Jean Imbert and Anthony Clémot at Dior
Anthony Clémot and Jean Imbert at Dior © GP
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Bluffing, Mr. Dior ! Jean Imbert’s table managed by Anthony Clémot at Dior, at the corner of avenue Montaigne and rue François Ier, is a justifiable hit. Little Jean, who is hardly unemployed, has already accumulated new things on the sidewalk opposite, at the Relais Plaza, in Alain Ducasse’s former table under the sign of “Jean Imbert at the Plaza Athénée” and at ” the Garden Court”. The fact remains that this table, in the new and huge Dior boutique at 30 avenue Montaigne, has nothing to envy to its real neighbors and false rivals. The beauty of the decor in a boutique/gallery setting, upstairs, light, bright, airy (signed, yes, Peter Marino, to whom we already owe the chic and intimate setting of the Cheval Blanc in the Samaritaine opposite the Pont Neuf) is matched only by the quality of the table setting (signed by Dior of course…) and the service which manages to be chic without being stuck, relaxed without being trivial, pedagogical with measure and elegant with relaxation. In short, there is an air of happiness and complicity that circulates from the bar / counter to the room without any effort. And we suspect that all of Paris is knocking on the door of the place, which is open from 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., while wealthy tourists flock there on weekends. In the kitchen, a very serious team is in charge under the leadership of Anthony Clémot, who was, for two decades, the second, the shadow and the lieutenant of Antoine Westermann, first at Buerehiesel, then three stars in Strasbourg – where Jean Imbert also completed an internship in the past – then at Mon Vieil Ami in the Île Saint-Louis and finally at Drouant, watches over the whole with constant care. The menu mixes, with mischief and skill, fresh salads, snack-style snack dishes, pretty vegetables, iconic dishes taken from old recipe books by Christian Dior himself (including an incredible Cuban-style turbot or a very fresh cucumber “colle black”, like tzatziki) – and we know that the guy Jean likes to play the archaeologists of the taste of always -, plus some dishes to the taste of the day (like the cake with avocado, which looks like a brother to “the ‘classic avocado’ from To Share, but where the brown crab replaces the stuffed egg of an avocado covered with vegetable charcoal) or from the age-old tradition (like this ‘sole to your taste’). We talk about it very quickly!
Flora Mikula from Brindos to Théoule
Flora Mikula, with Hugo de la Barrière in Brindos © GP
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Early this morning, she was leaving from Biarritz airport for Nice via Lyon, to inaugurate a brand new beach table in Théoule-sur-Mer. She runs, she runs, Flora Mikula… She manages a dozen tables for the Millésime group, the Manège at Château Léognan, the Raba estate in Talence near Bordeaux – which has three restaurants –, the Château de Sacy near Reims, the Grand Hotel du Soleil d’Or in Megève, with its three restaurants plus a chocolate factory, as at Brindos castle, now “Brindos lake and castle” in Anglet, with its floating lodges, its resident chef, Breton Hugo de la Barrière , formerly of the Ibarboure brothers in Bidart and the Castel Clara in Belle Ile en Mer, plus the Cocorico in Porto and the brand new White Beach in Théoule-sur-Mer near Cannes, before, very soon, the Villa des Orangers in Marrakech. Tireless Flora! This native of Nîmes, born to a Lorraine mother and a Polish father, spent with Alain Passard at Arpège, who frequented Michel Sarran at the Méridien Picadilly then advised by Michel Lorain of the Côte Saint-Jacques, then was head of the Rotonde in Paris for the Tafanels, had made a career under his name and on his own account, at the Olivades in the 7th arrondissement in Paris, at the Saveurs de Flora in the Champs-Elysées, avenue George V, then in the 11th at the Auberge de Flora . She does not neglect the capital, since she prepares the launch of the new Café de l’Alma in the 7th at the end of July for her friends the Boudon de la Fontaine de Mars, while advising the Belle Juliette menu for the Rive Gauche group Paris. We can’t stop Flora…
Fabienne Eymard at Terrasson
Fabienne Eymard © GP
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She is the future star of Périgord Noir, in Terrasson-Lavilledieu. She, who was Benoît’s chef in New York, then in Paris, under the seal of Alain Ducasse, continues on her way. Formerly trained at Vernet and then at Taillevent, alongside her mentor Alain Solivérès, Fabienne Eymard has returned to the South West side as one returns to one’s roots. This farmer’s daughter, a native of Brive, who went to hotel school in Toulouse, invests the Mill of the Imagination, a place on the edge of the Dordogne, where we once knew Eric Samson, then François Adamski, who held a star there. She built her home there, instilling her mark, specifying her style, classic with chic, traditional, but with lightness, playing on reasonable prices for flawless quality. We wish him a glorious and happy future.
Adrien Barrier in Laval
Adrien Barrier and the service © GP
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He is the young Mayenne chef who is rising. In the heart of Laval, a stone’s throw from the castle museum, his beautiful restaurant is called “l’Effet Papilles”. In the kitchen, young Adrien Barrier, born in Le Mans, originally from Mayenne and rooted in the Great West, having traveled among the great to learn the trade: with Yannick Alléno at Le Meurice, with his compatriot from Sarthe and two-star MOF Philippe Mille at Les Crayères. in Reims, then alongside Frédéric Robert, the maestro of the Grande Cascade in the heart of the Bois de Boulogne, pulls out all the stops without pricing his ideas of the day higher than €21.90 at lunch. If he has acquired good manners in high-flying and star-studded tables, he has been strangely forgotten by the little-spoken red guide on the Mayenne. To know everything, click here.
David Jourdan and Melanie Ferrera in the Landes
David Jourdan and Melanie Ferrera © GP
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Is it the best value for money in France? In their village inn, renamed the “Bistroquet de la Dame”, in honor of the statue of the “lady with the headdress” discovered in a prehistoric cave nearby and to which a museum, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary, is dedicated just opposite, in the Landes town of Brassemoouy. David Jourdan and Mélanie Ferrera welcome you with charm. They both worked in the kitchen in beautiful houses, at Philippe Etchebest at the Hostellerie de Plaisance in Saint-Emilion and at Stéphane Carrade at Haïtza in Pyla, but also at Crans and at Guarda Golf, one starred, the another member of the Leading-Hotels of the World in Crans-Montana. They offer a €20 lunch menu here that turns into €28 in the evening and offers nothing but exquisite things. Vegetable pickles as an appetizer, lean ceviche, sea bream and kiwi, fillet of red mullet with tomato jelly and aubergine with cumin, veal head like a carpaccio with devil sauce served with exquisite homemade fries duck fat, hake fillet with squid ink risotto, peas and carapace broth, without forgetting, off the menu, octopus with spices, aubergine and sucrine make you want to board. We’ll talk about it soon.
Mathieu Rostaing-Tayard the return
Mathieu Rostaing-Tayard © GP
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Mathieu Rostaing-Tayard? We met in Lyon, a decade ago already, at 126 rue de Sèze, this Rhône-Alpes wonder-boy from l’Arbresle. Then we saw him again at the tasty Café Sillon. This traveling Lyonnais, student of great chefs (Pierre Gagnaire and Eric Briffard in Paris, Nicolas Le Bec in Lyon, Michel Portos in Bordeaux and Pierre Carrier at the time of Albert 1er in Chamonix), left the capital of Les Gones to join the Basque country, its secret territory, while maintaining a Lyonnais wine bar (“Micro-Sillon”). He has discreetly launched a table to suit him, entitled Sillon, where the concierges of the neighboring Palais send their curious customers, eager for gourmet novelties. He plays land/sea with creativity, mixing contemporary and sober decor, fine wines, a chosen welcome, creative dishes from day to day. Examples of what he offers there? Cockles, new garlic cream, saffron and black garlic, but also aubergine, lamb tartare, cucumber, seaweed salad and pine onions or lacquered octopus, with Aldudes pork belly, basil, pointed cabbage and kasha .`To follow closely…
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