Anyone with locavore leanings will love Yannick Alleno’s modern new bistro Terroir Parisien, which pays homage to the agriculture of Ile de France, the department surrounding Paris, and the somewhat forgotten cuisine of the region.

Alleno, a three-star Michelin chef, is known for championing local farmers and ingredients, first with his ¨Terroir Parisien¨menu at the Meurice and then with a beautiful book by the same name, which showcases his favorite producers in Ile de France and recipes from the region.

The menu at bistro Terroir Parisien is old school French and features dishes which have for the most part disappeared from Paris’s fashionable tables.  Plates of artisanal charcuterie from Gilles Vérot, a wonderful onion soup “Les Halles” made with marrow and Gruyère, oeufs en gelée (eggs in aspic), a classic salad of frisée with poached egg and bacon, raie with capers and butter, stuffed cabbage, and a succulent Navarin printanier, a traditional lamb stew with spring vegetables.

His beautiful purple cabbage comes from Pontoise, the plump white asparagus from Argenteuil, his saffron comes from Gatinais, and the handpicked watercress from Méréville.  The lamb is local and comes from Vincent Morisseau’s farm in Aufferville, his chickens are a special bread called Houdan, beautiful black birds that were prized in the 19th century that have all but disappeared from Paris’s markets. Come summer there’ll be cherries from Vernouillet and peaches from Montreuil.

The cheese plate features a selection of local cheeses including Brie de Meaux, Coulommiers, Merle Rouge and Brie Noir (black Brie), an aged Brie with a dark crumbly rind.

For dessert there’s poached pears with “miel béton” or concrete honey, referring to its urban origins, and chocolate mousse with clementine confite, but I would go for the buttery Brioche “Nanterre” Perdu, or what Americans call French toast. After one taste, I don’t think I could order anything else–it was that good.

Another reason to like Terroir Parisien is they serve non-stop, seven days a week, so you can come during off hours for Alleno’s rendition of a hot dog or veau-chaud or a quick croque monsieur.  There’s also a bar where you can dine while watching the chefs at work in the open kitchen.

The food here is very good, the ingredients top-notch, and the prices more than fair, making this stylish new bistro a place I would gladly return to and recommend.

Terroir Parisien
20 rue Saint Victor
Paris, 5th
Metro: Maubert-Mutualité 
01 44 31 54 54
reservations@bistrot-terroirparisien.fr

Average price: 35-45 €  for 3 courses, not including wine.
Open daily, non-stop.

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Yannick Alléno’s Terroir Parisien

After leaving his Aux Berges du Cerou in Salles, a tiny village (50 habitants) near Toulouse, and spending some time at the Verre Volé, Patrice Gelbart has opened Youpi et Voilà, a modern French bistro on a nondescript side street in Paris’s 10th arrondissement.

The restaurant is small and the decor simple with stone walls, a handful of dark wood tables, cherry-red leather banquettes, industrial lights, and an open kitchen where 5 lucky customers can dine while watching the chef perform.

Gelbart, a self-taught chef, is passionate about working with small local producers and the best seasonal products, many of which are organic. His cooking is subtle and creative, using generous amounts of fresh herbs and plants with a mix of textures and flavors. There are no heavy sauces, and little fat-just clean bright flavors.

As you might expect, the wines are natural, which means they are made in small quantities by an independent producer, from organic, handpicked grapes. Natural wines have no added sugar, yeasts, or sulphites. So, in short, all you are getting is the terroir, the grapes, and what the wine maker is able to express with them. At the moment they are serving some 20 wines which will change regularly in order to allow people to try wines they may not have had before.We had a Vain du Ru, a crisp, refreshing natural white wine from Gascony.

The menu is short, with a choice of 2 entrées, plats and desserts, or you can do as we did and get the four-course “menu à l’aveugle”, a blind tasting menu for 36 €. Each course is served with no explanation until the end, which had us trying to discern each flavor and guess exactly what was on our plates.

The first course was a delicate vegetable broth with squid, oysters and clams perfumed with fresh herbs which turned out to be dill and broccoli sprouts.

Then came a seared scallop with mandarin butter and velvety puree of Jerusalem artichoke.

The main course was perfectly seared veal, served with addictively good polenta and wilted spinach, blanketed with a delicious Gruyère emulsion.

Dessert was the only dish we couldn’t quite figure out. We knew it was a vegetable, but what? It turned out to be black radish served ‘rice pudding style’ with chicory ice cream. My French guy wasn’t crazy about this dish, but I liked the playful originality of the dish.

Upon leaving we got their business card which says, “cuisine philanthropique” which our waitress explained was the chef’s philosophy of bringing together the community and producers which made me like the place even more. I left feeling charmed by the atmosphere, the warm service, and obvious passion of the chef. This is a definitely a restaurant I look forward to returning to.

Youpi et Voilà
8 rue Vicq d’Azir
75010, Paris
01 83 89 12 63
Open: Tuesday-Saturday, lunch and dinner
Menu: 36 € for 4 courses or à la carte without wine

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If you like the sound of this restaurant, you’ll also like Vivant, Septime and Saturne.

I am a big fan of gyoza, those crescent-shaped pan-fried Japanese dumplings, and would be happy to make a meal of them, if I could manage to do so without seeming like a glutton.

Guillaume Guedj and Shinichi Sato have solved this dilemma with the newly opened Gyoza Bar located a few doors down from Passage 53, the restaurant which earned them two Michelin stars, in the beautiful Passage Panorama.

The space felt more like New York than Paris with hushed zen surroundings, counter seating and an open kitchen–if you could call it a kitchen since there’s not much cooking going on.

There are 3 menu items–rice, sesame marinated bean sprouts and a choice of either 8 or 12 gyoza.  The dumplings, made with ground pork loin from star butcher Hugo Desnoyer, are grilled to order in one of 4 cast-iron dumpling pans.  The pan is oiled, in go the dumplings, a little water is added, and the whole thing is sealed for 7-8 minutes. The result is a heavenly dumpling that’s crisp on one side and steamed on the other. A bright ponzu sauce, this one made with soy, grapefruit and orange, comes on the side for dipping.  Wash it all down with a Yebisu or Kirin beer and you have luxury fast-food at its best.

Dumpling lovers who want a no-frills, less chic version can head to Belleville where you’ll find Ravioli Chinois Nord-est, a nondescript storefront with a handful of tables serving 11 different types of hand-made Jiaozi, the Chinese name for these deliciously addictive pork-filled dumplings. At Ravioli Chinois, the jiaozi are either steamed or pan-fried and filled with a range of ingredients from a traditional pork, shrimp and chive mixture to the more exotic pork and pumpkin. The prices are ridiculously cheap-4 Euros for ten dumplings–which means you can easily have a full meal for less than ten euros.

Other places I like to get my dumpling fix are Hokkaido, Higuma, and Sapporo.

Gyoza Bar
56 Passage des Panoramas
Paris, 2nd; Métro: Grand Boulevard
8 gyoza for 6 €, 12 for 8 €
Open 18h-23h, closed Sundays (they hope to serve lunch soon)
Take-out

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Ravioli Chinois Nord-est
11 rue Civiale, Paris 10th; Métro: Belleville

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If Fernand Siré has his way, menus in French restaurants will soon have to disclose if a particular dish is made in-house and whether it was prepared with fresh, frozen or canned products.

Sadly, in a country known for its gastronomic heritage, more and more restaurants in France are relying on prepackaged, industrially made products rather than making food from scratch. Some estimates say that up to two-thirds of France’s 120,000 restaurants rely on industrial products.

Two exposés on French television this past year painted a shocking image of the French restaurant industry by filming unscrupulous restaurateurs filling their shopping carts at Métro (the restaurant industry hypermarket) with ready-made traditional French dishes and desserts that only need to be reheated and served to customers. 

In both reports, journalists picked through the trash of restaurants and what they found might surprise you.  The fish soup or bouillabaisse in the Old Port of Marseille may very well have come from a can garnished with frozen farmed fish.  The Île Flottante you had in that quaint Parisian bistro may have been made in a factory with prefabricated meringues and crème anglaise poured from a box.  The hand-cut steak tartare?  Chopped in a factory and simply opened before serving.  And that duck confit which the waiter claims is farm raised in southwestern France might actually come from a factory farm in the Czech Republic.

One restaurateur invited the undercover reporter, posing as a new restaurant owner seeking advice, to see first hand the secret of his success at his popular Basque restaurant.  The undercover camera showed a cellar lined with giant cans of Axoa, a traditional Basque stew, and a kitchen which consisted of 6 microwaves and two Sri Lankan cooks who opened cans, plopped the contents onto the plates and nuked them before sending them out to the dining room packed with unsuspecting patrons.  The helpful restaurateur unabashedly explains that he makes a hefty profit this way, paying a euro or two for dishes that are sold for ten times the price.  He saves on labour costs as well, employing a minimum number of unskilled workers. Vive la gastronomie française !

I was most disappointed to see what lurked in the trash of the Paris institution Chartier, which charmed me as a student some 20 years ago.  Wrappers and cans of industrial products filled the bins and the waitress freely confirmed that there is little cooking in the kitchen at Chartier any more, “c’est assemblage ici” (the kitchen just assembles food here” she said.  Sadly, there’s a line out the door of tourists who think they are getting a taste of traditional French cooking.

To combat this distasteful trend, Siré, a deputy with Sarkozy’s UMP party, who happens to be a doctor and has family in the restaurant business, has recently introduced a law which would make all of this more transparent.  It was examined the week before Christmas and, if all goes well, will be passed into law this year.

The law has its detractors and raises many questions.  How will the government enforce such a law?   What constitutes fresh?  Some argue that it’s better to use a frozen, well-made product over a poorly made dish made with less than fresh “fresh” ingredients.  Critics also point out that there are existing measures out there, like the label “Maître Restaurateur” which is awarded by the State to restaurants which pass a very strict set of criteria including using mostly fresh non-transformed products and have trained chefs cooking in the kitchen. But the initiative hasn’t caught on and chefs must apply for the label.  In November 2010 there were only 1300 restaurants who possessed the label.

Some restaurateurs will say, “what’s the difference if customers don’t notice?”. For one, you have no way of knowing what’s in the food.  Processed food is often full of preservatives, added sugar, salt and fat.  There are of course exceptions but if someone’s trying to save money on kitchen staff by buying already prepared foods, he’s probably not buying top quality stuff.

So until the law is passed what can you do?  

Unfortunately, you need to do your homework.  Go to places that are tested and where you know there’s a chef in the kitchen.  There are many restaurants in Paris using high-quality ingredients and cooking from scratch, you just can’t tell which ones without having done a little research. Paris by Mouth is a great resource in English.

Be wary of extensive menus with low prices.  Offering a huge choice of dishes means you either have a large staff, which is quite expensive, or you’re buying ready-made food.  There’s a reason that most small (good) restaurants only offer a set menu or a choice between 3 to 4 entrées, plats, and desserts–it’s just not possible for a kitchen with a small staff to handle anything more without compromising on quality.

Lastly, look for restaurants that change their menus frequently and offer market-based cooking.

I don’t think the law will solve the issue entirely, but it’s a welcome first step.

____________________________________________

Credit photo: Melissa McAfee, Washington, DC

For more information:  Les vrais états généraux de la restauration

Coming soon: République de la Malbouffe

I was excited to hear that Romain Tischenko, Top Chef winner and Ze Kitchen alumuni, had recently taken over Le Galopin, a neighborhood bistro just a short walk from my apartment on the colorful rue Sainte Marthe.

The Rue Sainte Marthe, if you don’t know it, is worth seeking out.  It’s an interesting street lined with colorful doorways, artist’s ateliers, cheap ethnic restaurants, a few charitable associations and apartments— some of which are pretty run down–but it all makes for an appealing mix.  At the top is the Place Sainte Marthe, a quiet cobblestone square, which is where the pretty blue Galopin sits.

My first visit for lunch, exceeded expectations. Seared calamari, thin slices of brightly colored green meat radish, and crisp fennel made for an amazing dish.  But the main course was even better.  What was simply listed on the menu as Barbue, Parmentier, Câpres (brill, potatoes, capers) turned out to be a wonderfully executed dish with unexpected contrasts of textures and flavors.  Desserts included a heavenly walnut financier with pear and hazelnut and the Agrumes, Piquillos and Meringue-an original apple cake topped with meringue and piquillo peppers.

Lunch was so good that I returned two weeks later for the more elaborate 42 € 7-course set menu at dinner.

Dinner, while good, didn’t make it to the same heights as lunch. The service was somewhat slow and less polished, possibly due to a private group downstairs, and while we enjoyed everything, there was none of the astonishment and wonder, which came with my first meal. It was a reminder that this is young team without years of experience, so it’s no surprise that not every dish would be mind blowing.

Overall I loved the creative, market-based menu and laid-back atmosphere of the place. It’s definitely a table I would return to, with a talented chef who is sure to get more attention in the years to come.

Le Galopin
34 rue Sainte-Marthe, Paris 10th
Métro: Belleville, Colonel Fabien
Telephone: 01 42 06 05 03

Lunch Menu: 25 € for 3 courses; dinner 42 € for 7 courses
Open: Tuesday-Saturday lunch and dinner; closed Sunday, Monday

More photos here 

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Like most American Expats in Paris, there are times when I crave things you can only get back home. BBQ, buffalo wings, a corn beef special, and a great burger all come to mind.

You can get burgers in Paris of course and will find them on just about every menu, but they’re usually average at best and rarely great. So, when I heard about a burger truck that was being launched by a Californian who studied at the French cooking school Ferrandi, I couldn’t wait to try it. Maybe, finally, we’d have great burgers in Paris.

So tonight in the rain, I took my step son to try what I hoped would be a real American burger, at a food truck no less which tweets their location by Twitter (and Facebook) everyday.

The verdict? Amazing. Homemade toasted rolls and freshly ground beef made for a particularly juicy burger with just the right amount of fat*. I had the blue cheese burger with caramelized onions, bleu d’auvergne and port wine sauce which was outstanding. My French guy had the classic with cheddar, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles and mayo. These burgers kicked-ass compared to the burgers you normally get in Paris. The fries were unfortunately cold and soggy by the time I got home, but it was clear that these were hand-cut fries and not frozen, another sin most places in Paris make.

I was even a little bit proud eating my burger which proved that Americans can show the French a thing or two in the kitchen, at least when it comes to burgers. I can’t wait to return for their braised pork sandwich, onion rings and macaroni and cheese.

You can find out where they’ll be next, by following @LeCamionQuiFume on Twitter or Facebook or go to their website: www.lecamionquifume.com.

Le Camion Qui Fume
Opening times and location: @LeCamionQuiFume
Burger: 8 €; 10 € for a burger and fries

*This is technically not the first food truck in Paris since there are trucks all over making crêpes, but to my knowledge it’s the first that changes location on a daily basis, using social media to inform clients.

**Beef in France is typically grass-fed and extremely lean which may explain part of the French paradox, but it doesn’t make for a very good burger. Ground beef, or steak haché as its called here, is typically only 5 % fat in France, whereas most good burgers in the US are made with ground chuck-which is 20% fat.

The 2012 edition of Le Fooding Guide appears in newsstands on November 17th, and will list 900 of their favorite addresses, 450 of which are in Paris.  It will also include the 11 winners of this year’s Prix Fooding for best chef, best bistro, best kept secret, amongst others, which will be announced on Monday 14 November.

To celebrate the guide’s release, Le Fooding has put together another spectacular event with an impressive line-up of young chefs (including 2 Americans for the first time) for La Cambuse Effervescente*, a dinner-cruise along the Seine on 18-19 November with:

• Sean Rembold, (Marlow and Sons, Brooklyn USA)
• David Toutain (L’Agapé  Substance, Paris)
• Daniel Rose (Spring, Paris)
• Giovanni Passerini (Rino, Paris)
• Bertrand Grébaut (Septime, Paris)
• Sven Chartier (Saturne, Paris)
• Nicolas Darnauguilhem (Neptune, Bruxelles)
• David-Vincent Loyola & Mathieu Perez (Aux deux amis, Paris)
• Franck Baranger (Le Pantruche, Paris)
• Pierre Jancou (Vivant, Paris)
• Victor Gaillard, (le Chatomat, Paris)
• Keda Black (Cookbook author)

Desserts by Hugues Pouget, pastry chef of Hugo et Victor.

Tickets are 30€ and will be available for those lucky enough to snag them the week of 14 November on lefooding.com.

Proceeds will go to Des enfants du Congo Béthanie

*La Cambuse Effervescente= translates roughly to the bubbling galley in English, Cambuse being the garde-manger of a ship.

More about Le Fooding

Happy Birthday Fooding

No Rules, Is Le Fooding, the French culinary movement, more than a feeling? Adam Gopnick for the New Yorker.

I spent last Saturday at the Comptoir General unloading boxes of the last of summer’s tomatoes and the first of fall’s harvest: bundles of swiss chard, carrots, yellow onions, wrinkled savoy and bright purple cabbages, potatoes, herbs, apples, and pears.  We carried jars of ratatouille, home-made tomato sauce and brown paper sacks filled with walnuts.

I was there for La Ruche Qui Dit Oui (the Hive Who Says Yes in English), a new initiative which brings together local farmers and consumers looking to buy closer to home.  The idea is a cross between online shopping and an AMAP, the French equivalent of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA).  Unlike an AMAP however, you buy what you want, when you want, rather than adhere for an entire season.

It works like this: someone starts a Ruche in their community, people and producers join, once every week or fortnight you’ll be notified of that week’s sale, you fill up your virtual shopping cart and a few days later you go to the designated delivery spot with your printed shopping list to pick up your goods.  The producer sets a minimum sale amount to guarantee a certain number of sales. If they don’t reach the minimum, they don’t deliver and that item is deleted from your cart. By taking out the middleman, most of the proceeds go directly to the farmer or producer and more importantly they set their own price.  La Ruche Qui Dit Oui takes 10% for administrative costs and 10 % goes to the person who set up the Ruche.

Last week most of the producers were on hand to give out their products and answer questions but members of the Ruche also helped with the distribution, which is why I was there. I try to buy local produce but have always hesitated joining an AMAP because I love going to the market. The Ruche was the perfect compromise because I could pick and choose what I wanted and still got to meet and interact with the producers.

The Comptoir General was an ideal spot for the distribution, with a decor unlike any other you are likely to see in Paris. The light-filled space is a treasure-trove of strange artifacts where taxidermied crows seem right at home with old phonographs. In the back of the main room is a bar so you can sit and have a coffee after picking up your purchases.

In addition to the vegetables above, they had delicious honey from Fontenay Sous Bois, freshly baked bread, local beer, all sorts of dairy-cheese, yogurt and milk, freshly killed chickens and homemade terrines. Right now there are only 10 Ruches functioning in France, 2 of which are in Paris, but many more are on the way as you can see from this map.

The next sale is on now and will end on Wednesday, 19 October, with distribution on Saturday, 22 October from 11h00-13h00. Maybe I’ll see you there?

To order go to: La Ruche Qui Dit Qui

More about buying local food in Paris:

Eating Local In Paris

Buying Local Vegetables in Paris

My eating habits might strike you as strange. On most days of the week I try to eat vegetarian but then will cross town to buy something like this.  Luckily, I see nothing hypocritical about a person who advocates a healthy diet but still likes to eat a good burger now and then. After reading books like Eating Animals, The China Study, and Food Matters, I find myself eating more and more vegetarian. And while I’m not planning to give up meat altogether anytime soon–I like it too much–I do try to eat as little as possible and often find myself craving healthy foods.

One of my favorite places to go when I feel the need to detox is Voy Alimento, a tiny cantine/shop just off the Canal Saint Martin which specializes in unusual medicinal herbs and plants from Latin America. In addition to selling things like raw chocolate, cat’s claw, guarana, maca and purple corn, they serve a vegan, organic lunch menu Tuesday-Sunday.  I’m not sure I buy into the therapeutic claims of many of their products, but the food is as delicious as it is unusual.  I’d have no problem switching to a vegan diet if it all tasted this good.

You’ll sit on recycled barrels and share a communal table in the airy dining room which shares its space with the shop. Get the menu and you’ll start off with a small plate with tastes of raw coco beans, dried aguagmanto-a deliciously tart fruit native to Colombia, Chile, Ecuador and Peru, and assorted biscuits made with algae, curcuma or sesame.  For drinks you can choose from  the Purple Power which is made with purple corn; the Blue Comme Toi, made with Klamath, a bleu green algae; or the Xocolatl, an Aztec drink made with chocolate, urucum, cinnamon and cayenne pepper.  The menu also includes a detox, vitaité, or energizing vegetable soup all enhanced with aztec super-foods and spices.

The main course is a copious plate of vegetables and grains, which on my last visit included quinoa with spirulina, crisp salad greens with shavings of leek and carrots, a delicious potato salad with carrots and zucchini, tofu marinated with a light citrus dressing and Fougatta, a spiced cake, which was a little too dense and dry to my taste. Everything  else was fresh, with clean interesting flavors. The desserts are vegan as well and made from ingredients like raw chocolate, acai berries or purple corn.  Stevia leaves, agave and yacon syrup are used to sweeten. Even my carnivorous French guy was impressed and bought out half the shop.

The shop’s staff couldn’t be more friendly and, when they have the time, enthusiastically explain each unusual ingredient and its health benefits. The clientele is an interesting mix of fashionable, yet health-conscious, locals and a few vegan tourists who most likely read about it on Happy Cow.   If you can’t get to the shop, you can buy their products at both of the organic markets (Batignolles on Saturdays, Raspail on Sundays)  or online.  And if you don’t want to take my word that vegan cooking can be delicious, know that Alain Ducasse agrees and included Voy Alimento in his beautiful book J’aime Paris.

Voy Alimento
23, rue des Vinaigriers
Paris, France, 75010
Telephone: +33 (0)1 42 01 03 44

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One of the trends in cooking this year has been an emphasis on well-sourced products—often local, sometimes wild—and cooking techniques that bring out the best of an ingredient’s natural flavour; at his recently opened Septime, Bertrand Grébaut reminds us that in expert hands, French cooking can transform the best ingredients into something even better.

After having spent 2 years at Arpège, Alain Passard’s three-star restaurant in the 7th, Grébaut went on to earn a star of his own at Agapé, a posh restaurant in Paris’s 17th arrondissement, which caters to a well-to-do crowd. At Septime, he brings the cooking techniques he honed at Arpège, to the 11th arrondissement, a younger, edgier part of town. The atmosphere-young, modern, a bit industrial–fits in well with the lively working class neighbourhood and with Grébaut’s desire to “democratise haute cuisine”.

On a recent visit with friends we decided on the 55 € tasting menu, a bargain considering the quality of the ingredients and cooking. The first course, beautiful white asparagus served with an oyster-infused sauce Gribiche—the classical French mayonnaise made with chopped egg, cornichons, capers, parsley, chervil, and tarragon—was stunning and set the tone for dishes to come.

Next came a wonderfully light gnocchetti with delicious crème de maïs, aged Gouda and beautiful elder flowers. It left our table speechless, it was that good.

We were then served a poulet jaune with orache and mustard leaves. I rarely order chicken in restaurants, too often it’s dry and tasteless, but Grébaut’s chicken was succulent and deeply flavoured. The Banka trout, served with green asparagus and a red wine sauce, was equally good.

We all agreed it was one of the best meals we had eaten in a long time. We loved everything-the food, the wines, and the service, which was exceptionally charming for Paris. In short, Septime is a great restaurant. Affordable, fun, with first-rate products and cooking, I don’t think I could ask for anything more.

Septime
80 rue de Charonne, 75011
Map it
Open for lunch and dinner Tuesday-Friday, dinner only Saturday; Closed Mondays
01 43 67 38 29
Lunch menu: 2 courses for 21 €, 3 for 26 €: Carte blanche dinner menu 55 €.

Head to Paris by Mouth, for more reviews of Septime