du Theatre in Versailles (NB - menu at 21 €, everyone going out there) by the Flo group as well as the Cantine de Quentin in the 10th run by two ex’s of the Savoy stable and also thinks that Diane in the 8th is in good shape. Outside town he touts the auberge with restaurant La Ferme Ostalapia in Ahetze, brunch at the Carlton in Cannes, Une cuisine en ville in Dax, the cheese (and its restaurant) at La Fromagerie in Meribel, the bread at the Tourte de Besse in l'Oisans and the rillette and other butcher products at A la rouelle de veau in Le Mans.

Friday in Liberation, Vincent Noce wrote an article on Pierre au Palais-Royal, 10, rue de Richelieu in the 1st, 01.42.96.09.17, menu-cartes from 31 à 38 €, closed Saturday lunch and Sundays. {Since Jean Paul Arabian has departed for his justly acclaimed Cameleon}, a new young couple (Nadia and David Frémondière) has fully taken over this spacious, 60 cover place with tables widely-spaced and doors on each end, making it perfect for spies or lovers. Noce mentions tons of dishes they serve, but it’s the gutsy stuff (great simplicity but very pleasurable) that’s best: pork and game, blanc-manger and moist cake with tea, and wine starting at 4 € a glass and 21 € a bottle.

Friday, Jean Louis Galesne covered places to go for light or snack-type food and included: Cojean Le Bon Marché Rive gauche, Baramaki Printemps de la mode, Bar à Soupes et Quenelles Giraudet-Lafayette Gourmet, Seafood Bar Caviar House & Prunier + Senderens.

Friday as well, in Figaro, as Menton1 has already summarized, the gang taste-tested 64 croissants and found Pierre Herme 1st, Le Triomphe 2nd, Duchene 3rd, Mulot 4th and Poilane 10th.

Saturday/Sunday, BP published an article by Margaret Kemp on La Tradition and an essay by John Talbott on “Eating at lunch.”

Sunday December 31st, the New York Times published one of Mark Bittman’s “Bites,” this on the As du Fallafel and a letter this Sunday suggested that one can eat the sandwiches at the little square of Charles V Langlois on the rue des Blancs Manteaux in the 4th as well.

In the January-February issue of the American Saveur they had their 100 Best Of’s that included: #21 a tribute to ‘The French Chef”and Julia Child, #46 Romain Corbiere’s success at the Relais du Parc in the footsteps of Robuchon and Ducasse, and #97 the best ice cream in Nice at Glacier Fenocchio.

Please post comments here and not in the Digest thread.

[John Talbott]

The Week of January 15, 2007

Monday in Le Fooding, they wrote up what Gilles Marchal, ex-pastry chef at le Bristol, now at le Blé Sucré, 7 rue Antoine Vollon in the 12th, 01.43.40.77.73 makes; the pastries run 0.75 to 2.50 E.

Tuesday, in A Nous Paris, courtesy of co-host Felice, they gave 3/5 blocks to two new places: l’Heureux Pere, 47 bis, bd Senard in Saint Cloud, 01.46.02.09.43, lunch formula at 19, a la carte 34-49 E, closed Saturday lunch and Sunday night, (chef’d by a guy who went to St Martin in 1991, then St Bart’s, then cooked on yachts around the Caribbean and thus his food has a hint of the islands,) where they liked the chicken soup with foie gras and cepes, roast grouper with chorizo and lentils and a trio of crèmes brulees; and Le 16 Tholoze, 16 Tholoze in the 18th, 01.42.64.17.86, closed Saturday lunch, a la carte 20-30 E, run by the guy from Le Square nearby, who serves dry and regular sausage, beef cutlet with fries and crème brulee; regret - not much except beef – treat – lots of little known wines from small vineyards.

This week’s GoGo Paris features Bob’s Juice Bar coordinates given before.

The European Gourmet lists several trends for 2007:

-New restaurants god-fathered by great chefs – Sensing by Guy Martin, Gaya by Pierre Gagnaire and Drouant by Antoine Westerman.

-Great starred chefs reducing the prices by ½: eg Senderens, Westerman in Strasbourg and Constant.

-Great starred chefs leaving famous places to set up more modest places: himself to Dominique Bouchet + Auguste (Gael Orieux)

Linda Thalman of Paris In Sites went to l’Auberge du Mouton Blanc, 40 rue d'Auteuil in the 16th, 01.42.88.92.21, costing about 28 E for three courses and 11 E for 50 cl of wine, and had “classic and hearty dishes” like “pintade with roast potatoes and spinach, grilled salmon, crème brulée, vacherin glace, accompanied by a carafe of tasty Brouilly red wine.”

Wednesday, Emmanuel Rubin in Figaroscope’s “C’est nouveau” awarded only one heart only to each of five places; the latest (failed) reincarnation of La Moulin de la Galette in the 18th, the tapas/etc. place l’Atelier de 8e in the 8th, the “Woody Allen”-esque pastrami/burger place Razowski’s in the 1st, the Lebanese resto Al Charq in the 8th and the Thai Rajapreuk in the 6th.

Then in the “Dossier,” the Figaroscope group rated places that serve club sandwiches:

The best

Harry’s Bar, Café de l’Esplanade 9/10

The Duke’s Bar 8/10

Bar Tuileries, Bar de l’Astor + Lounge Daniel 7.5/10

The middle

1515 Hotel Marignan, Plaza Athenee 6/10

Publicisdrugstore, Park Hyatt Vendone 5/10

Last in the club

Kong 4/10

Apart

46 Avenue

In his space, the “Hache Menu,” Francois Simon went for one to Le Pub St Germain in the 6th, where he spent 56.10 E (very Odeon says he) for a half-meal. Go? Well, he sort of says if you’re nostalgic for this sort of late-night place, maybe.

Wednesday, as well, Richard Hesse in Paris Update wrote up Le Square Trousseau in the 12th and despite the “fatty” paté and 10 E overprice, he thought it was an ideal neighborhood bistro.

Jean-Claude Ribaut, using as a peg the 13th Salon international de la restauration, Wednesday-Thursday in Le Monde wrote about the continued dominance of Lyon in French cuisine, going back to Mère Brazier and her daughter Jacotte, Sonia Ezgulian of L'Oxalis and Paul Bocuse, more recently Nicolas le Bec, Léon de Lyon, Pierre Orsi, Christian Têtedoie, Philippe Gauvreau at La Rotonde, Davy Tissot at the Villa florentine, and most contemporary - Olivier Paget at Le Fleurie, Joseph Viola (Meilleur Ouvrier de France in 2004) at Jean-Paul Lacombe + Daniel et Denise and Mathieu Viannay (another Meilleur Ouvrier de France in 2004) at his eponymous resto and Les Oliviers.

The big news Thursday was revealed by Adrian Moore in his blog who wrote that “Le Cinq and Taillevent go from three to two, and Astrance, Le Meurice, Pre Catelan and Helene Darroze get three stars, with Constant's Les Fables de la Fontaine getting one star. Pic looks like the first woman chef to get three stars after Darroze..” He also noted that as already announced, Marc Meneau is in bankruptcy. Francois Simon in Figaro went farther afield outside Paris, stating in his article “The waltz of the stars” that Nicholas Le Bec in Lyon, also went to two stars, Marc Veyrat and Marc Westermann gave up their stars, the latter to start over again, and Jacques Lameloise in Chagny recovered his three stars.

This week, François-Régis Gaudry in l’Express reviewed three places, already mentioned in the Digest: Tante Marguerite with its new chef, Chez Casimir ditto and Bastringue that plunges you twenty years back.

Gilles Pudlowski, in Le Point wrote that he is following the little bouchon, Le Panier Volant, 37, rue La Bruyère in the 9th, 06.03.21.29.56 with a lunch menu at 11 E, a la carte 30 E where the Polish chef serves Southern (Fr) food such as Italian meats, a soup and fish of the day, aligot with salad and ostrich with honey; and Chartier, 146, rue du Président-Wilson in Levallois-Perret, 01.47.37.07.21, a la carte 35 E for stuffed cuttlefish, veal liver and pots de crème. He continues to like Entre les vignes in the 12th {me too} and Shanghai Café in the 6th as well as the rustic temple of Savoyard cooking Le Vieux Megève in Megève and Sergio Mei’s Il Teatro & La Veranda at the Four Seasons in Milan. He calls comté the fruit of winter and gives Dominique Schmitt of La Ferme des Trois Frères in Furdenheim’s recipe for Alsacian salad with comté. Finally, he suggests Jean Paul Grosso’s Alpages & Gastronomie artisanal cheese shop in Toulon as well as the mini-sandwich place in Vienna – Zum Schwarzen Kameel.

Friday in Liberation Anne Deguy looked at upscale pizzas (eg with caviar or black wheat) and wrote about those at La Pizzetta, Maria Luisa, Amici Miei + San.

The Relais Christine site recommends Bath’s, coordinates already given and whole not endorsing the food, mentions the Paris Bodega, 23 Rue Taitbout in the 9th which has tapas and “dining shows (circus, dance, singing… 250 places on 900 sqm).”

Saturday/Sunday, BP also published an article by Margaret Kemp on the new site and menu for Bath’s’s, coordinates given before.

Please post comments here and not in the Digest thread.

Edited January 28, 2007 by John Talbott (log)

[John Talbott]

The Week of January 22nd, 2007

Francois Simon, in his “Croque-Notes” this week, really liked Spring {don’t we all,} coordinates given before, where he enjoyed the mint flavored petit pois soup, avocado salad and pigeon with pureed almonds.

L’Express has renovated its “Saveurs” section and I finally figured out how. They now have three restaurants each week, usually reviewed by Francois-Regis Gaudry, unless otherwise specified, whose coordinates can be found elsewhere in the Digest; one they call the resto of the week, another “within sight” and the third less than 30 €. This week the first was l’Orenoc, where Gaudry spends most of his time on the décor not the food – a complicated onion/parmesan entrée, an over-cooked tuna filet with a complex sauce and a memorable beet “pop” with many accompaniments. The second was Bonpoint (Katell Pouliquen) in the boutique of the same name, serving a reasonably priced “too good” ham and chocolate mousse and the third 16 Tholozé (Pierrick Jegu), where he liked the charcuterie, “correct” tartare and frites and a “sincere” fondant of chocolate. {Digester’s Note: Because I didn’t figure out that Jean Luc Petitrenaud had written his last reviews for the November 13th edition I have missed digesting the reviews since then. Therefore, in the interest of those who might want to read the reviews of Francois-Regis Gaudry of new restaurants in Paris that are still available on their website, here they are with their dates of appearance:

Tante Marguerite Jan 15

Chez Casimir Jan 15

Le Bastringue Jan 15

Le Violin d’Ingres Jan 8

L’Arome Jan 3

Le Bon Temps Jan 3

Le Moulin de la Galette Jan 3

La Cantine de Quentin Dec 12, 2006}

Monday in Figaro, the self-same Francois Simon had another piece entitled “Tempest in a glass of water,” eg teapot, on the reaction of the chefs affected by the Michelin 2007 decisions.

Monday as well, in Le Fooding Elvira Masson wrote up Le Saut du Loup, 107, rue de Rivoli in the 1st (in the Musée des Arts Déco), 01.42.25.49.55, open everyday from noon to midnight (the bar til 2 AM) with a tea salon from 3-7 PM, serving light fare such as celery soup, caesar salad, hamburger with (not great nor home made) fries in a cone and lots of desserts for 20 € for light lunch, 45 € for the works.

Tuesday, in A Nous Paris, courtesy of co-host Felice, they wrote up two places serving Italian food, giving 4/5 blocks to Serafina in the 17th and 3/5 blocks to the Bonpoint Restaurant in the store of the same name in the 6th. In their shaded side bars, they announced (all this quoted from Felice) “a takeout service {already mentioned above}, a new cook book called La Cuisine des Papas, for fathers and their kids and the new decor at Tsé Yang, a branché Asian resto in the 16th.”

This week’s Figaro featured two new products; Lucile Escourrou wrote on January 23rd about a pepper syrup with which to make cocktails and the 26th about a pate des fleurs (lavender, lilies, violets) sold in small boxes at Bon Marche’s Grande Epicerie. Speaking of cocktails, the WSJ’s weekend edition’s Eric Felten revealed that the sidecar, made with cognac, cointreau, lemon and simple syrup was born in Paris during WWI, either at the Ritz or Harry’s New York Bar or a bistro called Henri’s.

Wednesday in Figaroscope, Emmanuel Rubin awarded 2 hearts to three places: the restaurant/superb cantine in the Musee des arts deco called Le Saut de Loup, coordinates above, where he liked the tarama, hamburger and veal mignon but not the lumpy rice pudding; the offshoot of the bistro Au Pied de Fouet in the 7th – Au Pied de Fouet VIe, 3, rue Saint Benoit, 01.42.96.59.10, closed Sundays, costing about 20-30 E for escargots, a contrefilet and a lemon meringue tart; and the Japanese Guibine Opera in the 2nd. He gave one heart to the tapas/neo-cantine place S’Agaro in the 1st and a busted heart to Le Bistrot du Palais in the 7th about which he had nothing good to say.

Following the Musee des arts deco review, the Figaroscope group’s Dossier was on eating in other museums and covered:

the Louvre, most specifically the Le Grand Louvre +Café Marly

the Orsay’s Restaurant d’O

the Musee des Arts et Metiers’ Café des T

the Musee Jacquemart-Andre ‘s Cafe Jacquemart-Andre

the Foundation Antoine de Galbert’s Arty

the Musee Guimet’s Restaurant

the Centre George Pompidou’s Georges

the Institut du Monde Arabe’s Ziryab

the Musee du Quai Branly’s Les Ombres

the Palais de Tokyo’s Tokyo Eat

the Musee Bacarrat’s Cristal Room and

MAC-VAL’s Transversal

Also: the cafes and restos at the Picasso, Rodin, Musee du vin, Musee de Roland-Garros + Musee de la Musique.

Francois Simon chose to visit the Café de l’Homme in the museum of the same name, 17, place du Trocadéro in the 16th, 01.44.05.30.15 where he paid 144 E for two meals (overcooked veal liver) and shared a “no taste land” [sic] dessert. The service sounds dreadful (a first-job type waitress who doesn’t drink wine unable to assist in a wine selection, etc).

Wednesday as well, Richard Hesse, writing in Paris Update entitled his article “Inspired Kitchen, Wonky Service” but it was worse than that, it was bad service at Louis Vins in the 5th, spilling stuff on him three times and sloppy service at l’Angl’Opera in the 1st, bringing him the wrong main course. Except for soggy toast rounds, everything at the latter place sounded pretty good – foie gras crème brulee, pastilla, roast breast of veal, scallops and blood pudding, figs with bleu d’Auvergne and a pineapple tart.

Wednesday also, Alison Culliford, in GoGoParis reviewed two places: Le Doudingue, 24, rue Durantin in the 18th, 01.42.54.88.08, open daily 11.30 AM–2 AM, with 23 and 28€ menus that feature goat’s cheese salad, roast salmon and chocolate nems with crème anglaise; and La Casque d’Or, 1, rue d’Eupatoria in the 20th, 01.43.58.37.09, open for dinner Weds-Mon and lunch only on the weekends, which they call the third serious place in the area (the other two being Le Baratin + La Boulangerie, serving Auvergnate food such as spicy pear, chestnut and blue cheese soup, a terrine, steak topped with morilles, served with cheesy aligot, suckling pig and Reine Claude plums.

Thursday, Gilles Pudlowski, in Le Point wrote that he is eagerly following the renovated Pharamond, thinks Le V + Le Tournesol are in good shape but Et Dans Mon Coeur, il y a….. is not. Outside the city, he likes L'Amirauté in Brest, chef’d by Yvon Morvan who trained with Bocuse, Robuchon and Duquesnoy and Le Clos de la Violette in Aix en Provence. He also likes the pastry shop Le comptoir du Père Sotieu in Megeve, the bakery shop Croquants Villaret in Nimes and the macaroons at Adam in Saint-Jean-de-Luz. His recipe of the week is an Easter cream.

Friday, in Les Echos, Jean Louis Galesne summarized eating at these restaurants in Strasbourg: Le Pont aux chats, L'Atable 77, Le Gavroche, Au Verre à soi, Baan Thaï, Le Penjab + Moose noting that he really liked the first three.

Also Friday, Vincent Noce in Liberation reviewed La Table de Fabrice coordinates given before, whose chef had an Italian mother, which explains his menu containing everything from risotto to game.

Saturday/Sunday, BP published an article by Margaret Kemp on Bath’s and an essay by John Talbott on “One sings, the Other Doesn’t” about good and bad service at Pharamond.

Sunday's NYT Magazine had an article by Christine Muhlke on l'Ami Jean, saying that one should go there before the other places on your list, e.g., Le Comptoir + Sensing, and describing it as among the "adventurous" places like Chez Michel, l'Os a Moelle, l'Ourcine + l'Acajou, {the last recommendation, I could not disagree with more}. To read the article and the accompanying recipe for its riz au lait, it's here if you are a Times Select member. P.S. the confiture de lait recipe is adapted from that of eGullet Society member – David Liebowitz.

I was remiss in noting an article by Nick Lauder of the FT in December where he wrote glowingly about four places he’s eaten at in Paris recently: the Bistrot Paul Bert, L’Ecailler du Bistrot, Ribouldingue + Gaya par Pierre Gagnaire.

Please post comments here and not in the Digest thread.

[John Talbott]

The Week of January 29th, 2007

Francois Simon, instead of his “Croque-Notes” this week, devoted a whole page to a tribute to and interview with Paul Bocuse on the occasion of his 81st birthday. An accompanying article by Alexandra Michot, announced that the 20th “Nobel Prize of Gastronomy” had been awarded to Fabrice Desvignes, 2nd in command at the presidency of the Senate. I missed digesting Simon's “Croque-Notes” of 13-14 January wherein he recounted a meal at Arpege for two; bill=1,097 €, which while mostly perfect (speck, turbot and scallops), seemed a bit over the top and with not chilled enough champagne, mignardises they had to ask for and a disappearing voiturier; the director of the salle pointed to their car sitting at the end of the street in the pouring rain. He contrasts this with a dinner at the Bistrot Paul Bert for {would you believe it?} the same price – but for 16 persons. Finally he loved a lunch (scallops and veggies and a coffee with heart-clogging Chantilly at the brasserie at Printemps open 9 AM – 7 PM, now run by the Bertrand Group (Lipp, Angelina etc), chef’d by Alain Cirelli who cooks evenings at Natasha. Also there was a sidebar “En Bref” noting that Marc Veyrat had indeed sold La Ferme to the Z Group and they refused comment on its future.

Monday, Elvira Masson and Alexandra Cammus, using a visit to Bonpoint’s new restaurant that they liked as a jumping off point, they listed the “Best of undergastground” places that included: Azxabu, Chez Michel, Les Papilles, Le Pre Verre, Le Water Bar de Colette + Cojean.

Tuesday, in A Nous Paris, Philippe Toinard gave 3/5 blocks to La Table d’Anvers, 2, place d’Anvers in the 9th, 01.48.78.35.21, closed Sundays, formulas from 16.50 to 28 € where this old favorite of my gangs evidently has a new chef; the service and music sound dreadful but the food (pied de porc, sautéed kidneys and a chocolate mousse) sounds good. Meanwhile, his partner, Jerome Berger gave 3/5 blocks to the wine cantine A Cote, 14, rue de l’Amiral Mouchez in the 14th, 01.53.80.02.45, open for lunch Tuesday-Saturday and dinner Thursday to Saturday, closed Sundays and Mondays, a la carte about 15 € for fish soup, rabbit with cepes and 20 wines by the glass. On the sidebar they announced the opening of two shops dedicated to chocolate – Cho’room, 5, rue Jean Baptiste Pigalle in the 9th, open afternoons Tuesday-Saturday and Chocolatitudes, 57, rue Daguerre in the 14th, 01.42.18.49.02

Wednesday in Figaroscope, Emmanuel Rubin awarded 2 hearts to three places: the “chic dinette,” not really a restaurant, in the children’s clothing boutique Bonpoint, 6, rue de Tournon in the 6th, 01.56.24.05.79, open everyday but Sunday from 11 AM – 6:30 PM that runs one about 25-40 €; the North African place La Table Algeroise in the 7th; and the Bengali resto: Village du Bengale in Asnieres. In addition, he gave one star each to a Lebanese “resto-snack” Fakra in the 11th and the franco-world jazz brasserie l’Esquisse, 73, ave de Suffren in the 7th, 01.47.34.90.56, open everyday, running one 30-40 € for Chilian chicken, Salers entrecote and mascarpone.

Figaroscope’s “Dossier” covered fish at different restaurants:

Merlan Colbert at La Table de Joel Robuchon

Salmon Tartare at Seafood Bar Prunier

Fish Soup at La Fontaine de Gaillon

Sole Meuniere at Garnier

Line caught bass at Le 21

Wild turbot at La Grille

Cod brandade at Le Soleil

Solettes des Sables at La Maree Passy

Rougets Barbets at La Cagouille

And also: Ray at Cameleon, eel at Nodaiwa, lamprey at Carre des Feuillants, bouillabaisse at Charlot, fera and omble chevalier at Why Not and swordfish at l’Espadon bleu.

Naturally, Francois Simon went along with the game and ate raw bass, bass with thyme and classic desserts, which he calls “Gstaad food” at Le Duc, coordinates in the guides, for 183 € for two. Should one go? More than once he suggests.

Also, in Wednesday’s Figaro Lucile Escourrou wrote about making good bread by hand, in other words not by machine.

Thursday, Richard Hesse in Paris Update wrote a tribute to Fils de la Ferme, coordinates in the guidebooks, where, despite the annoying supplements to an otherwise well-priced (28 E) menu and edgy décor, he had an almost perfect risotto with pieces of melting garlic, carrots and apricots, sea bass and a brochette de banane et pain d’épices poêlée au beurre de clémentine.

Thursday as well, Adrian Moore of GoGoParis wrote up Le Cantine de Quentin coordinates given before, where he liked the lunch menu at 14 €, which in his case consisted of starters of charcuterie and millefeuille of beetroot with crab and balsamic vinegar as well as his main – a lobster risotto but raved about an “amazing” 'tarte tatin’ of duck breast with thyme and rosemary whipped cream as well as a 8 € pichet of Cote de Rhone.

Also Thursday, the freebie newspaper ParuVendu covered Jarrasse in Neuilly, coordinates given before.

Thursday, Gilles Pudlowski, in Le Point wrote that he considers Unico + Au Bascou promising and thinks Carre des Feuillants + l’Entregeu to be in good shape. In the suburbs he features Mohamed Fedal’s second restaurant outside Marrakech, this called Dar Moha in Boulogne-Billancourt. Outside the city he touts Tantris in Munich. His product of the week is/are beets for their nutritional value and of course he gives a recipe for Borscht from the Café de la Paix. His shops of the week include a Breton “country store” [sic] like one finds in Vermont – Ty Pot in Carantec and a pastis store that carries 95 brands – La Maison du Pastis in Marseille.

Friday, in Les Echos, Jean Louis Galesne went eating in St Gervais in the mountains and recommended: Le Sérac, 4 Epices, La Ferme du Cuquelin, L'O à la bouche + La Vieille Auberge.

Anne Deguy wrote an article in Liberation on the flowering in the 19th; she focused on places within a couple hundred meters of or on the Rue Rebeval that have opened in the last two years, including: Le Café Chéri(e), 44, bd de la Villette, 01 42 02 02 05, which sounds like a tequila sunrise, chips and popcorn and music place; Le KD, 1, rue Pradier, 01 44 84 76 59, lunch menu = 12 €, which also sounds like a hip bar; Valentin, 64, rue Rébeval, 01 42 08 12 34, which serves Thai-Agentinian-Auvergnat fare; Mon Oncle Vigneron, 2, rue Pradier, 01 42 00 43 30, serving Southwest cuisiune with Southern wines; Zoé Bouillon, 66, rue Rébeval, 01 42 02 02 83 that considers itself a boutique of soups and Chapeau Melon, 92, rue Rébeval, 01 42 02 68 60, a wine bar serving decent food. And in the same issue, Vincent Noce confirmed Michelin’s award to Anne-Sophie Pic of a new star.

In the weekend Figaro Madame Olivier Hachon-Bueb wrote about a black truffle sandwich from the Restaurant Michel Rostang in his Miam section, this Number 5.

Saturday/Sunday, BP published an article by Margaret Kemp on about Valentine’s possibilities and an essay by John Talbott on “What on Earth Do Two Hearts Mean?”

Sunday in JDD’s Version Femina Astrid T’Serclaes reviewed three places: Unico, the Argentinian beef place in the 11th, Partage in the 5th and Le Bizen in the 2nd. In addition, in the main paper, Aurelie Chaigneau has an article on where Nicolas Magie, chef at Le Cape in Cenon, just outside Bordeaux, considers good well-priced restos in Paris – l’Affriole + l’Os a Moelle.

I just got my February-March Gault Millau and they’re now giving headers like Pudlo does in Le Point. Thus restaurants they think are good new ones are:

Hier et Aujourd’hui Champion of quality-price

Carmine Chic Italian

Places to follow (largely because they are under new management/ownership, excepting Bath’s that simply moved) include:

Le Jules Verne, La Maree, Chez Georges, Chez Bath + Le Rech

Places in good shape are:

Drouant + Buisson Ardent.

Others:

Citrus Etoile for a rendez-vous

Violin d’Ingres got it right (eg the renovation and new menu)

Cameleon’s comeback succeeded

Please post comments here and not in the Digest thread.

[John Talbott]

The Week of February 5th, 2007

January’s WHERE had several reviews by Alexandre Lobrano, one of Le First, 234, rue de Rivoli in the 1st, 01.44.77.10.40 {Digester’s Note: that I must admit I went by today and thought too mod to even enter and look.} He describes a mix of “homey” and modern food: mussels in wine and shallots, smoked salmon, stuffed veal paupiette, langoustines in vanilla sauce, macaroni filled with fava beans, a Ladurée-created sponge cake plus, and a “pricey” wine list. He also writes an enthusiastic review of Daniel Rose’s Spring, coordinates given before. In the February edition, he describes in more detail the past history that I’ve read elsewhere of the experiences and travels of chef Samuel Cavagnis of Le Versance, coordinates given before: specifically Australia, China, Viet Nam, Malaysia, East Hampton Long Island, Beirut, Nepal, Burma, Laos and Cambodia. He also reviews two French-Italian places: Le Soleil + La Gazzetta , the Asian fish/sushi resto Yushi 16 in the 16th and a “cozy” wine bar/ bistro” Villa Monceau, 16, rue des Acacias in the 17th, 01.44.09.85.59, with an exLoiseau chef, Yvan Sternat, cooking a variety of blackboard plates such as terrines, eggs mayo, cote de boeuf, roast ham, apple tart and “giant” éclairs.

February 1st, but just posted recently is an article by Véronique André and Marie-Christine Delacroix in Figaro Madame that is part of the run up for Valentine’s Day. They suggest:

A deluxe cruise up the Seine on the “Don Juan II,” leaving from the Port Henri-IV in the 4th, 01.44.54.14.70, costing various amounts from 349-1499 € a couple, depending on the date, serving food (lobster, veal confit with cepes, chocolate) by yet another MOF – Guy Krenzer.

Et dans mon coeur

Le Partage

Petrossian with champagne

Astier for rabbit

Un jour a Peyrassol for truffles.

Monday in Le Fooding, someone wrote about the restaurant Magali et Martin in Lyon’s 1st.

Monday, l’Express did its now traditional three reviews all tilted towards Valentines Day; 1st François-Régis Gaudry reviewed Flora Mikula’s place in the 8th, now called the Saveurs de Flora apparently; Pierrick Jégu doing the Chateau de Maulmont in Saint-Priest-Bramefant (Puy-de-Dôme) and Anne-Laure Quilleriet sampling the food at the Hotel Amour in the 9th, where she terms the menu nostalgic bobo in old Paris.

Tuesday, in A Nous Paris, Philippe Toinard gave 3/5 blocks to Le Café de la Paix, coordinates well-known, whose new chef Laurent Delarbre is another MOF, cooking half-cooked tuna, rouget doré and a meuillfeuille. He says despite the tourists the prices of menus are OK: 25, 35 and 45 €. His compatriot, Jerome Berger also awarded 3/5 blocks to Le Moulin de la Galette, who coordinates are also well-known, where some exChamarré folk now serve up dishes such as pumpkin soup, suckling pig and a baba; carte = 45 €, lunch menus are 17 and 25 € with a discovery menu of 60 €.

Tuesday as well, Richard Hesse on Parisist posted a review of a new tapas place – the Casa San Pablo in the 4th.

Finally, Tuesday, from the Alps, Adrien Jaulmes wrote an article in Figaro’s travel pages about things in Val d’Isere including restos: La Savoyade, La Grande Ourse + La Table de l’Ours. Also, dated February 6th there was an article by Lucile Escourrou on food blogs, 90% of which are authored by women and have been set up relatively recently because so many blogs were in English. They include: Pascale Weeks, Mercotte, Clea who lived in Japan, Anaïk who uses frozen ingredients and Passion Fusion written by a man who uses lots of foreign ingredients. She had an article the next day as well, this on exoticly flavored pastries and suggests getting them from Le Pain de Sucre, 14, rue Rambuteau in the 3rd, 01 45 74 68 92, Dolfin and Giraudet. Also this week, in Figaro Economie, there was a notice that the Freres Blanc (owners of Chez Clement, Procope, etc.), have bought La Casa del Campo and intend to open 10 tapas places in Paris.

Wednesday in Figaroscope, Emmanuel Rubin reviewed five places, none of them truly French, except the toney snack-sandwich-salad place Boulangerie Fauchon in the 8th (one heart). He gave two hearts to an Italian resto-epicerie-cave-non-stop Caffe’Vergnano in the 7th and one heart each to the Spanish Paris Bodega in the 9th and the Lebanese A Beyrouth. Finally, a busted heart went to the Chinese Yse Yang in the 16th.

Figaroscope’s “Dossier” covered Valentine’s Day places :

Big time gambler

La Table de Lancaster 140 € (all without drinks unless otherwise noted)

Les Elysees du Vernet 160 €

Broke

Au Pied de Fouet VIe 20-25 €

Chartier 30€

Improvised

Nemo by Bert’s Delivery service 01.47.23.43.37

Premiere etoile Ditto but by Gilles Choukroun + Raphael Berland 01.42.71.67.78

Gourbi Palace 30 €

Andy Warloo

A wink of the eye

Astier 39.50 €

Chai 33 39 €

Frozen

Hotel Kube 200 € for two

In vino

Les Craneuses 20 € plus

Oh! Bigre

Women’s Special

Drole d’endroit pour une rencontre (Depur) beginning at 20 €

Bollywood Soft

Ratn 70 €

Indira 50-60 €

Venitian

Mori Venice Bar 70 €

Madrilinian

Almodobar 25-30 €

15 Cent 15 15-20 €

Take Out

Bread & Roses

Da Rosa

Granterroirs

Francois Simon’s idea of the theme is the Hotel Amour, see above, where his bill was 218 € for a room, two dinners and two mojitos. Should one go? To the hotel yes but on the patio side, otherwise it’s noisy; for the food, if you like brouha ha.

Thursday, Gilles Pudlowski, in Le Point wrote that he has been following Les Tonneaux des Halles, 28, rue Montorgueil in the 1st, 01.42.33.36.19, a la carte : 35 € with great sounding stuff like: a terrine de campagne, andouillette with mustard, entrecote and fries; and La Villa Monceau coordinates above, whose menus at lunch are 19 and 26 E, and a la carte runs one about 35 E, a good bet near the Porte Maillot he says; and he thinks two places are in good shape: the Café de la Paix + Mori Venice Bar. Outside Paris he touts Georges Blanc in Vonnas, the Manoir de la Boulaie in Haute-Goulaine and; in Clermont-Ferrand suggests getting sophisticated takeout from Picnic en ville and everything in the world from L'Atre des Bourcas in L'Alpe-d'Huez. His product of the week are macaroons from Macarons de Montmorillon in Poitiers and he gives the recipe.

Jean Claude Ribaut, in Wednesday-Thursday’s Le Monde wrote an article on the best brasseries in Paris. First he states that one can easily think that the great Paris brasseries, like le Ruc have disappeared or been taken over by the Costes empire. What’s going on now may not resemble past glories for habitués of La Closerie des Lilas, La Coupole + Wepler and while each era changes the situation, they still remain open all day, 7/7. He says the staff have both tact and dignity and cites in particular "Monsieur Paul" at the Zeyer. Two big companies now control a lot of them: Albert Frere who bought the Flo group (La Coupole, Bofinger, Julien, Le Vaudeville etc.) and the Blanc brothers (Le Pied de Cochon, Le Procope, La Lorraine etc.) So far he thinks their acquisitions have preserved the quality and consistency of traditional brasserie food such as leeks vinaigrette, céleri rémoulade, andouillette, choucroute, red meat, etc. He notes that since March 31st, seven Blanc establishments are featuring oysters and wines from famous places/regions. He mentions Au Boeuf Couronné for soufflé potatoes, Chez George + Brasserie Stella for the best fries and the Closerie des Lilas for beef Hemingway (flamed with bourbon) with Pont-Neuf potatoes. In addition he likes L'Ascot, Le Gourmet des Ternes, le Coq de la Maison Blanche in Saint-Ouen, and a new place Le Petit Vanves in Vanves. He advises you to avoid Le Café des Editeurs + Le Zeyer, otherwise excellent, because of their poor fries.

In the weekend Figaro, Alexandre Michot wrote a full-page article on French (and some Anglo) food blogs that starts by quoting eGullet Society member Clotilde Dusoulier and also lists another member Pim. {Digester’s Note: rather than copy down the list of the other nineteen blogs, I’ll wait and see if they post it on their website after the weekend.} In the next column is Francois Simon’s “Croque Notes” wherein he visits Brussels and writes up Bon-Bon.

Saturday/Sunday, BP published an article by Margaret Kemp on cooking schools and an essay by John Talbott on “Price Quality Ratios”

Sunday’s JDD has several pieces. Their Version Femina’s Astrid T’Serclaes reviewed three places: l’Assiette, Tartufo + Wadja, coordinates known for all in this paragraph unless stated; Guy Martin, famed chef at Le Grand Vefour reveals his favorite places for under 35 € as Le Radis Rose + Ribouldingue, coordinates ditto; and writer Dan Franck picks several places not so well-known, although again, their coordinates are findable: café Le Closerie des Lilas, bistrot Le Bistrot des Pingouins, 79, rue Daguerre in the 14th, tea place La Maison de la Chine, and restos l’Apollo + le QuinZe [sic], 3, pl Denfert-Rochereau in the 14th.

One additional source, the freebie journal Voyage d’Affaires reviews and touts l’Orenco, Sensing + Versance.

Please post comments here and not in the Digest thread.

[John Talbott]

The Week of February 12th, 2007

Monday, a new book was announced in Le Fooding by Alexandre Cammas called Carnets de saisons Été by Jean-Luc André and Marie Kalt, 45 €, Editions Funny Bones that he calls full of inspiration, poetry and vegetables.

Monday also, l’Express did its three reviews; in the category under 30 €, Katell Pouliquen reviewed the restored Parisian bistro Mosca Libre, 3, rue Victor-Massé in the 9th, 01-48-78-55-60, three courses for 25 €, lunch formula at 11,50 €, open Monday to Saturday, serving food influenced from all over, such as Bolivian quinoa with Sri Lankan paprika, Mediterranean beef with polenta and pleurotes, Magrebian swordfish and over-cooked Indonesian cod (save space for the chocolate fondant with confited orange, she says) and Yves Nespoulous went to Chez George, coordinates well-known, where he recommends the tartare and fries, a bottle of the Cote de Brouilly and a Baba. Finally, François-Régis Gaudry reviewed Megali & Martin in Lyon. On Friday on their website, they posted a stunning set of photos of the following; Brasserie Printemps, Fogon, Eatme, Sensing, TokyoEat, Mood, Unico, Black Calvados, Murano, Rich, Delicabar, Kong, Cristal Room Baccarat, Ze Kitchen Galerie, Le Boudoir, Flora Danica, Bar le Passage, Apollo + Bioboa.

Tuesday, in A Nous Paris, Philippe Toinard gave 3/5 blocks to the new twin of La Villa Corse, 141, ave Malakoff in the 15th, 01.40.67.18.44, lunch menu 25 € which features a broad array of Corsican wines, artichoke salad, mushroom and chestnut raviolis, supions and cherry tomatoes, charcuteries, veal stufatu and boar stew. His partner, Jerome Berger, gave 3/5 to l’Arome, coordinates above, where he regretted the supplements to the blackboard menu-carte of 26 and 33 € but liked the perfectly cooked scallops and not bad ray. In the sidebar, they announce the openings of: an offshoot of the Belgian cantine chain Exki, 9, bvd des Italiens in the 2nd, 01.42.61.06.52, serving soups, sandwiches and soufflés; another fast-food Tang Gourmet in the 20th; a wine bar La Cave des Cascades, 101 bis, rue de Menilmount in the 20th, 01.40.33.42.53; and a Canadian resto Le Tadoussac in the 1st.

Tuesday, as well, eGullet Society member and author, Dorie Greenspan did a 17 minute podcast for Bon Appetit that covered everything from patisseries (Mulot) to where to buy cookware (at Dehillerin & Mora and the St Ouen & Vanves flea markets) and regarding dining, her favorite museum places (Les Ombres + Jacquemart-Andre), foreign ones (Fogon) and bistros (Paul Bert), tea salon (Maison de la Chine), places in tourist areas (C. Constant’s three and the Maison de l’Aubrac) as well as off the beaten track (l’Avant Gout) and one up-and-coming place – Daniel Rose’s Spring. I was alerted to its existence by Felice; the piece is called “Paris Confidential;” and the interview was conducted by Martha Simon.

Wednesday in Figaroscope, Emmanuel Rubin rated one French restaurant worth two hearts: the mignon and sympa bistrot M Comme Martie, 33, rue Cardinet in the 17th, 01.43.80.63.60, closed Sundays and Mondays at dinner, menus at 18 and 23 €, a la carte 30 €, serving Basque eggs, half-cooked tuna and iced Vacherin; his other two heart went to the Chinese-VietNamese Chez You in the 6th. One heart was awarded the chic Westin Hotel over-priced (70 € a la carte) First, 234, rue de Rivoli in the 1st, 01.44.77.10.40, open everyday, serving beef tartare and an overcooked hamburger; the wine bar Les Caves Angevines, Chez Clarisse 2, pl Leon Deubel in the 16th, 01,42.88.88.93, running one about 25-30 € for a cote de boeuf, androuillette and cheesecake; and l’Arpent, 12, rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau in the 1st,01.42.36.52.90, closed Saturday lunch, Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays for dinner, serving parsleyed ham, bourgigno and fromage blanc for about 25 € (formula = 13 €.)

Figaroscope’s “Dossier” covered Places around 30 €:

Below 30 €

Les Delices du Shandong

Le Tajine

L’Arbre de Sel

Under 30 €

La Cantine de Quentin

Le Cercle du XVIIe

Les Cailloux

La Gazzetta

Fleurs de Thym

Au Bascou

Francois Simon’s place under 30 € in his Haché menu was the Hier et Aujourd’hui, in the 17th which he says you should go to for the green bean salad, fricassee of chicken and tendron of veal, tiramisu and a nice Bordeaux for 95.50 € a couple (the menu is 26 €).

Wednesday in Paris Update Richard Hesse had an account from the Feb 12-13 Omnivore Food Festival in le Havre featuring Anne Sophie Pic, Fabrice Biasiolo and Alexandre Bourdas.

Wednesday’s New York Times’s Florence Fabricant had an article on Paul Bocuse’s 80th (really 81st) birthday organized by Alain Ducasse at the Hôtel de Paris in Monte Carlo featuring 80 chefs from all over.

On Wednesday-Thursday, in Le Monde, Jean Claude Ribault published an article entitled “Confusions asiatiques” about the 6000 Asian places in Paris, timing it just before the Chinese New Year’s Day Sunday. The article covers everything from eating sushi etc on the backs of nude women (for 100 E) to his favorite restos in Paris: for Japanese food: Issé + Kinugawa in the 1st, Isami in the 5th, Azabu + Yen in the 6th and Wada in the 17th. The Chinese ones include Chen in the 15th, Chez Vong in the 1st, Hansan in the 16th and Zen Garden in the 8th. His incomparable VietNamese place is Kim Anh in the 15th.

Friday, in Les Echos Jean Louis Galesne reviewed several restaurants in Marseille : L'Epuisette, Les Trois Forts, Une Table au Sud, Le Café des Epices, La Cantinetta + Pizzeria L'Eau à la Bouche. In the same issue is a longish article on bouillabaisse that talks about fishing for its components, a cookbook devoted to it and how to take a tour of the Vieux Port.

Rosa Jackson of Paris Bites in Paris Notes wrote up romantic restaurants that she likes. They included: La Tour d’Argent, Laperouse, Jospehine Chez Dumont, l’Ambassade d’Auvergne & A. Beauvilliers.

Adrian Moore in GoGoParis says that the jury is still out on the neobistrot Urbane, 12, rue Arthur Groussier in the 10th, 01.42.40.74.75, closed Sundays and Mondays, chef’d by an ex of Helene Darroze and Gilles Choukroun’s, serving a 29 € 3-course meal of good scallops with curry and rice pilaf, but dull brownies with ice cream.

The British version of France magazine’s March edition contained several restaurant suggestions. In Brittany, Restaurant La Sterne, Hotel-restaurant Les Arcades, Restaurant Alizes, Creperie Ti Saozon, Hotel-restaurant Printania + Restaurant le Bulot. In an article on Toulouse they list: Michel Serran, La Table du Sommelier, Le Bruit qui Court, Le Gentry Magre, Valentin + Bicoq. To celebrate their 100th issue, they published their 10 favorite restaurants, that are : Bernard Loiseau in Saulieu, Zucca Magica in Nice, a Bateau mouche in Paris, La Tupina in Bordeaux, Michel Bras in Lagouile, Chez Ju Ju in Camargue, Brasserie Georges in Lyon, Relais de la Poste in Magescq, ’T Rijset in Lille and Bastide de Moustiers in Moustieres-Ste-Marie.

In Le Point this week, Gilles Pudlowski says that in Paris he’s following Il Cortile + l’Hotel Amour and thinks that l’Astrance + Casa Olympe are in good shape. In Megeve he likes Les Marronniers “Chez Maria”, in Tours Les Linottes Gourmandes and in Le Havre La Villa du Havre. His products of the week are AOC mussels from the Mont St Michel bay, for which he gives a recipe and his fromagerie is Nivesse in Clermont-Ferrand.

In the weekend FT Nicholas Lander recounted his version of the Bocuse celebration (see above) stating that he was puzzled by the relative paucity of French chefs and that a keen observer allowed as how those that were there were over 60 or under 40 and the group in between felt they had not gotten the reputation they deserved, implying that Bocuse’s role as “Pope” was a make or break one.

Saturday/Sunday, BP published an article by Margaret Kemp on Lasserre and one by John Talbott on “What Makes a Meal Great.”

In Sunday the 4th of February’s New York Times Travel section, {which just caught up with me,} Sarah Wildman wrote about Strasbourg, mentioning: Chez Yvonne, Bertani, Le Marquet’s, Fleur de Sel + l’Arnsbourg Baerenthal.

Please post comments here and not in the Digest thread.

[John Talbott]

The Week of February 19th, 2007

Monday, in Le Fooding, they published an article by Elvira Masson on the food and lodging at the Château de Mondésir in Villefranche-de-Lonchat,

Monday night, FR2 broadcast a piece on the 20h00 News about the business of food, giving the amount of money involved in various chefs’ enterprises world wide; e.g., the Pourcels 37.5 million, Robuchon 60 million, Ducasse 93 million € and the product lines for: Bocuse, Loiseau, Martin & Robuchon.

Tuesday in A Nous Paris, courtesy of Felice, I read that Jerome Berger had given 3/5 blocks to La Cremerie, coordinates given in the guidebooks, open for lunch and dinner but closed Sundays and Mondays, a la carte about 30 €, that has been taken over by a couple of young architects and it sounds like quite successfully, adding {to my memory anyway} more dishes and desserts to the charcuterie, but fewer glasses of wine. Meanwhile his co-equipier Philippe Toinard gave 3/5 blocks to Rich, 14, rue Cadet in the 9th, 01.48.01.87.87, menus at 25 and 30 €, located in the SIAPPPP building where precious stones are polished/prepared/sold/who knows?, open to the public, serving chicken nems, shrimp, steak, veal, cheese and chocolate tart. In the side bar, they announced a new food-oriented art show at Fraich’attitude; the opening of a new cave-resto serving bourgeois food, La Cave Des Cordeliers, 9, Rue de l'Ecole de Médecine in the 6th, 01 43 29 39 00; a free recipe book from the promoters of meat at the CIV; and 230 producers etc of Languedoc who will meet the 11th of March in the Carrousel du Louvre.

Tuesday as well, in Figaro, Lucile Escourrou wrote of creative snacks like Tyrell’s veggie chips.

Wednesday, in Paris Update Richard Hesse found Spring and wrote a nice review. In addition, Heidi Ellison wrote up the Italian Innamorati Caffè in the 3rd.

Monday, l’Express did its three reviews: in Paris, François-Régis Gaudry covered Le Saut du Loup, coordinates given above, which serves a ham club sandwich, a cone of fries, caviar on ratte potatoes, Ladurée pâtisseries, cream of carrot soup, steak crisp on the outside, melting on the inside, all for 50 € a person; in the category under 30 €, Pierrick Jégu reviewed Youpala Bistrot in Saint-Brieuc; and Marie-Amal Bizalion reviewed Le 6 Quai des Epices in Marseille.

Wednesday in Figaroscope, Emmanuel Rubin awarded two hearts to two old Chez favorites, revived by a new teams – Chez René, costing about 30 €, serving Swiss chard gratinee, Lyon sausage with potatoes and crème caramel and Chez Georges, costing about 40 € for herring, veal blanquette and a baba. One heart each went to the Villa Monceau, 15, rue des Acacias in the 17th, 01.44.09.85.59, closed Saturdays and Sundays, costing about 35 €, but with menus at 19 et 26 €, serving jambon persillé, veal and clafoutis with apples and pears; the anonymous café Chai Lui, 36, rue Bayen in the 17th , 01.42.67.60.95, open everyday running one about 35-40 € for foie gras, beef and crumble and a new Thai place - Au Petit Thai in the 4th.

Figaroscope’s “Dossier” covered and ranked pizzas:

9/10 La Pizzetta + Amici Mei

8.5 Maria Luisa

8 Cantina Clandestina, Pizza Positano + Enzo

7.5 Il Tre, Paparazzi + San

7 Da Pieto

6 l’Etape

Also rans: Pizzería Da Carmine, Bartola, Da Mimmo + Le Mercure.

And of course Francois Simon in his Haché menu went to another place – the Bistrot Napolitain, 18, avenue Franklin-Roosevelt in the 8th, 01 45 62 08 37, closed weekends where for 100 € he had good pizza, sodas, an “execrable” liqueur of coffee, miserable tiramisu and a ½ bottle of Chianti, saying you should go.

On Wednesday-Thursday, in Le Monde, Jean Claude Ribault published a straight news article on the Michelin rankings and another opinionated article that questions by what common standards the Michelin measures two different places - Le Bec in Lyon and Briffard in Paris. A companion piece on Gilles Pudlowski’s book on female chefs, already mentioned above in the Digest, is apparently pegged to Anne Sophie Pic’s elevation. It is called Elles sont chefs, Flammarion, and those mentioned are both historical and current figures: Mere Brazier, Lea Linster (in Luxembourg), Anne Sophie Pic, Fernande Allard, Adrienne Biasin, Reine Sammut (Lourmarin), Fatema Hal (La Mansouria, Paris), Judith Baumann (Switzerland), Nadia Santini (Italy), Flora Mikula, Johanna Maier (Austria), Lydia Egloff (Lorraine), Nicole Fagegaltier (Belcastel, Aveyron), and Hélène Darroze.

Thursday, Francois Simon in Le Figaro reported on the release of the Michelin Rouge in an article subtitled a “cru de transition.” Most of the elevations and demotions have already been noted, but he does add that Jean Claude Vrinat (in an accompanying interview, see below) is puzzled at the demotion of Taillevent as is Jacques Lameloise in Chagny, who cannot figure out why he went down and up, both stating or implying that nothing has changed in their cuisine; equally questioning is Simon about Laurent whose food he terms “impeccably identical.” In addition, he notes that the Four Seasons management had pumped a fortune into Le Cinq before its knock. Next, he (Simon) is puzzled by the omission of the “Camdeborde generation’s” places which are the hottest in town. Lastly, he takes a swipe at the Michelin for acting like French food is all there is in the world ignoring the vogue and pertinence of foreign cuisine although he does applaud them for listing 484 “Bib’s.” Thursday as well, in Le Figaro there was an interview with Jean Claude Vrinat of Taillevent in which he makes several points, some of which repeat what he said on his website. First, that he knew this was coming a month ago when he had his interview with the second-in-command (M. Mespledes) rather than the Director at the Michelin who had been only once and that a year ago; second, that Mespledes said his meal was totally different from that of 8 years ago but he couldn’t recall the food consumed (ergo, he thinks Michelin is cavalier, kicked him in the rear and has lost its ethics); third, that as opposed to prior regimes, this one handed him no letter with their findings/suggestions; fourth, that while the products he uses are still of the same high quality, the cuisine has “evolved” – fewer heavy sauces, more veggies, etc; fifth, that he’s not clear how he regains his third star and cannot see how some restos merit them while others shouldn’t be so blessed; sixth, that he’ll listen to his clients (before a guidebook) and will change nothing now; seventh, that the charge of running too many covers a night through is ridiculous; next (and most interestingly), that guidebooks are less important than they used to be and blogs, the Internet and word-of-mouth are more influential although dangerous if uncontrolled and finally that the Michelin, through this act, is sending the message that no one is untouchable and is stepping over his body to make its point. “But you’re an institution!” “Like Bocuse.” Answer “Yes, then why don’t they go after him?”

Thursday, an unsigned article in Gayot was an almost word for word translation into English of the brasserie article “digested” the week of February 5th, originally written by Jean Claude Ribaut in Le Monde.

Friday, in Le Figaro, Lucile Escourrou reviewed Elise et ses 28 délices, written and delightfully illustrated by Elise Collet-Soravito, a former fashionista/cook (Les Éditions culinaires, 64 pps, 14,90 €). She gives recipes for 28 desserts, each with its own caricature of an appropriate woman (for example, a vertiginously décolletaged Italian widow accompanying a Sicilian cannoli).

Also Friday in an article in Les Echos, Jean Louis Galesne reviews three sparkling, unpretentious, invigorating, inventive new places he likes in Paris: Le Café qui Parle, 24, rue Caulaincourt in the 18th, 01.46.06.06.88, closed Wednesdays, lunch formula = 12,50 €, menu 17, a la carte 25-30, a no limit on the food Sunday brunch for 15 €, run by a young couple Catherine (ex-George V) and Damien (ex-Daniel Boulud, Goumard + Flora Danica, serving poached egg with vegetables, squid fricassee with chorizo risotto, lamb chops with pine polenta, and chocolate cream – no smoking allowed; Le Bistot de l’Olivier, 13, rue Quentin-Bauchart in the 8th, 01.47.20.78.63, closed Saturday lunch and Sundays, lunch formula at 27, menu-carte 33,50€ run by the Mediterranean influenced chef Raphaël Bembaron, trained at Joia in Milan (the only starred vegetarian restaurant in Europe) who also directs Il Baccelo in the 17th, serving emblematic bouillabaisse, fresh pasta, such as spaghetti with seafood and grilled bass with fresh spinach as well as lots of other pastas and fish; and L'Ordonnance, 51, rue Hallé in the 14th, 01.43.27.55.85, closed Saturday lunch and Sundays, formula at 22 and menu 28 €, serving less light food such as a copper casserole of blanquette, sweetbreads in vermouth with rice apart and rum to your pleasure (eg no limit) with the baba. He says he’s awaiting the opening of several others, including Kinugawa, 26, rue Bayard in the 8th and Alain Ducasse’s Jules Verne in the Eiffel Tower.

Adrian Moore in GoGoParis this week reviewed the deli-snack room Castro Maison, 15bis rue Alexandre Parodi in the 10th, 01.46.07.11.60, a soup and sandwich shop where he says the Serrano ham is excellent.

In the weekend Figaro, Francois Simon’s “Croque Notes” {explanation: no url is or will be given because they’ve removed “CN” from the website and it’s only available on the free pdf version for about 3 weeks} discussed a survey TNS-Sofres did for the March edition of the French pub Le Chef that showed that only 17% of French folk used a food guide in the past year, that to choose a resto 60% of folks use friends’ opinions and only 4% a guide. He posits that there are two societies out there: that of the guides, mentors, chefs and chocolate medals and that of the real folk, nose in the air, elbows on the table who like places such as Le Soleil, coordinates given before, that delivers good solid chow which one would only need to use a guide for to find its address. The week before, he discussed three places, in Shanghaï, le Whampoa Club serving nouvelle cuisine (of Shanghai that the chef invented), in Lyon, Nicolas le Bec for green asparagus, St Pierre and pineapple Victoria for 209 € a couple with two glasses of wine and a simple bistro/brasserie in Paris – le Griffonnier, costing 45 € for three good dishes. Alexandra Michot, meanwhile, wrote the lead article on the fusion cuisine of Beijing, there was another on the fact that the Chinese like Chinese wine and French cognac and there was yet a third one on where to go to get Peking duck in Paris: at Tsé Yang, Chen + Vong.

Saturday/Sunday, BP published two articles by Margaret Kemp, one on the release of the Michelin, the other on Bocuse’s 81st fete; and John Talbott on “Hyping Paris restaurants.”

Sunday in JDD’s Version Femina there were articles on Anne Sophie Pic and Marc Veyrat.

Please post comments here and not in the Digest thread.

[John Talbott]

The Week of February 26th, 2007

Monday, in Le Fooding, Alexandre Cammas had an article on the Café-restaurant Jean-Claude Delbouis in Les Bessades Montpeyroux.

Tuesday, A Nous Paris, courtesy of Felice, had another article (see above the Week of January 29th, 2007) on the 20th anniversary winner of the Paul Bocuse Championship, Fabrice Desvignes, chef de cuisine at the Senat. {BTW: the Senat’s President’s kitchen boasts three MOF’s and one Bocuse d’Or.}

Tuesday, François-Régis Gaudry in L’Express reviewed La Villa Corse as his regular place and Au Pied de Fouet as his resto under 30 € and Anne Cécile de Monplanet reviewed Le Plan des Mains in Meribel.

Tuesday as well, in Figaro, Lucile Escourrou wrote about the food art by the “Generation C” chefs (Gilles Choukroun, Frédéric Coursol, Alexandre Gauthier, Eric Guérin, Stéphane Marchal and David Zudas), now showing in a show called “Tool’s Food” at the Galerie Fraîch’Attitude. As an example she shows and explains the update of a barbe a papa of Eric Guérin from Nantes. {Digester’s Note: If you’ve never been to this gallery, it’s worth going to once.} Figaro also put up on their website this week last week’s interview with the resto designer Philippe Starke that was previously only on their pdf version. In it he expresses his liking of many Italian and Venetian places but also the Relais Plaza, Carette, Kong + le Voltaire in Paris. They also posted the article by Alexandra Michot from Saturday on the 30 year old Maison du Chocolat.

Wednesday, in Paris Update Richard Hesse wrote a not at all enthusiastic review of La Régalade.

Wednesday in Figaroscope, Emmanuel Rubin awarded two hearts to two places, the new resto in the old diamond bourse called Rich, coordinates given last week, and the Thai place Baan Kanya. One heart each went to the very Italian sounding (vitello, penne) L’Eclaireur, 10, rue Boissy d’Anglas in the 8th, 01.53.43.09.99, closed Sundays and the revived (by the Bucher/Flo Group) River Café, 146, quai de Stalingrad in Issy les Moulineaux, 01.40.93.50.20, closed Saturday for lunch, menus at 27 (2 courses) and 32 € for three, serving eggs forestiere, smoked salmon and chicken fricassee. A busted heart went to the Bistrot du B in the 5th.

Figaroscope’s “Dossier” this week was all about Asian soup-type dishes:

Bo Bun

Little Hanoi + Suave

Beef Soup

Le Bambou

Saigon Soup

La Tonkinoise

Shrimp Ravioli Soup

Fleur de Mai

Noodle soup

Salon de The Wenzhou

Udon soup

Kunitoraya

Crab, asparagus & bean soup

Ginger

Chirashi

Zen

And Francois Simon in his Haché menu went to another such place – Zen in the 6th, using his experience to bemoan the lack of curiosity of the French for other-than-French food.

In Wednesday/Thursday’s Le Monde, the restaurants reviewed were all in Belgium and in Friday’s Les Echos, they were all in New York.

Friday last, Liberation published a more detailed account of the OFF (Omnivore Food Festival) extravaganza in Le Havre, February 12-13th than I had digested, in which Natalie Castetz notes that there were 70 plus chefs, 100 wine growers/makers and 2500 visitors. (Thanks to member Le Zouave for noting my omission.)

Adrian Moore in GoGoParis this week, reviewed the Saut du Loup .

Saturday/Sunday in Le Figaro, Francois Simon in his Croque Notes, wrote that now that the 2007 Michelin wave has passed, he wants to complain about two places got no mention in the 2007 Red Guide, despite at least one’s great expenditure of money on a renovation. They were/are: Michel Del Burgo’s l’Orangerie and Gilles Epie’s Citrus Etoile, coordinates given before. In a nearby article, Alexandra Michot wrote about several places that don’t “lay it on too thick,” either by charging too much or packing in too many folks or both, giving as exemplars: Spring + Violin d’Ingres in Paris, Paul Bocuse’s projected resto near Lyon inspired by Cojean + La Fresque in La Rochette, L et Lui in Saint Paul Trois Châteaux, l’Astrance, Nature & Saveurs in Annecy, and Alain Bourgade, ex-starred chef at La Poêle d’Or who’s opening a place in the 16th. She also comments on the “Tool’s Food” exhibition at Fraich’Attitude Gallery and Fabrice Desvignes winning the Bocuse d’Or. And finally, Christian Flacelière wrote of the success of pink champagne worldwide. (Ironically, in my pile of unread papers was the WSJ of Feb. 15 (p B1) with a similar article entitled “How Moet & Chandon made Rosé Champagne Fashionable.”

While I tend to regard coffee-table books with the same appreciation as Parisian dog feces on my shoes, I do feel the need to comment occasionally on newly published (March 2007) books of note. In the Ferrara, Italy Museum Shop in the Palazzo dei Diamanti this week, I picked up a copy of a book by Angelika Taschen entitled Paris: Restaurants & More that has stunning pictures by Vincent Knapp of 35 Parisian eateries, from Le Grand Vefour to the Café Marly. A companion volume is entitled Paris: Shops & More and covers places like Hediard and Androuet. Both cost 9.99 € and available from their online catalogue or failing that, I suppose, in real stores in places like Paris and New York.

Saturday/Sunday, BP published an article by Margaret Kemp entitled “George and the Dragon Buzz” and John Talbott on “A Marathon List of Restos.”

Please post comments here and not in the Digest thread.

[John Talbott]

The Week of March 5th, 2007

Monday, François-Régis Gaudry in L’Express reviewed Bath’s, Yves Nespoulous reviewed Chez Rene and Pierrick Jégu did Cristina’s Tapas par Mavromatis, coordinates below.

Monday, in Le Fooding, Elvira Masson published an article on the hot new place Urbane, coordinates below, which has an Irish patronne and which serves Irish potatoes and Banoffie = Banana + toffee.

Tuesday in A Nous Paris, courtesy of Felice, Jerome Berger awarded 3/5 blocks to l’Affriande, 39, rue Truffaut in the 17th, 01.43.87.21.17, buffet lunch at 11, menu-carte at night at 28 and 32 €, closed Mondays, Tuesday nights, Saturday lunch and Sundays. They replaced an Italian resto with a cantine that serves dishes such as a gratin of endives, soups and a compote of apples. The second review, by Philippe Toinard, also meriting 3/5 blocks, is of Love, 72, rue Vieille du Temple in the 3rd, 01.42.78.91.59, menus at 27 and 35 €, no closing days given, which despite the “drole concept” (pink-red décor, Yves St Laurent New Year’s cards, bizarre erotic names to dishes, etc) serves OK food such as asparagus, roast bar and an “After midnight” dessert. The side bar announced that Mood on the Champs Elysees, now serves Sunday brunch for 28 €; that “Le Fooding” is holding a wine and fooding party – password at www.lefooding.com after the 15th; and that Le Table de Claire is featuring menus based on the recipes given in the books written by the Italian Antonio Tabucchi and Spaniard Manuel Vasquez Montalban.

Tuesday, Vincent Weiss wrote in Le Figaro about the new Fauchon bakery serving up deluxe snacks.

Wednesday Richard Hesse reviewed l’Avant Gout for Paris Update, not especially liking the food and detesting the service.

Wednesday in Figaroscope, Emmanuel Rubin awarded two hearts each to Urbane, 12, rue Arthur Groussier in the 10th, 01.42.40.74.75, closed Sunday dinner and Mondays, lunch menus for 15 and 19 €, dinner 24 and 29 €, which he calls good “Bobo” food like eggs with asparagus, a slab of beef with lime butter and poached bar with artichokes and seaweed and Cristina’s Tapas by Mavrommatis, 18, rue Duphot in the 1st, 01.42.97.53.04, closed Sundays, running one 35-45 € with light stuff such as sardines, stuffed cabbage, tzatziki, etc. He gave one heart each to l’Auberge Nicolas Flamel, 51, rue Montmorency in the 3rd, 01.42.71.77.78, closed Sundays, running one about 60 € for frogs’ legs, sweetbreads and pigeon in the oldest (600 years) auberge in Paris and the revamped Le Reminet, coordinates well-known, that has gone from “bistronomique” to touristy, saying it is not ”totally bad” and giving the price as 50-60 € with a 50 € menu at dinner (that’s a sizeable increase) for quail salad, pumpkin soup, magret and fondant of chocolate. Finally he deems Love, in the 3rd, see above, worthy of a broken heart.

Figaroscope’s “Dossier” this week covered sausages:

Danish hotdogs Le Cesar

Argentinian sausage Unico

Sabodet Auberge Pyrenees-Cevennes

Yole de Cantal Le Coude a Coude

Figatelli Balbuzard Café

Montbeliard Chez Maitre Paul

Saucisse au Couteau Melac

Merguez Wally le Saharien

Bratwurst, Francfort Epycuria

Sausage with fennel Sardegna a Tavola

And also Saucisse au Couteau at l’Abordage, Herb sausage at Radis Rose and Morteau at the Verre Vole.

Francois Simon, on his part, went to Paolo Petrini in the 17th where I did find that among lots of other things he had for 137 € for two, he also had tuscan sausages. The food was sometimes good, sometimes not so good.

Wednesday/Thursday in Le Monde Jean Claude Ribaut wrote about provençal rabasse truffles and how researchers are trying to figure out hoe they come to be.

Thursday, Gilles Pudlowski, in Le Point provided his assortment of food and restaurant likings: he states that he is following Le Restaurant, at/in L'Hôtel, 13, rue des Beaux-Arts in the 6th, 01.44.41.99.01, menu = 50 €, recently taken over by Philippe Bélissent, a young ex-Ledoyenist serving farm eggs with truffles, bar with chestnuts and Bresse chicken as well as l’Orenoc and thinks Chez Georges and Chez Michel are in good shape. Outside Paris he liked Brouilly run by Jean Brouilly in Tarare and La Ferme de Victorine in Notre-Dame-de-Bellecombe in the Savoie. He also describes the pastilles from Moinet in Vichy and the chocolatier Frédéric Cassel’s shop in Fontainebleau. His product of the week is butter from the Laiterie cooperative in Echiré and he provides a recipe for Beurre blanc d'Echiré.

Friday, in Parisist, Anna reviewed Chez Toinette.

In the March Paris Notes, Rosa Jackson’s Paris Bites covered the Louis XV in Monaco as well as the Buisson Ardent + Le Gorille Blanc in Paris, coordinates given before.

Saturday-Sunday in Le Figaro, Alexandra Michot and Francois Simon discussed six springtime tables that are especially appealing as well as announcing several openings. They are: in Nice - Keisuke Matsushima + La Réserve de Nice by Jouni Tormanen, Le Café des Épices by Arnaud Carton in Marseille and three in Paris: Le Saut de Loup, Rech + Urbane. Other news: the Fontaine Saint Fiacre in the 9th will chart a new course under a dietician – Gregoire Weber, Alain Ducasse’s group has taken over Rech in the 17th as well as will run the Eiffel Tower places in September and Christian Constant will open a fourth place serving tapas on the Rue St Dominique.

In this week’s Gogo Paris, Adrian Moore reviews Jarrasse declaring it good but pricey.

Saturday/Sunday, BP published an article by Margaret Kemp on Chez Georges as well as one by John Talbott on “What is the Best in Paris.”

Please post comments here and not in the Digest thread.

Edited March 21, 2007 by John Talbott (log)

[John Talbott]

The Week of March 12th, 2007

Monday, l’Express had its usual three reviews: in Uzes, François-Régis Gaudry covered Le Tracteur and in Paris, an Italian place called the Cantina Clandestina; while Anne-Laure Quilleriet wrote up l’Oriental, 47, avenue Trudaine in the 9th, 01-42-64-39-80, open every day, with a formula at lunch for 14,50 and at night 30 € (this is the old l’Oriental {we knew and loved} from the Rue des Martyrs in a much bigger space and after an apparently successful move.)

Tuesday, Sandie Meusnier in Le Figaro wrote about a neat British cake decorated by Londoner Fiona Cairns with a bird on top sold at Bon Marche for 11 € and 39 € – You’ve gotta see it to believe it.

Tuesday also, in A Nous Paris, courtesy of Felice, there were two reviews of out-of-the-way places meriting 3/5 blocks; Philippe Toinard reviewed l’Escargot in Puteaux with menus at 22 and 29 €, closed Saturday lunch and Sunday night, serving traditional food such as a fricassee of mushrooms, duck with mashed potatoes and poached pear; Jerome Berger reviewed l’Ambre d’Or in Saint Mande, costing one 25 at lunch and 32 € at dinner (he thinks the entrees cost too much), closed Sundays and Mondays, serving such fare as tournedos of monkfish, scallop and fennel tatin and a savarin of dried fruits. Their sidebar also mentioned Fiona Cairns’ cakes, a 15 € special edition of a magazine called Intramuros that features interviews with {Alexandre Cammas and} Alain Ducasse and an ephemeral jam shop – Autour du Pot, 44, rue Lepic in the 18th.

Wednesday in Figaroscope, Emmanuel Rubin awarded two hearts each to the newly renovated by the Ducasse-group Rech, 62, ave des Ternes in the 17th, 01.45.72.29.47, closed Saturday lunch and Sundays, which, for 60-90 €, serves abalone and bulot bouillion, gratin of crab and skate wing {sounds good, albeit pricey, why not three hearts?} and a Creole restaurant, l’Heureux Pere in Saint Cloud. One heart each went to the resto-cabaret La Cave des Cordeliers, 9, rue de l’Ecole de Medecine in the 6th, 01.43.29.39.00 closed Mondays, running one 35 at lunch and 70 € at dinner for frogs’ legs and pepper steak; an Italianate bistro-epicerie Mosca Libre in the 9th and another Italian pasta/pizza place Al Dente[ in the 7th.

Figaroscope’s “Dossier” this week explored airy food, that is mousses, emulsions, soufflés, etc, listing:

Classics

Vol au vent at Drouant

Chocolate Souffle at Citrus Etoile

Meringues at Les Vivres

Modern ones

Swordfish with pepper emulsion at Sens

Foamed oyster at Caius

Bar with rocket emulsion at l’Orenoc

Tapas treats at Sensing

Tuna and pineapple at Jean

Cauliflower soup at Music Hall.

Francois Simon, going along with the joke in his Haché menu went to the Cigale Recamier in the 7th where he groused that he spent 54 € on air (he had their specialty – soufflés {they have both savory and sweet ones}) and two anemic, miniscule salads (he’d rather nibble on the grass in the Luxembourg harrumphs he).

Thursday, Gilles Pudlowski in Le Point says he is following Sushi West, thinks Sormani + Grande Cascade are in good shape but that the Brasserie Lipp is in trouble having served him burned pig’s feet with a tasteless puree. Outside Paris, he liked Kaya in Les Menuires and Le Plan des mains in Meribel. His product of the week is/are grey shrimp, which he calls democratic shrimp, contrasting them with rose or bouquet shrimp, however his recipe is for wild turbot roasted in the oven and his store of the week the pastry-shop Jean-Charles Lemoy in Metz. Finally he mentions a new book - “Tout Robuchon” - published by Perrin, 768 pages, costing 25,90 €.

Two articles appeared in Le Figaro: the first dated Thursday by Régis Arnaud on the appearance in November of the Japanese Michelin Red Guide; the second in which Francois Simon says Ducasse, Gagnaire, Robuchon and Troisgros may be included. Thursday, Lucile Escourrou also discussed the trend towards risotto made with pasta not rice and names one Paris place to get it – la Casa d’Arno in the 11th.

Friday in an article in Les Echos, Jean Louis Galesne reviews restaurants in Nantes, including: the Maison Baron Lefèvre, La Civelle, VinDivin + La Gavotte.

In this week’s Gogo Paris, JB {who I guess is Jemma Birrell} reviewed the “chic and left-of-center” Le Chateaubriand.

Saturday-Sunday in Le Figaro, Alexandra Michot wrote about the nine chefs (of 33), among them the first woman, who were awarded the Meilleurs Ouvriers in France (MOF) medals March 14-15th after their three dishes were judged by Alain Ducasse, Michel Roth and Jacques Maximin. They were: Olivier Nasti (Le Chambard), Vincent Arnould (Le Vieux Logis), Jean- Luc Rocha Serralheiro (Château Cordeillan- Bages) , François Adamski (Abbaye de Saint- Ambroix), Jean Rieubland (Domaine de Terre Blanche), Johan Leclerre (Maison des Mouettes), Sébastien Chambru (La Plage), Christophe Roure (Le Neuvième Art) et Andrée Rosier, (Hôtel du Palais). Francois Simon’s “Croque Notes” was entitled “Chickens, your papers please!” and largely discussed the effort in Japan to declare restaurants genuinely Japanese, the necessity to have fresh good products and his list of “bistrots gourmands” that includes: le Comptoir de l’Odéon, Villaret, Paul Bert, Baratin + Bascou, less enthusiastically l’Atelier de Maître Albert, but most enthusiastically – Chez Michel. In the Style section there were three articles on wine: (1) An article written by Christian Flaceliere about the growing popularity of wine in some areas/countries, predicting huge increases between 2005-2010, for example: 80% in Taiwan, 50% in China, 25% in South Korea and 21% in Singapore; (2) An article about vineyards and wine interest in Brasil; and (3) The push for rosé wines during April of vintners from Provence .

Saturday/Sunday, BP published an article by Margaret Kemp on the new Pudlo Bistro and Brasserie book and one by John Talbott on “Where we really want to eat.”

Sunday in the JDD, there was an article by Marie Nicot about the opening April 12th of a “Flower Bar” at the Galeries Lafayette-Haussmann and she pegged this to an old book by Alice Caron-Lambert entitled La cuisine des fleurs, eg Cooking with Flowers, ACR Edition, 1995, 192 p., 49 euros.

Please post comments here and not in the Digest thread.

[John Talbott]

The Week of March 19th, 2007

Friday, February 27th, I completely missed Patricia Wells' article on Taillevent's demotion in the IHT. She says while she never considered it the best resto in the world, it is the best run and she applauds the other Michelin decisions.

Monday in Le Fooding, Emmanuel Rubin reviewed the funKy tapas place Les Akolytes in Marseille.

Monday, l’Express had its usual three reviews: François-Régis Gaudry had lunch at Rech, coordinates given before, with “le mangeur masqué du Figaro, la Marie Zotto de Elle et Monsieur Goûts du Monde,” translation: Simon, Zotto and Ribaut. Impressive in this Ducasse seafood restoration were the wine prices: not a glass under 14 € and a bottle of Château Simone costing 67 € at the Dôme was 90 here, thus he had a 40 € Vouvray, but the food was good. Meanwhile Pierrick Jégu went to Au Petit Thaï in the 4th and Marie-Amal Bizalion to Le Ventre de l'architecte in Marseille.

Monday as well Paris to the Spoon ate at the Korean place Nam San in the 19th.

Christopher Dickey, Newsweek’s Paris bureau chief wrote an article dated March 26th but posted March 17th, entitled “ Where would I send my friends in which he cites Benoit, Allard + Chez Eux although he also like the brasseries Balzar, La Coupole, Boeuf sur le Toit + Wepler and the Costes places Georges, l’Avenue + Costes Hotel.

Tuesday, Adrian Leeds in her ParisParler wrote a perfectly lovely review of Drouant.

Tuesday in Le Figaro Cécile Alizon wrote a piece on l’Atelier LZC’s wonderfully colored dishtowels.

Tuesday also, in A Nous Paris, courtesy of Felice, there were two reviews, both of which merited 3/5 blocks; Philippe Toinard reviewed Le Bistrot des Faubourgs in a piece entitled “Girly Food,” coordinates above, with a short menu due to their commitment to serve only what’s in the market, such as a carrot and ginger soup, osso bucco and moelleux of chocolate (the Corbieres is 4 € a glass); and Jerome Berger reviewed the pricey (30 € for 2 dishes) Le Saut de Loup, coordinates also given before, where he had a hamburger of today and tomorrow and entremets from Laduree.

Wednesday, Richard Hesse published a review in Paris Update of the Bistro des Faubourgs, 55, rue des Vinaigriers in the 10th, 01 42 05 19 05, Open Monday-Friday for lunch and Friday and Saturday for dinner, lunch menu 14 and a la carte around 30 € where he was upset by the repetition of the use of mache as a garniture and the cold camembert and not impressed by the innovativeness of the carte (you could make this food at home) or by Irish chef Carolyn Buckley’s steak or over-cooked sea bream but did like the oxtail and leek terrine and apple crumble. In a final blow he suggests its OK to go there with an old friend or ex-lover where you want to talk not eat impressive food.

Wednesday in Figaroscope, Emmanuel Rubin awarded two hearts each to the newly moved and expanded l’Oriental, coordinates given last week, open everyday, lunch menu 14.50, dinner 30 €, the classic couscous place and Le Bistrot des Faubourgs, coordinates given above, where he liked the Lyon sausage, boudin and beef. One heart each went to Le S, 34, rue des Plantes in the 14th, 01.45.40.43.36, closed Sundays, running one about 35-40 € for country pate, andouillette and cote de boeuf; the Tel Avivian falafel-shwarma place Mi Va Mi, 27, rue des Ecouffes in the 4th, 01.42.71.53.72, closed Friday night and Saturdays running one 15-20 €and Bert’s au BHV Homme, 14 rue du Temple in the 4th, costing one about 15 € for not very sexy snack and fastfood.

Figaroscope’s “Dossier” this week explored bars from Abesses to the Champs-Elysees:

Le Passage

l’Eclareur

Le Lucien

Paris Bodega

Rich

Cave Café

Marlusse et Lapin

Cesar

Playoff Club House

Rosso

La Caravane

L’Etage

Tournesol Café.

And Francois Simon, going along with the theme in his Haché menu spent 12 € at Showcase.

This week Adrian Moore reviewed Meiji in the 8th for GoGo Paris.

Wednesday-Thursday in Le Monde, Jean Claude Ribaut wrote an article on the best boudin of the year competition held March 16-17. The winner was Sébastien Besnard, an artisinal coldcut maker from Alençon. The Paris runners-up included: Classe de BP 10-Ceproc CFA Metiers, 19, Rue Goubert in the 19th and Christian Durand, 30, Rue des Abbesses in the 18th.

Thursday, Gilles Pudlowski in Le Point says he is following Tse Yang + Le Café des Faussaires, 28, rue Croix-des-Petits-Champs in the 1st, 06.26.75.10.21, a la carte : 35 € for good wines and products such as rillettes, lentil salad, eggs with foie gras and pepper-steak; and thinks Tante Marguerite + Point Bar are in good shape; and in the provinces he likes Chez Tanésy in Nancy, the Chalet de la Marine {joke-joke}, on the Dalles ski-slope in the Val Thorens and the Hostellerie du Chapeau Rouge in Dijon.. His products of the week are confitures etc from Au Coin des producteurs in Saint-Martin-de-Belleville and lamb from Quercy for which he gives a recipe with junipers.

Thursday, Sandie Meusnier in Le Figaro reports that the cool soups, such as gazpacho, petits pois and mint, tomato and espelette pimento, lentil with curry, etc., made by Giraudet {that I think I bought at the Galeries} are now available at supermarkets.

Friday in Liberation Vincent Noce wrote a more or less (he takes a swipe at the Michelin) straight news piece on Marc Meneau continuing to cook at l’Esperance while awaiting his refinancing/restructurization plan’s approval in Paris.

Friday in Les Echos, Jean Louis Galesne reviewed the two all soufflé places in Paris: Le Souffle + Cigale Recamier as well as l’Amuse Bouche, 186, rue du Château in the 14th, 01.43.35.31.61, taken over in October by Philippe Dubois, ex-chef of Soufflé, that serves three soufflés. In addition, Philippe Chevilley reviewed a bar La Fourmi, 74, rue des Martyrs in the 18th, 01.42.64.70.35, open 7/7 except 4-8 AM, serving simple plates at lunch and burgers, salads and tartines for dinner; and Jean Claude Hazera wrote an article on real vs false shallots.

Saturday-Sunday in Le Figaro, Francois Simon’s “Croque Notes” discussed Rech where he was asked three times if his tuna was raw enough (it was but was too cold) and four times if he was enjoying his meal (he wasn’t, the scallops were over-the-hill, his apple was too hot outside too cold inside). In the same edition, Alexandra Michot reported on the trendy-ness of “easy-cook books” where one can make simple dishes. And, in a third article, a Swiss psychoanalyst “analyzes” Guy Savoy saying he sublimates his anxiety into food creations, masters his Oedipal wishes and retains his “bad boy” adolescent rebellious side. {As a psychiatrist/psychoanalyst, I found what he said to be on the border between the ridiculous and the hilarious.}

The weekend FT had an article written by Nick Landers of the MOF competition (see above), which members whose French is challenged, may prefer to Alexandra Miochot’s article on the process.

Saturday/Sunday, BP published an article by Margaret Kemp on Pierre Gagnaire and one by John Talbott on “Why it’s easier to review bad places.”

Sunday in the JDD, there was the usual response of the famous chef about his favorite inexpensive places in Paris, this week it was Christophe Cussac of Joel Robuchon’s Metropole Hotel/restaurant who picked the Cave a l’Os a Moelle + Les Papilles. And, in their Version Femina, Astrid T’Serclaes reviewed the Bis de Severo, Le Parti de The + Le Bonheur de Patisserie.

Please post comments here and not in the Digest thread.

[John Talbott]

The Week of March 26th, 2007

Veronique Andre, in Figaro Madame wrote an article on three of her favorite restos for under 30 €, they were: the Villa Periere, M comme Martine + Le Café du Commerce. Lucile Escourrou also wrote about uncommon food experiences, giving as examples a wine tasting with music at Le Vin en Tete, wine and foie gras at Puerto Cacao and eating flowers at the Flower Bar at Lafayette Gourmet.

Monday in Le Fooding, Alexandre Cammas reviewed the Cancale offshoot, via Tokyo, the Breizh Café, 109, rue Vieille du Temple, 01 42 72 13 77, open noon-10 PM except Tuesdays, serving what sound like upscale (Valrhona chocolate, sweet-sour caramel, andouille, aged cheese) crepes.

Tuesday, l’Express printed its usual three reviews: François-Régis Gaudry ate at the Franco-Irish spot Urbane, coordinates given before, where he rather liked the shrimp tempura with horseradish sauce, scallops with curry, mashed potatoes and prune-frangipane lollipop and one-star Keisuke Matsushima in Nice; while Pierrick Jégu wrote about Les Fines Gueules, 2, rue La Vrillière in the 1st, 01-42-61-35-41, a la carte running one 25-30 €, open everyday 7-2 AM, chef’d by Arnaud Bradol, ex of the Bistral, who constructs his menu around products made by the best, for example Thierry Daniel’s andouillette, Poujauran’s bread, Bordier’s butter, David Hervé’s oysters, Hugo Desnoyers’ meat, ditto for wines. In addition, Guillaume Crouzet wrote that the Pourcels are opening a resto in the Musée Fabre in Montpellier.

Tuesday, as well, in GoGoParis, Adrian Moore reviewed l’Arome, 3, rue St-Philippe du Roule in the 8th, 01.42.25.55.98, closed Sundays, calling it a surprisingly good lunch for 33 €.

Tuesday also, in A Nous Paris, courtesy of Felice, Philippe Toinard reviewed Pharamond, coordinates in the guides and given before, which he thought merited an almost unprecedented 4/5 blocks, mentioning the os a moelle, cote de veau, baba and calvados flambéed apples; meanwhile Jerome Berger gave 3/5 blocks to Urbane, coordinates given elsewhere on this page, where he mentions the undercooked salmon with pistou and lemon tart with cookies. They also mention in the sidebar Mosca Libre, coordinates give, which serves fair-traded products such as Bolivian quinoa; Allain Milliat’s desserts at the Grande Epicerie; and exotic drinks at the Publicisdrugstore.

Wednesday, Richard Hesse in Paris Update reviewed Autour de…, 397,rue de Vaugirard in the 15th right near the Porte de Versailles and Convention Center, 01 45 30 18 47, menu 25 €, a la carte, around 35 € which he said is good Paris bistro food for the price. There were lots of salads and other vegetable dishes, as well as cod, pork and beef and four desserts.

Wednesday in Figaroscope, Emmanuel Rubin had a tough week. He awarded two hearts to only one place, the Italianate Serafina in the 17th; the rest meriting only one heart: Le Coup de Feu, 48, rue Leon Frot in the 11th, 01.43.67.23.48, closed Saturday lunch and Sundays, formulas at 12 and 14, a la carte 30 € for avocado & shrimp salad and not bad paella; l’Affriande, 39, rue Truffaut in the 17th, 01.43.87.21.17, closed Sundays and Mondays as well as Tuesday dinner and Saturday lunch, lunch formula at 11, dinner menus at 28 and 32 € for buffet food; 16 Tholozé, coordinates given before, featuring charcuterie, meat and frites; and 182, 182 rue Louis Bleriot in the 16th, 01.42.88.44.63, open every day, lunch formulas at 20, a la carte 35-40 € for eggs mayonnaise, terrine and chicken.

Figaroscope’s “Dossier” this week was an inquiry into eclairs by Alexandra Michot, Colette Monsat and Francois Simon that rated the places that serve them:

1 - Carette

2 - Jean-paul Hevin

3 - Stohrer

3 - Ladurée (16 rue Royale VIIIe)

5 - Vandermeersch

6 - La Maison du Chocolat

6 - Lenôtre

8 - Blé Sucré

9 - Rollet-Pradier

9 - Dalloyau

11 - La Gerbe d'Antan

11 - Fauchon

11 - Pascal Pinaud

14 - Gérard Mulot (76 rue de Seine VIe)

15 - Arnaud Lahrer

15 - Arnaud Delmontel

17 - Paul

17 - Kayser

17 - Rousseau et Seurre

17 - Laurent Duchêne

And Francois Simon, going against the theme in his Haché menu spent 52.50 € at Fontaine Fiacre eating healthy food that he rated neither bad nor good which is about what I said.

Wednesday as well, Jane Sigal wrote an article on Joel Robuchon in the NYT recounting his history, current enterprises and three recipes.

Wednesday-Thursday in Le Monde, Jean Claude Ribaut wrote an article on the wines of Languedoc.

Friday, Bridget wrote in Parisist that Les Jumeaux, coordinates in the guides, has been taken over by a young Franco-Polish couple (with twins) who serve a three course 34 € menu with things such as loup de mer, foie gras and steak with blue cheese that sounded good although she did not like the other fish dish.

Friday in Les Echos, Jean Louis Galesne reviewed three places in Provins Aux Vieux Remparts, Hostillerie de la Croix d’Or + Beau Rivage. THere was also an article about people like Pierre Gagnaire using soy sauce and the appearance of the Michelin Red Guide in Japan.

Cynthia Zarin has an article in the April Gourmet on Patricia Well’s new book Vegetable Harvest, William Morrow, $39.95 which she says is a follow-up to The Provence Cookbook

April’s Saveur has an article by Nancy Koons on crepes and Brittany and lists the following as places to eat: Buvette de Port Theolen, Creperie du Cap, La Creperie l’Epoke, l’Etrave + la Krampouzerie as well as the grilled sardines at Madeleine Brios’s “snack shack” in Douarenez.

Saturday-Sunday in Le Figaro, Francois Simon’s “Croque Notes” discussed was entitled a good man and discussed Alain Dutournier of the Carré des Feuillants. Next door, he interviewed Trish Deseine, the Irish author and lover of French food who mentioned: the Rose Bakery, Chateaubriand, Hôtel Costes + Le Zéphyr. Finally Alexandra Michot had an article on monothematic places, such as Oliviers & Co for olive oil, Cave à bulles + Culture Biere for beer, Cave à jambons for ham, Lavinia for wine, Bonne Maman/Autour de Pot for jam, Pomze for apples, Rouge Tomate {now Rouge St Honore} for tomatoes and Terre des truffes as well as the new crepes place Breiz Café.

The weekend FT had an article written by Ann Morrison on Paris supermarkets, foodhalls and street markets.

Saturday/Sunday, in the weekend WSJ there was an article entitled "How to Get the Ungettable Table." While it mainly focused on US and NYC restaurants, it did deal with three French ones, passing on the following advice:

At Le Comptoir du Relais stay at the hotel or go at 7:30 PM

At Mori Venice Bar call Ms Mori at 33.6.22.14.08.02

At l'Astrance call after one of its "numerous vacations" and book three months ahead.

Saturday/Sunday, BP published an article by Margaret Kemp on Easter at Pre Catelan and one by John Talbott on “Who Do You Trust II.”

Please post comments here and not in the Digest thread.

Edited April 14, 2008 by John Talbott (log)

[John Talbott]

The Week of April 2nd, 2007

Alexandre Cammas in this Monday’s Le Fooding reviewed a new wine bar in Nancy called Fragile.

Adrian Moore in GoGo Paris reviewed Pharamond, coordinates given before, where his photo of the cote de boeuf is mouthwatering and the vol au vent sounds great.

Tuesday, l’Express printed its usual three reviews: François-Régis Gaudry reviewed Le Mirazur in Menton, Yves Nespoulous covered Momoka in the 9th and Pierrick Jégu wrote up the Breizh Café, coordinates given before, as the restaurant under 30 €, mentioning the 20 ciders, andouille, cuttlefish, oysters and cheese.

Tuesday also, in A Nous Paris, courtesy of Felice, Jerome Berger reviewed Cheri Bibi, coordinates given already, and gave it 3/5 blocks for lightly anise flavored lentil salad, pork with prune sauce and rice pudding; while Philippe Toinard reviewed Pouilly Reuilly, in Le Pre St Gervais, coordinates in the guides, a place that pops up every few years in reviews and gets a 3/5 now for pistachio flavored sausage, minced veal kidneys and chocolate éclair (real old school, old style cuisine.)

Wednesday, Richard Hesse in Paris Update reviewed La Gazzetta, coordinates given before, where despite poor lighting and loud noise he declared it a “find” liking the 32 € dinner menu (only 14 at lunch) containing a soup of Jerusalem artichokes, sardines and haricots, monkfish, duck, St Nectaire and Valrhona ice cream.

Wednesday in Figaroscope, Emmanuel Rubin awarded two hearts to two places, the “baba bobo retropop” bistro Cheribibi, 15, rue Andre del Sarto in the 18th, 01.42.54.88.96, every night except Sundays, costing 30-40 € for pate de tete, steak-frites, chocolate mousse and the folklorically decorated creperie the Breizh Café, coordinates given before, costing 20-30 for an all pork plate and various crepes and galettes. One heart each went to Le Carre de Marguerite, 87, rue d’Assas in the 6th, 0143.26.33.61, closed lunch on Saturday, Sundays and Mondays, costing about 35-45 € for vaguely Thai minced lamb, rilettes of lieu and clafoutis; l’Ami Marcel, same old coordinates, new team (trying to hold onto this bistro lost in the deepest 15th) replacing the team that decamped for l’Arome serving simple but edible goat cheese with curry, beef filet and pot de chocolate for about 30-40 € (lunch menus are 19 and 25 €) and A Cote, 14, rue de l’Amiral Mouchez in the 14th, 01.53.80.02.45, closed Sundays and Mondays, an offshoot of the nearby cave-epicerie, serving St Felicien, Lyon sausage and Fontainebleau creamy cheese with honey for 15-20 €.

Figaroscope’s “Dossier” this week rated the “new” brunch places as follows:

9/10 Le Kube

8.5/10 Hotel Amour

8/10 Restaurant d’Orsay

La Ferme

7.5/10 Kiwi Corner

7/10 Bwyty

Carmine

6.5/10 Mosca Libre

And Francois Simon, in his Haché menu went to Mariage Freres in the 6th where he spent 64 € for two persons for eggs, salmon and fruit juice. He says to go with an angel.

An article in last Wednesday/Thursday’s Le Monde by Jean Claude Ribaut noted that a decree currently being considered by the Conseil d'Etat will create a title of "maître restaurateur", like the one that artisinal bakers now have. {The only requirement it mentions is that one must use fresh, eg not precooked, products, but I suspect that like the “slow food” rules, there must be other requirements.} A second article by the same critic talked about “left wing and right wing” (politically speaking) food and suggests that if you are eclectic and like uncomplicated and unchichi bio or sushi, burgers or fooding, you’re a lefty versus those who admire right-wing traditional food such as poule au pot, blanquette or le pot-au-feu. Extreme righties go for palace banquets, extreme lefties exotic and foreign cuisine. He quotes Edouard Herriot (1872-1957) who said that politics is like andouillette, it smells a bit like feces but not too much. And he gives the restos and the dishes they like there: Valéry Giscard d'Estaing - Trois Marches, François Mitterrand at La Cagouille for oysters and fried céteaux and L'Assiette Chez Lulu, Michel Charasse, at the Ritz for lamb testicles, Edouard Balladur - wine by the carafe, Jacques Chirac - tête de veau and Le Père Claude. And more contemporaneously, Ségolène Royal drinks cognac-soda, Nicolas Sarkozy is abstinent, Dominique Voynet and José Bové drink wine, François Bayrou uses it for his stammering and Arlette Laguiller loves braised endives.

Rosa Jackson in her “Paris Bites” in Paris Notes pegs her article on the Omnivore Food Festival and its featuring of exciting chefs from outside Paris but reviews two places in town; Le Comptoir du Relais St Germain, coordinates given before, where she found the crowd lined up awesome, the soup pallid and better opportunities at Ribouldingue, l’Ami Jean, Le Pre Verre, l’Ourcine + Le Troquet; and Le Sensing, ditto, where she found the “cold from the fridge” starters, punchless truffles and hefty bill (176 € for 2) to be off-putting.

In the May British France magazine, Philip Faiers suggests the following in Burgundy: Bernard Morillon in Beaune, Bernard Loiseau in Saulieu, + l’Auberge de l’Atre in Les Levaults; Regine Godfrey lists the following in Boulogne: l’Atlantic/La Liegoise, La Poivriere + Aux Pecheurs d’Etapes to eat and Philippe Olivier, Hediard/Espace Rouge Delicatessen, l’Atelier du Gout Philippe Gwizdziel, Le Chais + the Wine Society for shopping; Steve Melia covers Aubusson eating at the Hotel du Lissier; Stephanie Jenkins suggests La Martille in Salers; and Patricia Stoughton gives Krampouez Breizh in Huelgoat and Ar Chupen in Guimiliau.

In a “Market Guide” in Bon Appetit, eG member Dorie Greenspan wrote about the Sunday organic Marché Raspail, suggesting that one munch on a potato galette from Les Gustalins, buy fish from the Poissonerie Diget, eat at Fish La Boissonerie and stay at the Lutetia.

Saturday-Sunday, Francois Simon’s “Croque Notes” in Le Figaro concerns the decision on the part of Lactalis and Isigny-Sainte-Mer, who make 80% of French camembert to give up the AOC designation while they convert from raw milk to pasteurized production. In the weekend Figaro Madame Sandie Meusnier wrote both about Jean Paul Hevin’s chocolate eggs as well as Mariage Freres' tea blend for Easter and Véronique André and Marie-Christine Delacroix wrote up three hotel restaurants - the Palme d’Or, in Nice, and the Hôtel Regina and Le restaurant de L’Hôtel in Paris.

Every once in a while it’s interesting to see what certain sites’ best list is. This week’s heart throbs for RestoAParis are Le S, Le Bistrot Montsouris, Le Niv's, Fontaine Fiacre, Le Djoon, L'Art Home, Chez Cécile, Pdg Rive Gauche, Le Selen, Shah Jahan + Le Serpent qui danse.

Saturday/Sunday, BP published an article by Margaret Kemp on the Cantine de Quentin and one by John Talbott on “It’s the Wrong Place.”

Please post comments here and not in the Digest thread.

Edited to correct location of Momoka.

Edited April 13, 2007 by John Talbott (log)

[John Talbott]

The Week of April 9th, 2007

Elvira Masson, in this Monday’s Le Fooding reviewed long dormant Pavillon Puebla in the 19th in the Parc des Buttes Chaumont on the South side near the rue Botzaris and avenue Simon Bolivar, 01 42 02 22 45, open evenings (except Sundays,) only, costing one about 40 €, where she liked the Formule H of "carpaccio et pasta" (it’s an Italian trattoria now, renovated by Vincente Cozzoli who was previously at another Italian trattoria in the 19th – Chez Vincente).

Tuesday in A Nous Paris, courtesy of Felice, Jerome Berger reviewed and gave three/five blocks to the “pop cantine” Kloog Café, 63, rue Guy-Moquet in the 17th, 01.42.29.59. 18, a la carte 20, formulas at 9 and 12 €, closed Monday, Wednesday and Sunday nights, where he had a starter of a warm petit pois salad, then chicken marinated in soy sauce for 9 € at lunch (no dessert); meanwhile Philippe Toinard also gave 3/5 blocks to the wine bar/brasserie/bistro Au Reveil Samaritain, 3, blvd Saint Jacques in the 14th, 01.45.65.22.17, open everyday from 6 to 1 AM, serving the usual fare, cold cuts, croques but also beef, sausage aligot, chocolate mousse on 17 and 21 € formulas.

Tuesday, l’Express printed its usual three reviews: François-Régis Gaudry reviewed the Italianate Pavillon Puebla, coordinates below; in Lyon, Les Lulus was reviewed by Mat Gallet, and Katell Pouliquen covered l’Accolade, 23, rue Guillaume-Tell, in the 17th, 01-42-67-12-67, luncheon menu is 20 € - a la carte: 35 € where an ex-Rostang chef, Sebastien Altazin serves up dishes such as mushroom soup with parmesan, monkfish and a banana chocolate soufflé.

Wednesday in Figaroscope, Emmanuel Rubin awarded two hearts to the aforementioned Pavillon Puebla and one heart each to the bar/café of the Scribe Hotel, the Café Lumiere, 1 rue Scribe in the 9th, 01.44.71.24.24, open every day, running one 40 € for chicken, entrecote & creamed cabbage that was too dry and Le Soubise, 41, rue des Archives in the 3rd, 01.42.72.13.56, closed Sundays {which I passed this week and looks really neat,} a Costes-family offshoot serving tomato and mozzarella, jarret with lentils and fig tart. Finally he gave a broken heart each to Darling’s in the 3rd and {what used to be a great place before and/or after the opera} Les Grandes Marches in the 12th {which sounds dreadful.}

Figaroscope’s “Dossier” this week discussed places to go for lamb (it being Easter week), that included:

Raw lamb

Liza

Leg

Sebillon

Lamb with beans

La Tour de Monthery

Grilled

La Maison de Charly

Breast

J’Go

Moussaka

Cristina’s Tapas at Mavrommatis

Irish Stew

Carr’s

Tajine

Mansouria

Curry

Yugaraj

Roast saddle

Atelier de Maitre Albert

Tongue salad

Wadja

The Stars

Le Grand Vefour + Le Pre Catalan

In brasseries

Brasseries Flo + Astier

And also

La bastide Odeon, Velly, Aux Zingots + Ribouldingue.

And Francois Simon, in his Haché menu went to Georges in the 17th where he spent 98.50 € for his lamb cut on the chariot, a mache salad and no dessert but {I assume} his share of a 118 € bottle of wine. Should one go? “The setting is nice.”

Wednesday, Richard Hesse, in Paris Update reviewed Chez Arthur, 25, rue du Faubourg Saint-Martin nin the 10th, 01 42 08 34 33, two course menu = 22 €, 22 closed Monday at dinner and Sundays, frogophiles take notice – it’s owned by Michel Sardou. Somehow, despite the frozen langoustines, day-old jambon persillé and tasteless (on its own, eg without the foie gras) filet of beef and “grimy” neighborhood, he declares it as “about as French as it gets.” {Ed Note: OK}

Wednesday/Thursday, in Le Monde Jean Claude Ribaut wrote an investigative report on farm-raised fish that said (surprise) that practically every sort of fish or shellfish, etc on sale at Rungis could now be so-raised, that wild stuff costs twice that of raised, that among others, Jacques Le Divellec can tell the difference on inspection and that 60% of the product at Rungis is farm-raised.

Friday in Liberation, Vincent Noce wrote about the Saut de Loup in the Musee des Arts Deco, coordinates given before, where the menu was so different from what I had, I’m astonished, because he lists a crab mousse, terrine of beef and smoked salmon, foie gras poêlé, magret de canard, carré d'agneau, cod, salmon, dorade royale and bar {I swear, I never saw a one of these). And he says the frites with the “hamburger” were “sans reproche”, {I’ll be posting my thoughts on them soon.}

Saturday-Sunday, Le Figaro had little to commend itself in the food department except announcing that Guy Martin, he of the Grand Vefour + Le Sensing has published a book, Petit gourmets, editions du Seuil, that gives 50 recipes for meals he originally started with and for his kids (50).

February’s oMni, aka Omnivore’s cover story was on Anne Sophie Pic and they devoted almost the rest of the mag to the Omnivore Food Festival. They also had an article on the takeover of l’Express’s Saveurs Section by Francois Regis Gaudry who has just published a book Memoires du Restaurant, editions Aubanel, 39 € that covers the history of the restaurant in France, mentioning 250 places and containing lots of period photos as well as featuring one place – Grand Vefour – as central to his thesis.

It’s always good news when one of our own publishes a book, so I was delighted to see that the new volume, “The Perfect Scoop” by David Lebovitz, has received its first mention in Melissa Kronenthal’s blog The Traveler’s Lunchbox.

Lettie Teague, in the May Food & Wine wrote an article on the Loire and mentioned: l’Auberge de Port Vallieres, Les Tonnelles + l’Escargot. In the same issue, their “Go List” mentioned the following in Paris: l’Ami Jean, Bistrot Paul Bert, Cameleon, Chateaubriand, Le Meurice, Violin d’Ingres, Ribouldingue + Sensing.

And in the April-May Gault-Millau they reviewed or wrote about Mosca Libre, Fauchon’s new bakery, La Maree, Armani Caffe, Citrus, 21, Et Dans mon coeur il y a…, Bath’s, l’Arome, Jules Verne, Saut de Loup, Tse Yang. There is also a huge section on Strasbourg that mentions: Cruchon, Petit Tonnelier, l’Escale aux Quais + l’Atable 77 as featuring young talented chefs, a Gault-Millau/Ford Gold Medal to Pont aux Chats, sure values Buerhiesel, Crocodile, Maison Kammerzell et Lokhas, La Veille Tour + Winstubs as well as the following good addresses not mentioned before: Estaminet Schloegel, Le Penjab, S’Muensterstuewel, Cambuse, Festin de Lucullus, Pont des Vosges, Casserole, la Vignette, Fleurdesel, Panier du Marche, Ami Fritz, Fink’Stuebel, l’Asace a Table, Art Café Restaurant, Christian, Pont Corbeau, Le R, Dunes d’Or + la Tour du Jade.

Saturday/Sunday, BP published an article by Margaret Kemp on the The Silence of the lambs and one by John Talbott on Cultural Diversity.

Sunday, in the JDD Christian Moine, chef at Montparnasse 25 picked as his two favorite places under 30 € Giufeli + Terrasse Mirabeau. They also announced the new venture of the Pourcels, a resto called Sens Compagnie des Comptoirs in Levallois.

Please post comments here and not in the Digest thread.

[John Talbott]

The Week of April 16th, 2007

Last week Figaro Madame had an article by Lucile Escourrou on fresh and canned monkfish liver.

Monday, Jean-Christophe Servant in Le Fooding wrote an article on a wine store, Au Fil du Vin in L'Hérault, run by a “Senegaulois.”

Tuesday in A Nous Paris, Jerome Berger reviewed and gave three/five blocks to the “best of” product place Les Fines Gueules, coordinates given before, where he liked the pork with puree, crème au chocolate and bio wines, despite the pricey bill (35 €); meanwhile his colleague Philippe Toinard also gave 3/5 blocks to the Ducasse-revived place Rech, coordinates also given before, serving langoustines, tuna and French toast.

Tuesday, l’Express printed its usual three reviews: François-Régis Gaudry reviewed L et lui, in Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux; Yves Nespoulous reviewed Le Jardin des voluptés, 10, rue de l'Echiquier in the 10th, 01-48-24-38-68, closed Mondays only, and running about 20 € where he liked the food and preparations from all over, such as grapefruit-anise soup, beef-mint-quinoa tagine, tuna-mango-poppy-bulgar, crumble of Jerusalem artichoke-ginger and lemon-lavender cake; in for their under 30 category, Pierrick Jegu reviewed Premiere Etoile, 2, rue de l'Hôtel-Saint-Paul in the 4th, 01-42-71-67-78, which has a different concept, you get a plate, a bag of ingredients and a recipe by the chef Raphaël Berland, exGrand Véfour + Carré des Feuillants and in 30 minutes max you prepare scallops with beet pesto, pistachio-almond rice, false burger with catsup pesto and true frites. At lunch they have “prêt-à-manger” fast-food to eat there or take out, running 9.50 €. The dinners, described above are called “prêt-à-cuisiner” and three courses run one 17 €.

Wednesday in Figaroscope, Emmanuel Rubin awarded two hearts to two restos: l’Office, 3, rue Richer in the 9th, 01.47.70.67.31, closed Saturdays, featuring a Jerusalem artichoke soup, rustic goat cheese quenelle, shrimp with Asian sauce and panettone for 30-35 € a la carte and 25 € for the lunch menu and the recently taken over by a MOF Le Café de la Paix, place de l’Opera, 01.40.07.36.36, open everyday, serving lamb with beans and millefeuille for 40-60 € a la carte and menus at 25, 35 and 45 €; then two places that merited only one heart each: Les Fines Gueules, coordinates above, running one 30 € for charcuterie, andouillette and crème chocolat and the Italian wokbar Wokbar in the 6th. A broken heart went to the Bistrot du Marcande, in the 11th, the offshoot of the mothership in the 8th.

Figaroscope’s “Dossier” this week presented places that serve enveloped dishes, such as nems, crepes, etc., that included:

Japanese raviolis

Asian wok

Dim sum

Chez Vong

Crusty rouget

Carte Blanche

Enchiladas

Ferdi

Cannolis

Le Perron

Clever tacos

Anahuacalli

Samboussek

Rimal

Rice crepes

Tao

Bricks/Briouats

Essaouira

Nems

Exo Exquis

Crisp rolled tuna

Market

And also:

Chocolate nems

Comptoir de Thiou

Makis

Kaseiki.com

Rice crepes with Peking duck

Chen

Stuffed grape leaves

Delices d’Aphrodite

Francois Simon, in his Haché menu went to the Breizh Cafe, coordinates given already where he had lots of crepes {I assume with his children} for 39.30 € and says one should go.

Richard Hesse in this week’s Paris Update went to a very old Auvergant place with a very new owner and had a pretty good meal. It’s the Galoche d’Aurillac, 41, rue de Lappe in the 11th, 01 47 00 77 15, closed Sundays and Mondays, a la carte about 35 €.

In an IHT OpEd piece Thursday entitled “Learning to love the screwtop bottle,” Michael Johnson says the French are slower to adopt the technology despite its corked taste advantage but it will eventually replace corks except in the “big reds.” He gives figures for current use as 7% in France, although Chateau d’Agassac caps 10-15%, paltry compared to Australia at 60%, New Zealand at 90% and Switzerland at 100%.

Wednesday/Thursday, in Le Monde Jean Claude Ribaut wrote an article on the “trendy” tables of Paris Department stores, that is: Délicabar at Bon Marché serving veggies, fruits and chocolate for 18-25 €, as well as Cojean, Bert’s at BHV serving a club sandwich, Déli-cieux at Printemps-Maison, la Brasserie at Printemps de la mode, as well as the Japanese Baramaki and Ducasse-Kayser miniboutique Café Be, le Chêne vert at Les Galeries Lafayette (Homme), Café sushi, le Sichuan Panda, le Barrouge + McDonalds as well as Laurier, a Mavrommatis property.

Friday, in Les Echos, Jean Louis Galesne reviewed four new independent chefs and restaurants in Paris. Le Bistrot de l'Alycastre, 2, rue Clément in the 6th, 01.43.25.77.66, is open everyday, running one about 45 € and is chef’d by the self-taught Jean-Marc Lemmery, exCap Vernet who had revived this space with his own hands, formerly called Le Bistrot d'Alex. His chalkboard has products from the market: entrees such as a millefeuille of red tuna with veggies and terrine of foie gras with potatoes, fish such as wild bass with green asparagus and big shrimp, meats such as beef, lamb and desserts. Wines are reasonably priced. Next was the “tradimodern” resto L'Agassin, 8, rue Malar in the 7th, 01.47.05.94.27, closed Sundays and Mondays, with a lunch menu at 25 and menu carte at dinner for 34 €. This place is run by André Le Letty, exl'Anacréon, now operating in bistro valley with L'Affriolé + L'Ami Jean serving Breton food such as cotriade (fish stew) and pig’s head with beans, cod, marinated sardines, etc. The next place, the de luxe creperie Breizh Café has already been covered above and the last is the Japanese fusion place Hanawa in the 8th.

Alexandre Lobrano, in the April WHERE gives several established places as his “Here and Now” places: Chez Georges, Les Saveurs de Flora, La Tradition + M comme Martine,” coordinates all given before. In March’s edition, he previously gave as his suggestions: La Cave des Cordeliers, Le Restaurant, Le Gorille Blanc + Bath’s.

Saturday/Sunday the Wall Street Journal had an article by Raymond Sokolov called “The Continental Divide: The reason some of Europe’s biggest culinary stars don’t make it here” that argues that US chefs are so good now, newbies like Ducasse, no matter how “successful,” can’t compete with them; he sort of grand-fathers in Splichal, Vongerichten and Boulud as “naturalized cooks” but leaves unanswered why Robuchon and Savoy are OK, except to say tat both are repeating successful Paris formulas.

Saturday/Sunday, BP published an article by Margaret Kemp on Rech and one by John Talbott on Good Cooking.

Sunday, Aleksandra Crapanzano wrote an article entitled "Paris Match" that pivots around two new books - France Forum contributor Clotilde Dusoulier’s, titled Chocolate and Zucchini, and Patricia Well’s Vegetable Harvest. The article suggests that both have established (or documented) a “new French paradox.

Please post comments here and not in the Digest thread.

[John Talbott]

The Week of April 23rd, 2007

Monday, the results of the UK Restaurant (in conjunction with Le Figaro) magazine’s Best 50 Restaurants 2007 were given and commented on in an article by Francois Simon. Of interest to our France Forum loyalists are the following:

3 – Pierre Gagnaire, France (Paris).

6 – Bras, France (Laguiole)

8 – Restaurant Le Louis XV, Monaco (Monte Carlo).

13 – L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon (Paris), France.

20 – Alain Ducasse au Plaza Athénée, France (Paris).

21 – L’Astrance, France (Paris).

23 – L’Ambroisie, France (Paris).

25 – La Maison Troisgros, France (Roanne).

29 – Le Cinq, France (Paris)

43 – L’Arpège, France (Paris).

48 – Taillevent, France (Paris).

49 – Bocuse, France (Collonges-Au-Mont-d’Or).

50 – Les Ambassadeurs, France (Paris).

Also of interest is his criticism that Yves Camdebord’s Le Comptoir du Relais is not on the list. Alexandra Michot in a nearby article says that soon they will list the “top 10” for each country too.

Of interest to the above, Nicholas Lander in the weekend FT wrote an article in which the magazine’s Joe Warwick is quoted as saying “he would like to see a greater French presence at the awards and the lunch“.

Monday, Julia Sammet in Le Fooding wrote up Lauracée in Marseille.

Tuesday in A Nous Paris, Jerome Berger reviewed and gave three/five blocks to Chez Rene, coordinates, etc, given before, and essentially says the resto still serves the same well-cooked Lyonnais cuisine (sausage, veal kidneys, Royan raviolis) that deserves a revisit; meanwhile his colleague Philippe Toinard also gave 3/5 blocks to the place {I reviewed recently} Le Bistrot de l’Alycastre, coordinates also given before, serving good product, such as a nice looking cote de boeuf, gambas and wild salmon, “smoothly” made.

Tuesday in Nouvel’Obs there’s an interview with Pierre Gagnaire by Jean-Marcel Bouguereau, calling him the best and stating that he thinks Asia (esp Japan) has more and more influence on French cuisine.

Tuesday, as well, Radio France talked of a new book that features 44 young chefs Alain Ducasse has promoted called "Fous de food: Portraits de la génération FoodFrance", Laurent Seminel - éditions Menufretin - 208 pages - 48 euros.

Tuesday, Figaro put up an article by Lucile Escourrou about a book on cooking for large crowds at your own place called “Un jour, une fête” by Alexandra de Comarmond with beautiful photos (she says) by Jérôme Galland, Minerva), 191 pages, 26 €. Then on Friday in the Figaro, appeared an article by Sandie Meusnier on the new cakes of summer by Dalloyau.

Wednesday in Figaroscope, Emmanuel Rubin awarded two hearts to two restos: the Pourcel’s new off-shoot Sens, Hotel Evergreen, 8, place George Pompidou in Levellois-Perret, 01.46.39.00.72, open everyday, running one 60-80 € for artichokes prepared three ways, half-cooked tuna, veal and banana nems with litchi ice cream as well as l’Escargot, 18, rue Charles Lorilleux in Puteaux, 01.47.75.03.66, closed Saturday lunch and Sundays, where for 35 € (menus 22 and 29 €) one has parsleyed ham, loin of lamb and pain perdu; one heart went to three places: Au Sud de Nulle Part, 16, blvd St Germain in the 5th, 01.43.54.59.10, closed Sundays and Monday noon, running one 40-50 € for “saturated” gazpacho,”insipid” barbue and “simple” cod, the bio Italianate Crudus, 21, rue St Roch in the 1st, and the Italian-Asian place Souma in the 2nd.

Figaroscope’s “Dossier” this week rated all the new restaurants that have opened recently in several categories, each is the number over 10, eg 7/10:

Chic

7 Rech

6.5 Rich

6 Le Soleil

Bistrot

8 Spring

7 l’Arome + Urbane

6.5 Cheri bibi + l’Office

6 Bistrot des Faubourgs + Les Fines Gueules

5.5 Chez Rene + Soubise

4 Bistrot du Marcande

And also M comme Martine + Coup de Feu

Cosmo

6.5 Chez You + Cristina’s tapas…

6 Pavillion Puebla + l’Oriental

5.5 Serafina

4 Tse Yang

And also Arbre de Sel, Baan Kanya + Petit Thai

Bobo-Trendy

6.5 Saut du Loup

6 Bonpoint

5.5 l’Eclaireur + First

4 Paris Bodega

3 Grandes Marches

2.5 Love

Fast fast

7 Breizh Café

6 Boulangerie Fauchon + l’Atelier du VIIIe

5.5 Café Lumiere

Francois Simon, in his Haché menu went to Urbane, coordinates given already, where he sort of liked the bread and artichokes, but not the lamb and thought the dessert was a “truc.” His bill was 117 € and he says about going - “whatever”.

Richard Hesse in this week’s Paris Update went to another established place Stephane Martin in the 15th where despite over-cooked fish, the rest he described as divine and lush.

This weekend Figaro Madame had an article by Lucile Escourrou on cooking “a la vapeur” that mentioned two restaurants, sort of, more like “semi fast food” – A Toutes Vapeurs, 7 rue de l’Isly in the 8th, 01 44 90 95 75, serving vegetable, fish and meat platters for 6-12 € and Vapeur Gourmande, 49 rue Balard in the 15th, 01 45 57 71 90, serving everything from starters to dessert, including Charolais beef, a la vapeur for 16-24 €. In addition, she mentions two books on the subject : Petits plats vapeur, collective authors, éditions Marabout, 2,90 € and Cuisine à la vapeur, Isabel Brancq, éditions Hachette Pratique, 9,90 €.

Friday, in Les Echos, Jean Louis Galesne reviewed four places in the Ardeche La Table du Terroir, Le Hameau Gourmand + Domaine de Rilhac in Sagnes et Goudoulet, Saint-Martial and Saint-Agrève respectively and the shop Confitures de Nicole in Sainte-Eulalie.

Friday, as well, Radio France announced the publication of a new book entitled Gontran fait son pain, Hachette Pratique – 160 pages – 18 € with 80 recipes with which one can make bread by hand or machine.

Saturday/Sunday, BP published an article by Margaret Kemp on the Grand Vefour and one by John Talbott on Wine snobbery.

Sunday, the JDD featured chef Gerard Vie (Trois Marches in Versailles’s choices for places in Paris for under 35 €: Le Maxan + Le Chansonnier {which appears in none of my guidebooks but is at} 14, rue Eugene Varlin in the 10th, 01.42.09.40.58 and has lunch formula for 9.80 (daily special) and 11.30 (2 dishes), menus at lunch and dinner for 24 (2 dishes) and a la carte for about 31 € for 3 dishes. In addition, Astrid T’Serclaes reviewed Urbane, coordinates given before.

The Spring FRANCE magazine introduces several books: Markets of Paris by Dixon & Ruthanne Long, Little Bookworm, $16.95, Great Eats Paris by Sandra Gustafson, Chronicle Books, $15.95, Eric Kaiser’s Sweet and Savory Tarts, Flammarion, $34.95 & Bocuse in Your Kitchen, Random House, $29.95; an article on lentils by Susan Herrmann Loomis that mentions Violin d’Ingres, Restaurant 21 + Andre Barcet in St Etienne; and an article by Alexandre Lobrano on “Where the chefs eat” including Dominique Bouchet – Aida, Jacques Melac, Yannick Alleno – Café Constant, Le Comptoir du Relais + Auguste, Alain Ducasse – Chateaubriand, l’Ami Jean + Gaya and Eric Frechon – Violin d’Ingres + Pierre Gagnaire.

March’s Bon Appetit has an article by Dorie Greenspan on places you should keep secret – Aoki, Da Rosa, Michel Chaudun, Caves Auge, Le Restaurant a l’Hotel, Le Bar au Murano Urban Resort, Le Baratin, Mathis Bar, Le Verre Vole + Bistrot Paul Bert.

May’s Gourmet had recipes for bouillabaisse and rouille from l’Epuisette in Marseille, which Alexander Lobrano says is the best…… He also gives three places in the Auvergne for aligot – Chez Germaine, Le Buron du Bes + Michel Bras and a recipe.

May’s Conde Nast Traveler lists 95 “hot tables” that includes Paris restos - La Cantine de Quentin, Le Chateaubriand, Les Ombres, Les Petits Freres + Spring, l’Atelier de Jean Luc Rabanel in Arles and the Restaurant at the Benkira in St Tropez.

Please post comments here and not in the Digest thread.

[John Talbott]

The Week of April 30th, 2007

Saturday, Francois Simon’s “Croque Notes” in Le Figaro concerned itself with Christophe Cadieu in Saint-Savin (Vienne) where he ate what the chef called mere country food which was terrific, despite two boorish Parisians.

Monday, in Le Fooding Sebastien Demorand wrote up Le Bourg in Chaintré.

Monday/Tuesday in A Nous Paris, Philippe Toinard gave two/five blocks to Rest’o Cocotte, 61, rue Fessart in Boulogne-Billancourt, 0148.25.31.78, menu at lunch 16, menu-carte 39 €, that was “not his cup of tea,” being a bit simplistic and lacking pizzazz {my trans.}; meanwhile Jerome Berger reviewed and also gave two/five blocks to Da Vincenzo Cozzoli au Pavillon Puebla coordinates given before, that serves Italian food not up to the level of other places.

Tuesday, l’Express printed its usual three reviews: François-Régis Gaudry reviewed Cheribibi, coordinates given before and calls the food there fatally “Bobocratique;” Pierrick Jegu reviewed Ribouldingue, where after just a year, the owner has turned over the piano to a 24-year old, ex-Helene Darroze by the name of Sarah Baraudon, who prepares the same dishes as before and appears to be “promising;” and Marie-Amal Bizalion reviewed Les Akolytes in Marseille.

Richard Hesse in this week’s Paris Update went to another established place, Ze Kitchen Galerie where he loved his first and dessert but was less impressed by the main.

Wednesday in Figaroscope, Emmanuel Rubin awarded two hearts to two restos: the fish-place Le Winch {twice misspelled Wynch}, coordinates and my review upthread serving a “not very incisive" tartare of salmon with wasabi, a good piece of mackerel and a tajine-like plate of dorade as well as another place {I reviewed recently} Le Bistrot de l’Alycastre, coordinates also given before, serving well-carried out scallops and risotto and roasted mango. One heart each went to the pizzeria Gambino in the 1st and the banal Indian place The Party in the 3rd. Finally he gave a busted heart to Acaba d’Entrar in the 2nd.

Figaroscope’s “Dossier” this week covered places where you make your meal yourself:

Make a salad

Jour

Choose a cocktail

Wanna Juice

Cook a meal

Wok

Garnish a sandwich

Cosi, Eigi, Watt + Wokbar

Mix up a bibimbap

Samin

Cook a bulgogi

Samo

Prepare a tartare

No Stress Cafe

Make a spring roll

Le Refectoire

Learn how to cook dishes

l’Atelier des chefs

Take your meal out

Kit a bien manger, Premiere Etoile + Les Dines de Berenice

Help yourself

Cave a l’Os a moelle

Francois Simon, in his Haché menu sticks to the theme, of the “Dossier” sort-of, by going to Spoon, coordinates given already, where you pick your own preparations and sauces and thinks you should go, despite the price (156.60 € for two without alcohol).

This Saturday, Francois Simon’s “Croque Notes” was entitled Nantes and its paradoxes. He talks of three different experiences, one, eating industrial soul-less food in a cafeteria in a mall, the second, eating supposedly sophisticated food that didn’t work in a gastronomic restaurant la Maison Baron Lefèvre and the third (the only place he recommends you go for splendid meal) a gourmet bistro - le Relais d’Orvault.

Wednesday-Thursday, Jean Claude Ribaut wrote an article in Le Monde on the grandeur of small places citing Au Petit Bar, Baribal, L'Olivier, Le Marsangy, Lou Pescadou, L'Ami Georges, Le Colibri, Les Glaneurs + Polidor as his principal examples but also le Temps au temps, le Bistrot Bourdelle + l'Assignat .

In this weekend’s Figaro Madame, Alexandra Michot had two articles about flavoring olive oil with essences of say, basil, as Frederic Poitou does as are mentioned in a new book – Cuisiner avec les huiles essentielles et les eaux florales, Valérie et Emmanuel Curpillard, éditions La Plage.

Saturday/Sunday, BP published an article by Margaret Kemp on Pic and one by John Talbott on Eating in groups.

Sunday, the JDD featured chef Nicolas Masse from Saint Jean de Luz’s choices for places in Paris for under 35 €: l’Angl’Opera + le Refectoire. In addition, Astrid T’Serclaes reviewed M Comme Martine, {ironically, where I had eaten the day before, where she saw/ate more Italian items than I did. I’ll be posting the review soon.}

May’s Where has several recommendations by Alexander Lobrano, the Royal Madeleine, Saut de Loup, Café M + Pre Catalan.

Please post comments here and not in the Digest thread.

[John Talbott]

The Week of May 7th, 2007

Sunday April 29th, in the NYT, Kim Severson had an article on tartiflette in and around Annecy that mentioned: Le Freti, La Ferme de la Charbonniere + le Chalet la Pricaz.

Monday, in Le Fooding Johanna Kaufmann wrote up Oncle Georges in Pfettisheim.

Richard Hesse in Tuesday’s Paris Update very enthusiastically reviewed the 8-month old Pramil, 9, rue du Vertbois in the 3rd, 01 42 72 03 60, which he says serves the old “Les Halles” favorites and they had the calf’s foot, cauliflower cake, lamb stew, strawberries and figs. {While I liked my meal here in November, I went right at the time I was blown away by that at Spring, and I probably should return.}

Monday/Tuesday in A Nous Paris, Jerome Berger gave 3/5 blocks to an Italian snacking place La Salumeria in the 9th but his colleague Philippe Toinard only gave 2/5 to l’Agassin, coordinates given before, in the 7th, where the chef Andre Le Letty, ex of Anacreon disappointed him with food too heavy for the season, including sauces that overwhelmed or drowned products.

Tuesday, l’Express printed its usual three reviews: François-Régis Gaudry reviewed La Salumeria, an off-shoot of La Pizzetta in the 9th; Marie-Amal Bizalion reviewed La Sardine de Marseille in Marseille; and Pierrick Jegu reviewed l’Ordonnance , 51, rue Hallé, in the 14th, 01-43-27-55-85, two courses cost 23 €, three = 29 €, closed Saturday lunch and Sundays, which has a real old bistrot look and serves seasonal fare such as rabbit terrine, sautéed tuna and strawberries with mascarpone.

Tuesday the WSJ had an article/box on Dijon suggesting one eat at Au Bon Pantagruel.

Wednesday in Figaroscope, Emmanuel Rubin did one of the most interesting things I’ve seen in a long time; he reviewed two restos on two floors of the same place – Hanawa, 26, rue Bayard in the 8th, 01.56.62.70.70, open everyday. In the basement is Hanawa Teppanyaki, (teppanyaki meaning broiled on a steel grill) to which he awarded two hearts for fare such as meat, veggies and fish cooked facing one for 80-100 € but a busted heart to its upstairs sibling, plain old Hanawa, that serves Japanese omelets, sushi at indecent prices and a moelleux of chocolate (which they had no more of despite taking his order) for 50-60 € a person. Two straight hearts went to Chez Leon, 40 rue Legendre in the 17th (the address rings a bell because it’s the street on which the Table de Lucullus sat) 01.42.27.06.82, closed weekends, with a new team serving 24 and 32 lunch menus and 28 and 34 diner ones, a la carte 35 € for cod, veal kidneys and Paris-Brests. One heart each also went to Xylo, allee de la Grande Gerbe in the St Cloud park, 01.46.89.79.06, closed Sundays serving light fare such as Caesar salad, a salmon snack and tart on week-day lunch menus for 24 and 30 €, a la carte 30-35 €; and one heart to the Bistro de la Muette, 10, chaussee de la Muette in the 16th, 01.45.03.14.84, open everyday, lunch menu at 24.50, menu at 34 €, serving half-cooked duck foie gras, lobster raviolis and millefeuille.

Figaroscope’s “Dossier” this week covered places with new decors that they categorized as:

Dazzling

Brasserie du Printemps

Fantastic

Chez Ozu

Vintage

Chez Unico

Barococo-Surrealistic

A l’Eclaireur

Glitter

Chez Rich

Very black

Au Black Calvados

Very designery

Au Saut de Loup

And also : Cristal Room Baccarat, Les Ombres + Apicius

{But I had trouble seeing how Francois Simon fit in because the décor is unchanged at his} Haché menu place this week - Chez Rene, coordinates given already, where you should only go if you live nearby.

Jean Clause Ribaut in an article Wednesday-Thursday in Le Monde talked of the spring bounty, esp of asparagus and petit pois; giving some historical quotes and context, recipes and preparations from the big guys (eg at Passiflore, Guy Savoy, Vong, Mori + Lasserre) and current thoughts (good petit pois are hard to come by and expensive – “rares et chers”).

Friday, timed to coincide with the Film Festival in Cannes, Jean Louis Galesne reviewed several places there: La Palme d'or, Le Restaurant arménien, l’Hôtel de Mougins + Le Cigalon.

Friday as well, Vincent Noce in Liberation had an article on asparagus and its preparation, especially at L'Atelier de Jöel Robuchon, Le Macéo + Daniel.

Saturday/Sunday, BP published an article by Margaret Kemp on Ledoyen and one by John Talbott on "The Politics of Food."

Rosa Jackson, in “Paris Bites” in Paris Notes wrote up the Bistrot Paul Bert generally liking it, albeit some dishes lacked punch and La Ferme des Mathurins, which again was not quite on the simplicity target but was “passionate.”

Adrian Moore in GoGo Paris loved d’Chez Eux in the 7th.

Nick Lander wrote this weekend about several places one should cross town to eat at: le Meurice, Rech, Cameleon + Le Parc aux Cerfs.

The monthly Optimum had a series of brief notes about new places in town, coordinates given before unless specified:

Yes Breizh Café

Yes, Yes Les Akolytes

In spite of Cheribibi

But yes La Pavillion Puebla

See l’Oriental

Why not? Le Bistrot des Faubourgs

Whatever Serafina

Whatever again Café Lumiere

Surely not Les Grandes Marches

Never Love

The freebie Voyages d’Affaires for April May wrote up three places for business travelers l’Arome, Le Saut de Loup + Le Rich.

Please post comments here and not in the Digest thread.

[John Talbott]

The Week of May 14th, 2007

Monday, in Le Fooding Elvira Masson wrote about a new bookstore La Cocotte, 5 rue Paul Bert in the 11th that carries a lot of cookbooks.

Tuesday, GoGoParis had an article about the new cookbook written by Rose Carrarini of Rose Bakery in the 9th – the English version is by Phaidon and called Breakfast, Lunch, Tea: The Many Little Meals of Rose Bakery $26.99; the French version released this week is by Relié and called Breakfast, Lunch, Tea: Rose Bakery 28.45 €.

Also Tuesday, in A Nous Paris, Philippe Toinard gave 3/5 blocks to l’Entrepot, 7-9, rue Francis de Pressense in the 14th, 01.45.40.07.50, menu 14.50 € for oeuf cocotte, veal liver and coffee éclairs in a setting that also contains a cinema, conference space, exhibitions and music. And, Jerome Berger gave 3/5 blocks to another film-type place, a wine bar, the Bar a Vins du Cinema des Cineastes, 7, ave de Clichy in the 17th, 01.53.42.40.34, closed Mondays and at lunch, where for about 20 € one gets Alleosse cheese, strawberries and a glass of wine before or after a film.

Wednesday for the opening of the Cannes Film Festival, Francois Simon wrote an article saying that for two weeks, one’s head would be in even but one’s stomach in hell; that film and food didn’t make a good couple and that he awaited fall. Then, he and Alexandra Michot suggested restaurants there that included:Le Fouquet’s, Grand Hôtel, Sens, Felix, La Palme d’Or, Le Restaurant Arménien, L’Hôtel de Mougins, Jacques Maximin + La Trattoria Niçoise de Giuseppe. Two other box/articles by the same authors deal with fatal errors one can make in Cannes and eating snacks on private beaches.

Also, Wednesday in Figaroscope, Emmanuel Rubin reviewed the usual five places. He gave two hearts each to an Italian “snacking” place Bastide Blanche in the 8th and the traditional brasserie La Gitane, coordinates well known, which has recently been taken over and serves eggs mayo, steak/frites and baba for about 40-50 €. One heart each went to another Italian place La Salumeria in the 9th, a Thai place Suan Thai in the 4th and Café Medicis located in the Luxembourg Museum, 19 rue du Vaugirard in the 6th, 01.42.34.37.99 closed weekends, with 19 and 24 menus, a la carte 20-35 €, serving light fare such as tomatoes and mozzarella, club sandwiches with smoked salmon and crab raviolis.

Figaroscope’s “Dossier” this week covered places serving steak and fries and ranked 25 thus (not all rankings are listed):

1. Le Voltaire

2. Severo

3. Unico

4. Bistrot Paul Bert

5. Chez Georges

Les Gourmets des Ternes

La Maison de l’Aubrac

La Bourse ou la vie

Meating

Au Bœuf Coronne

Le Relais de l’entrecote

La Tour L

Chez Savy

Le Petit Vendome

Cafe du Commerce

Le Piece de bœuf

Vin sobre

Devez

Le Roy

Hippopotamus

Le Galvacher

L’Opportun

Boucherie rouliere

Le Louchebem

25. Buffalo Grill

Francois Simon’s Haché menu reviewed Le Gavroche, in the 2nd where he said the price is too much because the food’s not good and advises we readers not to go.

Wednesday-Thursday in Le Monde, Jean Claude Ribaut wrote an laudatory article about Gaël Orieux and Auguste, coordinates well known.

Tuesday, l’Express printed its usual three reviews: François-Régis Gaudry reviewed La Reserve + La Tavola populare in Nice and Les Baccachanales in Tourrettes-sur-Loup.

Vincent Noce, in Friday’s Liberation has an article on vegetable ingrediented patisseries, giving as examples: Pierre Herme’s cake with tomatoes and mascarpone with black olives, Arpege’s macaroons with carrots or turnips and a series of new desserts made with petits pois, leeks, parsnips or new garlic, Pierre Gagnaire’s artichoke pralines, Le Grand Vefour’s mille-feuille of strawberries, tomatoes and herbs and thistled Italianate things – well the list goes on with dishes such as avocado soufflés and uses of peppers, eggplant, Jerusalem artichokes, etc.

Saturday, in Francois Simon’s Croque Notes he discussed Issautier in Saint-Martin-du-Var near Nice. And Alexandra Michot in Figaro Madame wrote of Jouni Tormanen at the Réserve and Mauro Colagreco at the Mirazur.

Saturday/Sunday, BP published an article by Margaret Kemp on Where the chefs eat in Cannes and one by John Talbott on "Stealing Food."

Edited 20 minutes later by John Talbott to include A Nous Paris paragraph.

Please post comments here and not in the Digest thread.

Edited June 16, 2007 by John Talbott (log)

[John Talbott]

The Week of May 21st, 2007

I missed picking up an article in Le Figaro last week by Gaëlle Rolin on vacation chocolates that are fresh and light and filled with fruit, available at the Maison du Chocolat.

Monday in Le Fooding, Elvira Masson reviewed Le Grand Pan, 20 rue Rozenwald in the 15th, 01 42 50 02 50, closed Saturday lunch and Sundays, lunch a la carte 28 but at dinner there are no entrees and the mains are about 46 € for two (like a cote de boeuf or pork) and desserts are 7. It was recently opened by Christian Etchebest, current chef at Le Troquet and his former second, Benoît Gauthier, and named after a 1964 Georges Brassens song. It serves things such as a cold creamy soup of white beans with balsamic and chorizo, veggies with pistou, saddle of lamb, “super” pork cheeks in red wine with sliced foie gras as well as a liter of Cahors at 13 €.

Monday/Tuesday in A Nous Paris, they did a “Best Of The Year” list that included:

Astier – 100% bistrot, 100% Parisian

l’Orangerie Michel del Burgo – Return of the Great One

Le Rich – Place your bets

l’Ambre d’Or – East Parisian Gourmet

Spring – Like home

Taeko – Inexpensive

Urbane – Instantly urban

35º Ouest – A good wind

La Tradition – Gourmet Bistrot

Tuesday, the WSJ’s “Off the Beaten Track” column suggested restaurants in Deauville/Trouville that included; Le Ciro’s, Le Café de Paris + La Moulerie.

Tuesday, l’Express printed a special issue on wine.

Wednesday, GoGo Paris positively reviewed Cheri bibi coordinates already given.

Wednesday in Figaroscope, Emmanuel Rubin reviewed and gave three hearts to Le Grand Pan, coordinates above, serving salmon/haddock tartare, cote de veau and rice pudding. Two hearts went to l’Ordonnance, in the 14th, coordinates also above, where he had a rabbit terrine and duck on mashed potatoes and goose foie gras. One heart each went to l’Agassin, coordinates given before, where he had a not in season soup of radish and morteau sausage, rascasse and plum clafoutis + Natasha, 17 bis, rue Campagne-Premiere in the 14th, 01.43.20.79.27, closed Sundays and Mondays with 19 and 26 € menus at lunch and a la carte 35-40 € for cheese and potato cake, hachis parmentier Natasha and old school feuillete of pigeon and spinch. A busted heart went to Louis 2 in the Hotel La Tremoille in the 8th where a pricey meal (50-70 €) consisted of vitello tomato, chicken breast and over-cooked lamb.

Figaroscope’s “Dossier” this week covered places to go for a bite with an apero:

The more recent ones

Le 1515

Almodobar

Bastide Blanche

Cesar

Kube Hotel

Le Raj’

Urbietorbi

Tarmac

S’Agaro

La Salumeria

Blabla

Several oldies

Le Café du Pasaje

Maison de la Catalogne

Cave a l’Os a Moelle

J’Go

Bar Le Passage

Andy Whaloo

Da Rosa

Les Voisins

Wednesday, cutting to the chase Francois Simon’s Haché menu reviewed Ferdi, in the 1st – bottom line, “Don’t Go!”

Wednesday, Richard Hesse in Paris Update discovered l’Ebauchoir in the 12th.

Wednesday-Thursday in Le Monde, Jean Claude Ribaut wrote an article about Salvatore Tassa and Il Settimo, in the 7th.

Friday, Jean Louis Galesne wrote about flavors in Istanbul.

Saturday/Sunday, BP published an article by Margaret Kemp on Les Crayeres and one by John Talbott on "Simple, Good, Honest Food."

In the weekend FT, Jancis Robinson comments positively on the 2005 French reds and 2006 French whites, now appearing in the markets.

Please post comments here and not in the Digest thread.

[John Talbott]

The Week of May 28th, 2007

Monday, Alexandra Michot wrote an article about the popularity of ice cream with a photo of a rum/ginger/piment one.

In this Monday’s Le Fooding they published two announcements: that on June 7th Nouvel Obs will publish a special edition called “Guide Fooding Vacances 2007 and that there will be a special fooding event June 3rd in Toulouse.

This week’s A Nous Paris had a{nother} great review of Le Grand Pan, coordinates given before, where Jerome Berger gave it 4/5 blocks for the enormous cote de pork, veal and beef (all for two) and wines about 15 € a liter. His colleague Philippe Toinard gave only 2/5 blocks to Meli, 9 rue des Acacias in the 17th, 01.44.09.99.99, closed Saturday lunch and Sundays, running one about 35 € for lots of nice sounding vegetables and fish on a carte emphasizing fresh spring products but whose results are mixed.

Tuesday, l’Express printed just one review by François-Régis Gaudry of Le Grand Pan, an off-shoot of Le Troquet in the 15th, coordinates given before, where the 27 year old chef served impressive portions of lobster and cote de boeuf but the welcome was wanting.

Wednesday in Figaroscope, Emmanuel Rubin reviewed and gave two hearts to three places – the Café Very, in the Tuileries Gardens in the 1st, 01.47.03.94.84, where for 25-40 € one can have Gilles Choukroun l’Angl’Opera-inspired lighter fare such as crunchy asparagus, spring rolls and a melon milk-shake with desserts from Pierre Herme; the refurbished Fontaine de Mars, coordinates well known, where for 50-60 € he had the leeks, filet of beef with béarnaise sauce and frites and fraises des bois with Chantilly; and the Lebanese Chez Madeleine in Boulogne-Billancourt. One heart each went to Monjul, 28, rue des Blancs-Manteaux in the 4th, 01.42.74.40.15, closed Sunday dinner and Monday lunch, with lunch menus at 14 and 18, Sunday brunch at 19 and a la carte 30 €, where he describes the food as between mincing and amateurish and the second coming of C Nature, 122, rue La Boetie in the 8th, 01.58.36.16.36, closed weekends, running one 10-15 € for “working food”, eg sandwiches, soups and salads.

Figaroscope’s “Dossier” this week gave yet another bunch of places with terraces:

Very bluffing

Saut du Loup

Bucolic

Pavillon Puebla

Confidential

Café Medicis

Historic

la Guirlande de Julie

Very Neuilly-Auteuil-Passy, {rather than, according to Pti, not Very new African poets, that the Google gives one}

Bistro de la Muette

Gastronomic

Sens

Montmartre

Moulin de la Galette

Wednesday, once again, Francois Simon’s Haché menu destroys a place, in this case the Hotel de Sers, in the 8th where he says it was horribly expensive (178 € for two and two small Chateldon’s were 16 €) and so long as you aren’t hungry it’s OK to go.

Wednesday, Florence Fabricant in an article in the NYT gave a nice reference to eG member David Liebowitz’s new book “The Perfect Scoop.”

Wednesday, as well, Richard Hesse in Paris Update wrote up the Greek place Kazaphani in the 11th.

Wednesday-Thursday in Le Monde, Jean Claude Ribaut wrote an article about the products from the Vaucluse, esp Cavaillon melon, cherries, truffles, asparagus and dried fruit as well as Mont Ventoux wines. He also mentions places to eat including: Christian Etienne, l'Auberge de la Fenière, La Bastide de Capelongue, le Grand Pré, and Le Pré du Moulin, all of which use fresh local products.

Saturday, the whole page in the Figaro was taken up with Francois Simon’s 10 day trip to Japan where he ate in 16 starred restos affiliated with European, largely French chefs. What would interest you? Well, there are 2-hour waits for Jean-Paul Hevin’s hot chocolate and Bocuse’s tables; additions come to 1,200 € for two; and that after the terroir, it’s just marketing. Simon also tells one where to go in Paris for Japanese food: Isami + Higuma for sushi and Toraya for tea.

Saturday/Sunday, BP published an article by Margaret Kemp on “Monte Carlo Bay and Resort” and one by John Talbott on "Eating Ethnic in Paris."

Sunday, in the JDD, Astrid d’Serclaes reported on a new place: Food and Beverage, 14, rue Charlot in the 3rd, 01.42.78.02.31, formula = 25 €, chef’d by an ex from the Starke empire, specifically Bon 1, where she liked her tartare of tuna but found her bass with confited fennel drowned in oil as was a plate of grilled veggies with olive oil – a good and healthy idea but too much. She also ate well, albeit lightly at the Café Medicis at the Luxembourg Museum, coordinates given before, and liked the painter-named chic snacks for 25 €. Gael Orieux, of Auguste in the 7th, picked as his two restos under 35 €; Le Boulanger des Invalides Jocteur at 14, ave de Villars in the 7th, formula = 7 € for quiche, etc and the Italian Le Palinuro in the 9th. JDD also reported the publication of an interesting-sounding book Les papas chefs se mettent a table, Stephane Brasca, editions de l’air, 60 pps, 19 € that features 42 cook/fathers, including Inaki Aizpitarte (Chateaubriand etc) and Yves Camdeborde (Comptoir).

Please post comments here and not in the Digest thread.

Edited to correct typo.

Edited June 4, 2007 by John Talbott (log)

[John Talbott]

The Week of June 4th, 2007

Sunday’s NYT book review had an article by Amanda Hessler on what cookbooks to read this summer and Number #1 was our France Forum contributor and eGullet member Clotilde Dusoulier’s “Chocolate and Zucchini,” Broadway, paper $18.75.

In this Monday’s Le Fooding they published the announcements about the June 10th Fooding event in Paris.

Monday-Tuesday, A Nous Paris had a review by Philippe Toinard who awarded 3/5 blocks to the revived (modernized, lightened and softened) La Marlotte, coordinates in the guidebooks, by Gilles Ajuelos of the Bastide Odeon and Benoit Joseph Dulieu of the R Café; lunch menu 23 €; he liked the vichyssoise with crab, haddock and fondant au chocolat; and Jerome Berger also gave 3/5 to the revived and Basque-fied (by “Titou” and Philippe, a chef from Pere Claude) - Le Volant, 13, rue Beatrix-Dussane in the 15th, 01.45.75.27.67, closed Mondays, lunch menu 21 and dinner 28 €; he mentions the gazpacho, lomo of pork, axoa and strawberry tart.

Tuesday, l’Express printed three reviews: François-Régis Gaudry did Sens, a Pourcel off-shoot in Levellois-Perret, coordinates given before, Pierrick Jégu reviewed the ultimately-Southwest Basquese Le Volant, in the 15th, coordinates above, where he had traditional dishes such as rabbit terrine, steak, axoa and strawberry tart, and Andrea Petrini reviewed Le Bistrot Blanc in Clermont-Ferrand.

Wednesday in Figaroscope, Emmanuel Rubin reviewed and gave the lead and photo but only one heart and the title “Between nothing and the ‘look’” to Helene Darroze’s new Southwestern venture Toustem, 12, rue de l’Hotel Colbert in the 5th, 01.40.51.99.87, closed for Saturday lunch and Sundays, costing one 50 € for tete de veau terrine, cassolette and vacherin with strawberries; versus two hearts to l’Escapade Mere Grand, 68 bis, ave Jean Moulin in the 14th, 01.45.42.02.02, closed Sundays with a lunch menu for 15 and a la carte about 40 €. There re two other one-hearters: the Italianate Romantica Café in the 7th and Le Bistrot de Laurent in Boulogne. Finally, he awarded a broken plate to the two-story brasserie Le Meli in the 17th serving screwed-up/muddled/mixed-up/fusion food.

Figaroscope’s “Dossier” this week published a list of places serving fruits and vegetables :

5 fruits-5 vegetables

Maison Blanche

100% bio

Phyto Bar + Crudus

Vegetable menu

Le Transversal

Entirely steamed

Vapeur Gourmande

Vegetarian menu

Maceo

Daily market

Supernature

Crudities

Mi Va Mi

Veg dip and salads

C Nature

And for more vitamins – l’Ampere, Wanna Juice, Biotifull Place, Lood Juice Bar, Bioboa, Bob’s Juice Bar + Pousse-Pousse.

And Wednesday, going along, Francois Simon’s Haché menu reviews Rue Balzac, coordinates in the guide, where for ½ portions of langoustines, pastas and apple with zabaglione he got an XL check for 149.50 €, including famous wines by the glass for 13 € each, so the conclusion on whether to go is ‘Bah…”

Wednesday, Mark Bittman in the NYT wrote an article about Patricia Wells, which is largely a promo for her new book “Vegetable Harvest,” already mentioned here and in the NYT.

Wednesday-Thursday in Le Monde, Jean Claude Ribaut wrote an article about cognac, rum and whiskey but especially single malts.

In Saturday-Sunday’s Le Figaro, Francois Simon’s “Croque Notes” article gave a glowing account of Jean Marie Amat’s new resto in Lormont outside Bordeaux. In addition, the section’s cover story was on {of all things} Haagen-Dazs.

Saturday/Sunday, BP published an article by Margaret Kemp on “Chic et Pas Cher” and one by John Talbott on "Bocuse, Marriages and Food Pleasure."

The June “Paris Notes” contains in Rosa Jackson’s “Paris Bites” a nice and long review of Spring and a shorter one on the new look at the Violin d’Ingres.

In this month’s WHERE, Alexander Lobrano’s three French picks were Le Galvacher, Rech, Sensing + Le Quinzieme.

Please post comments here and not in the Digest thread.

[John Talbott]

The Week of June 11th, 2007

I was so impressed by

Sunday’s NYT book review [that] had an article by Amanda Hessler on what cookbooks to read this summer and Number #1 was our France Forum contributor and eGullet member Clotilde Dusoulier’s “Chocolate and Zucchini,” Broadway, paper $18.75

that I neglected to read further to two other books mentioned that may be of interest to members: Georgeanne Brennan’s A Pig in Provence: Good Food and simple pleasures in the South of France, Chronicle, $24.95 recommended by Pamela Paul and Thomas McNamee’s Alice Waters and Chez Panisse: The Romantic, Impractical, Often Eccentric, Ultimately Brilliant Making of a Food Revolution, Penguin, $27.95 where Patric Kuh mentions Waters’ first day in Paris in 1965 where a simple vegetable soup represented an “awakening” for her.

In this Monday’s Le Fooding they published the announcements about the June 17th Le Fooding event in Marseille.

Monday-Tuesday, A Nous Paris, courtesy of Phyllis, had one review by Philippe Toinard, who awarded 4/5 blocks to the revived/moved Au Gourmand, 17, rue Moliere in the 1st, 01.42.96.22.19, closed Saturday lunch and Sundays, with menus at 28 to 36 €, where he mentioned the sorrel and turnip “cappuccino,” (vegetables are from Joel Thibault), chunk of cod and all chocolate dessert; and one by Jerome Berger, awarding three/four blocks to l’Ordonnance, 51, rue Halle in the 14th, 01.43.27.55.85, closed Sundays, menus at 23 and 29 €, where he mentions the snails, pig’s feet, veal sweetbreads and rhubarb compote. They also talk about the reopening of the Café Very in the Tuileries, serving light fare and two wine stores: Le Carton de Six in the 18th and Le Vin en Tete bis in the 9th, both offering tastings.

Tuesday, l’Express just in time for the Avignon Festival, printed François-Régis Gaudry’s review of Le Prieure in Villeneuve-lès-Avignon {which I can vouch for, having eaten there last year} and in Paris : Pierrick Jégu reviewed l’Agassin, coordinates on Rue Malar given before (NB rue Malar is now restaurant row with l'Ami Jean, l'Affriolé, l'Agassin) run by the « ex-boss de l'Anacréon », where he enjoyed bistro fare, made from impeccable products, (served in the slow food manner, in shoulder-to-shoulder quarters), such as marinated sardines, veal kidneys stuffed with green cabbage and mascarpone with hibiscus jelly; and Jean-Yves Hubscher reviewed the Italian Veramente in the 7th.

Wednesday, Richard Hesse of Paris Update reviewed La Bellevilloise, 19-21 rue Boyer in the 20th, 01 46 36 07 07, terrace open Wednesday-Friday dinners and weekends all day, a la carte about 30 €. He found the food wanting; the brik over-couscoused, steak miscooked, “nondescript gravy,” and veggies thrown “unceremoniously” atop every dish.

Wednesday, as well, in Figaroscope, Emmanuel Rubin reviewed three places and awarded them two hearts that are either moved or revived: Karl & Erick, the exLes Jumeaux-twins, now at 20, rue de Toqueville in the 17th, 01.42.27.03.71, closed Saturday lunch and Sundays, for about 35-45 € serving a foie gras tart, white asparagus, cuttlefish and mousse; Au Gourmand ex from near the Luxembourg Gardens, now at 17, rue Moliere in the 1st, 01.42.96.22.19, closed Sundays and Mondays, serving an inspired 30 € all veggie menu as well as a 36 € menu-carte for sorrel soup, green gratineed asparagus and a French-toast-like brioche with cherries; and Le Volant, 13 rue Beatrix Dussane in the 15th, 01.45.75.27.67, closed Sundays and Mondays, serving a lunch menu at 21, diner at 28 and a la carte 35 € for gazpacho (badly marred by creamy goat cheese), Basque sausage and axoa. Then, he awarded one heart each to the Indian Kamala Inde in the 15th and La Place Royale, exCoconnas, 2 bis, place des Vosges in the 4th, 01.42.78.58.16, open everyday where there’s a 14 formula and a la carte 35 € menu with avocado-shrimp cocktail, farm-raised chicken and tarte tatin.

Figaroscope’s “Dossier” this week published a list of places at the gates of Paris :

St Cloud

l’Heureux Pere

le Xylo

Suresnes

Au Pere Lapin

Montreuil

Villa 9 Trois

Clichy

La Romantica

Bagnolet

Indigo Square

Issy Les Moulineaux

River Cafe

Levallois

O Restaurant

Meudon

l’Escarbille

And also – Transversal, Au Comte de Gascogne, l’Ile, Le Petit Poucet, Cazaudehore, le Tastevin + Les Magnolias.

And Wednesday, going outside Paris as well, Francois Simon’s Haché menu reviews l’Ambre d’Or, coordinates given before, where despite the 32 € lunch menu, he spent 200 at dinner for two which he found excessive and while he wouldn’t go back, he recommends the locals check it out for a second visit.

Since this is an Anglo society I’m not sure how many readers/members are into BarBQuing in France, but on the off-chance, Lucile Escourrou in Figaro Madame announced the availability of a bunch of 110 gram tubes (5 € each) of aromatic salty and sugary sauces, marinades and mustards made by Tubissimes (more info at 01.40.23.52.25) as well as a cookbook: Toute ma cuisine au barbecue, Martine Albertin, Les Editions Culinaires, 2007, 18 €. She also announced the publication of the third issue of Gusto a polyglot food mag costing 10 € a pop; more info here.

Friday, in Liberation, Vincent Noce wrote of the renaissance of the bistro Lena et Mimile 32, rue Tournefort in the 5th, 01 47 07 72 47, closed Sundays and Mondays, plat du jour at 9,50 €, dinner menu at 34 €, where Herve This consults on such dishes as an eggplant mousseline, gaspacho, dorade with veggies by Joel Thibault, scallops, veal kidneys and a bavarois of cucumber and raspberry vinaigrette.

Friday in Les Echos, Jean Louis Galesne wrote about new terraces including: the Café Véry/Tuileries, Mini Palaisau/Petit Palais, L'Hôtel, La Fontaine de Mars, Chez Om' Zaki + La Cour de marbre/Hôtel Four Seasons George V.

In the weekend FT, Nicolas Lander wrote of eating tête de veau at the Le Coq de La Maison Blanche in St Ouen which every Wednesday serves it. His host, Pierre Rival of FT + Les Echos and President of the Tête de Veau Society {you just knew there was one} had just published a new novel Alimentation Générale Flammarion, 14 € and he was celebrating with the likes of Lander and Jean Claude Ribaut of Le Monde.

The weekend Figaro Madame had an article by Alexandra Michot on high end bento/lunch/picnic boxes.

Saturday/Sunday, BP published an article by Margaret Kemp on “The Great British Menu” and one by John Talbott on "My Dinner at Chez’s."

In this month’s Food & Wine Jane Sigal says one should go to: 21, Le Saut de Loup, Le Versance, l’Orenoc, Rech, Astier, Soleil + Spring and that the “hot spot” is Sensing. In addition, Salma Abdelnour suggests Les Saveurs de Flora aka Flora for a “surprise” menu.

July’s France Magazine had an article on cruises that mentioned the following on the Cote d’Azur: Le Palais des Anglais, Le Beau Rivage, La Civette du Cours + L’Escalinada in Nice and Le Grill + Monte Carlo Casino in Monte Carlo as well as one on St Pierre & Miquelon’s Restaurant de l’Auberge Quatre Temps + Chez Janot.

Please post comments here and not in the Digest thread.

[John Talbott]

The Week of June 18th, 2007

Monday, in Le Fooding, there was an article about the June 24 Le Fooding event to Lyon.

Monday-Tuesday, A Nous Paris, courtesy of Phyllis, had two 3/5 block reviews; the first by Philippe Toinard, was of l’Escapade Mere-Grand, 68 bis, ave Jean Moulin in the 14th, 01.45.42.02.02, lunch formula at 15 €, closed Saturday lunch and Sundays; the fish, meat, vegetable and fruits’ purveyors’/sources are all identified but it’s not clear from his description of the lentil soup, foie gras, carrot soup and veal scallop, what he actually ate or saw go by and how he appraised the dishes, and the second, by Jerome Berger, of the Fontaine de Mars, coordinates well-known, where he starts by questioning whether the check starting at 50 € is merited or driven by its classy Constant neighbors and goes on the relate that the best part was the baba but that the thick piece of fish and tete de veau were OK too (in the summary he states one should count on 65 € a la carte, noting that it’s open every day, that is weekends as well.)

Tuesday, l’Express printed its usual three reviews: the first by François-Régis Gaudry of the Cristal de Sel, 13, rue Mademoiselle in the 15th, 01-42-50-35-29 where there is no menu and the carte runs one between 30 (if one slaloms down the chalkboard) to 80 € (if one schusses), closed Sundays and Mondays, where Karil Lopez, the ex-second/etc. to Eric Frechon at the Bristol for five years, serves food that he describes as like a Maserati engine on top of a Twingo chassis, that is, while there are simple things (charcuteries from the Camdeborde family, sardines, a mushroom omelet and a cote de boeuf) it’s largely and divinely Escoffier-era buttered raviolis, veal scallop, langoustines, crepes, etc; meanwhile Yves Nespoulous reviewed the Viet Namese place Entre 2 Rives, in the 2nd, and Pierrick Jégu reviewed La Marine in Noirmoutier.

Wednesday, Richard Hesse in Paris Update reviewed La Maison du Jardin, coordinates in the guidebooks, where despite a chilly reception by the waitress, he was wowed by the carpaccio of tuna, pastilla and cheese.

Wednesday, as well, in Figaroscope, Emmanuel Rubin found only one place meriting two hearts: an archetypal neo-bistrot run by two exBristol folk, the Cristal de Sel, 13, rue Mademoiselle in the 15th, 01.42.50.35.29, closed Sundays, that costs one 35-40 € for fare such as charcuteries, a casserole of veggies, chicken stock and parmesan and wiener schnitzel with capers; then he rated three places with one heart only: Chez Julien, 1 rue du Pont Louis Philippe in the 4th, 01.42.78.31.64, closed Saturday lunch and Sundays, which has been taken over by the Costes and still is a beautiful 1900 bistro on appearance, serving ham and melon and veal chops for about 35-40 €; the Italian Caffe Vito in the 4th; and the French menu at lunch (12 €) serving and Cameroon carte (35-40 €) at dinner serving Le Balafon in the 10th; and finally a busted heart to l’Auberge Montparnasse, 124 bvd du Montparnasse in the 14th, 01.56.54.01.55, open everyday, regretfully {I agree} replacing l’O a la Bouche with a meat-oriented brasserie, not unlike a train station buffet, serving a goat cheese salad and a brochette of beef with fries for 30-35 €.

Figaroscope’s “Dossier” this week was devoted to all things picnicky:

Where to go

Every city place is now supposed to be fair game, but they recommend the Monsouris Park, Bois de Boulogne, Passerelle des Arts, Villemin Garden and Champ de Mars but not the Palais Royal for sitting.

How to equip yourself

Apparently the swankest stuff comes from Le Cèdre Rouge du Prince Jardinier, 116, rue du Bac in the 7th, T : 01 42 84 84 00 and website

And Sonia Ezgulian, Lyonnaise chef and author, teaches picnic cooking classes : here

Where to get food

La Cave de l’Os a Moelle

l’Avant-Gout

Chez Michel

Astier

Le Fitout, 23 ave Simon Bolivar in the 19th, 01.42.08.07.09

Where to shop

Kit a Bien Manger

Fauchon

La Cantine de Quentin.

And Francois Simon, going along in his Haché menu, went to the Café Very in the midst of the Tuileries, where he spent 75 € on the tartare and desserts; he says to go.

Wednesday too, the New York Times finally reported, what the French press had covered in early April and was discussed soon afterwards on the France Forum; the camembert pasteurization story.

Jean Claude Ribaut in Wednesday-Thursday’s Le Monde has an inquiry on entrecotes, using Le Relais de Venise aka Le Restaurant de l’Entrecote as his peg. He talks of the sauce as "miraculous" and says they'd never reveal its components but folks have speculated that it consists of anchovies, a Swiss potion, chicken liver, fresh and flower of thyme, la crème fleurette, white mustard, water, butter, salt and pepper. For its preparation, I'll refer you to the article.

In Friday’s Liberation, Sophie Marcais reviewed a tea salon/boutique with kids’ menus and storage space for strollers and high chairs called La Pousette Café, 6, rue Pierre-Sémard in the 9th, open Monday-Saturday only 10:30-6:30 PM, serving light fare such as salads and coffee.

Jean Louis Galesne, in Friday’s Les Echos reviewed several places in Bordeaux – Amat, Le Saint-James, Le Grill du Bouchon, Auberge' Inn, Au Bonheur du Palais + Elio’s.

May 31-June 14’s France-Amerique had an article by Anne de Ravel about Clotilde Dusoulier’s “Chocolate & Zucchini” with her recipe for a tarte tatin of tomatoes.

On Sunday, in the New York Times Travel section, Mark Bittman wrote about going with Dorie Greenspan to Huitrerie Regis, 3, rue de Montfaucon in the 6th, 01.44.41.10.07, where one dozen belons were 30 €, one dozen fines de claire (size not specified) = 10 €. In addition, Sarah Wildman wrote about the new Hotel K in Baerenthal, run by Jean Georges Klein of the three star l’Arnsbourg which serves a 105 € “menu saveur.”

Saturday/Sunday, BP published an article by Margaret Kemp entitled “Piece of Cake Buzz” and one by John Talbott on "Food Allergies, Aversions and Adversities."

Please post comments here and not in the Digest thread.

Host's Note: The Digest of the week of June 25th appears after that of July 16th; apologies.

Edited July 25, 2007 by John Talbott (log)