I picked up A Nous Paris the other day and quickly went to the Resto section to see what’s new by Toinard and Berger or Berger and Toinard as the case might be. Kura, another Japanese place. What’s going on?
Now a very quick scan through the 2010 and 2011 Figaroscope’s and ANP’s reveals the following have opened in the past 15 months:
Le Petit Usagi
Atao
Momoka 2.0
L’Arc Bento
Kei
Izakaya Isse
Kura
Kunitoraya II
Sola
Happa Tei
Nobu
Komaki
Tokki
Isse
Bizan
Toyo
Orient Extreme Montaigne
Concert de la Cuisine (well I’m cheating a bit with the last since it opened December the year before but as Yogi Berra might have said “No one went there.”)
In any case, that’s about one a month.
Again, I wonder “what’s the deal?”
I think there are several models:
The oldest type, except for the ubiquitous sushi joints and carts all over town, is probably represented by Carte Postale, a place that advertised that it had “fusion” cooking when it opened decades ago; a fusion of Japanese and French specifically. Stella Maris may represent the pinnacle of this trend.
Then there are places like Guilo Guilo, where an (apparently) much-heralded-chef comes to Paris and cooks Japanese-Japanese cuisine, no fooling around.
The opposite is represented by Hide, run by a Japanese (in origin) guy who cooks French-French cooking, no fooling around. And, Ribouldingue, that French abbat heaven for offal lovers, has recently had its piano taken over by a Japanese chef.
Then there are spins on the middle ground:
With Ze Kitchen Galerie, William Ledeuil, a classic Savoy-type French chef, started using Asian ingredients and preparations (for example raw fish) and creating what is not really fusion cuisine but French cuisine with Asian twists (and it helps of course to have a lot of Asians in the cuisine itself.
And Qui Plume La Lune represents another sort; here chef Jacky Ribault works with three other guys in the kitchen and none looks to have Asian blood in the veins. Ribault, himself, has worked at/with some pretty classic French places – Taillevent, Pierre Gagnaire, Pierre Hermé and Alain Passard, but undoubtedly it was his stint at Shozan that informed the cooking and plating he now does.
Le Concert de la Cuisine is another different take on the middle ground. Here a Japanese born guy (and wife and souschef) who worked at a classical Japanese place in Paris, branches out on his own and cooks what I can only call Haute or paradoxically Nouvelle Japanese Cuisine.
And finally there’s Sola, which when it opened, made a point of trying to insist that it presented French and Japanese food without mixing the two. Well, not quite. It’s exquisite cuisine and as I was exiting the Metro I thought you know, good food is good food, who cares whether it’s French with a Japanese twist or fusion or just a great Japanese-born chef using clever ingredients, herbs and spices and doing inventive cooking?
What is my point? Well, several things are clear. The French love Japanese cuisine and Japanese chefs and Japanese chefs love preparing a whole range of dishes from pure Japanese classics, through fusion stuff to pure French classics.
This is clearly a change. Because I remember in 1989 I had to plan out periodic forays to a purely Japanese place; now go practically anywhere in town far away from the Sainte Anne/Richelieu axis,and you’ll stumble over one.
Are they all good?
In no way. I had one of the worst meals of one week at Toyo; my local joint can occasionally be off and some fish may not be the freshest in the market. But for the most part things are pretty good.
The latest three of these were:
Sola aka Sola par Hiroki Yoshitake
12, rue de l'Hotel Colbert in the 5th, (Metro: St Michel)
T: 01.43.29.59.04 (but beware quirky phone-answering reliability)
Closed Sundays and Mondays
“Surprise” menus at lunch - 2 entrees,1 plat, 1 dessert = 45; one more plat = 50E; dinner 45 and 60 E for the same.
Kei
5 rue Coq Heron in the 1st, (Metro: Louvre-Rivoli)
T: 01.42.33.33.14.74
Closed Sundays and Mondays
Lunch menus 38 + 48 € for 4 or 5 dishes and dinner ones for 75 & 95 € for 6 or 8 dishes
Le Concert de la Cuisine
Now a very quick scan through the 2010 and 2011 Figaroscope’s and ANP’s reveals the following have opened in the past 15 months:
Le Petit Usagi
Atao
Momoka 2.0
L’Arc Bento
Kei
Izakaya Isse
Kura
Kunitoraya II
Sola
Happa Tei
Nobu
Komaki
Tokki
Isse
Bizan
Toyo
Orient Extreme Montaigne
Concert de la Cuisine (well I’m cheating a bit with the last since it opened December the year before but as Yogi Berra might have said “No one went there.”)
In any case, that’s about one a month.
Again, I wonder “what’s the deal?”
I think there are several models:
The oldest type, except for the ubiquitous sushi joints and carts all over town, is probably represented by Carte Postale, a place that advertised that it had “fusion” cooking when it opened decades ago; a fusion of Japanese and French specifically. Stella Maris may represent the pinnacle of this trend.
Then there are places like Guilo Guilo, where an (apparently) much-heralded-chef comes to Paris and cooks Japanese-Japanese cuisine, no fooling around.
The opposite is represented by Hide, run by a Japanese (in origin) guy who cooks French-French cooking, no fooling around. And, Ribouldingue, that French abbat heaven for offal lovers, has recently had its piano taken over by a Japanese chef.
Then there are spins on the middle ground:
With Ze Kitchen Galerie, William Ledeuil, a classic Savoy-type French chef, started using Asian ingredients and preparations (for example raw fish) and creating what is not really fusion cuisine but French cuisine with Asian twists (and it helps of course to have a lot of Asians in the cuisine itself.
And Qui Plume La Lune represents another sort; here chef Jacky Ribault works with three other guys in the kitchen and none looks to have Asian blood in the veins. Ribault, himself, has worked at/with some pretty classic French places – Taillevent, Pierre Gagnaire, Pierre Hermé and Alain Passard, but undoubtedly it was his stint at Shozan that informed the cooking and plating he now does.
Le Concert de la Cuisine is another different take on the middle ground. Here a Japanese born guy (and wife and souschef) who worked at a classical Japanese place in Paris, branches out on his own and cooks what I can only call Haute or paradoxically Nouvelle Japanese Cuisine.
And finally there’s Sola, which when it opened, made a point of trying to insist that it presented French and Japanese food without mixing the two. Well, not quite. It’s exquisite cuisine and as I was exiting the Metro I thought you know, good food is good food, who cares whether it’s French with a Japanese twist or fusion or just a great Japanese-born chef using clever ingredients, herbs and spices and doing inventive cooking?
What is my point? Well, several things are clear. The French love Japanese cuisine and Japanese chefs and Japanese chefs love preparing a whole range of dishes from pure Japanese classics, through fusion stuff to pure French classics.
This is clearly a change. Because I remember in 1989 I had to plan out periodic forays to a purely Japanese place; now go practically anywhere in town far away from the Sainte Anne/Richelieu axis,and you’ll stumble over one.
Are they all good?
In no way. I had one of the worst meals of one week at Toyo; my local joint can occasionally be off and some fish may not be the freshest in the market. But for the most part things are pretty good.
The latest three of these were:
Sola aka Sola par Hiroki Yoshitake
12, rue de l'Hotel Colbert in the 5th, (Metro: St Michel)
T: 01.43.29.59.04 (but beware quirky phone-answering reliability)
Closed Sundays and Mondays
“Surprise” menus at lunch - 2 entrees,1 plat, 1 dessert = 45; one more plat = 50E; dinner 45 and 60 E for the same.
Kei
5 rue Coq Heron in the 1st, (Metro: Louvre-Rivoli)
T: 01.42.33.33.14.74
Closed Sundays and Mondays
Lunch menus 38 + 48 € for 4 or 5 dishes and dinner ones for 75 & 95 € for 6 or 8 dishes
Le Concert de la Cuisine
14, rue Nelaton in the 15th, (Metro: Bir-Hakeim)
T: 01.40.58.10.15
Closed Sundays and Saturday and Monday lunch
Lunch menus 24 & 29, dinner 40 & 57 E.
T: 01.40.58.10.15
Closed Sundays and Saturday and Monday lunch
Lunch menus 24 & 29, dinner 40 & 57 E.
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