A Taste Of Paris At The Grand Palais

I had never attended the Taste of Paris before, but thanks to very kind and generous friends who insisted on treating me and my daughter Aimée to this wonderful  event, I went last Sunday at the gorgeous Grand Palais.

It doesn’t take much to tempt me to go to any food related event in Paris, but in the past I had resisted paying the entrance fee of up to 23 euros just to get in, without any credit to actually taste anything.

Amparo and Burt are wonderful friends who were in Paris visiting one of their twin daughters Briana, who is a culinary student at the prestigious Paul Bocuse school near Lyon.

This event  has been in Paris only since 2015.   It is  literally a gathering of some of the most talented and well known chefs of Paris, each of whom offered several dishes reflecting the taste of their respective restaurants.

This year there was a total of 19 chefs from the very well established starred restaurants, such as Alain Ducasse, Frederic Anton, Thierry Marx and Guy Savoy to upcoming new stars of the Parisian gastronomic  scene who are creating a lot of buzz, such as Tomy Gousset seen below.

These days chefs who have risen to the top of the culinary crest of excellence are treated more like rock stars in France.  And why not?

First of all, it takes a tremendous amount of talent, intense dedication, constant precision and back-breaking work that has very long hours to become an accomplished chef.

The name of the game is perfection and that must be maintained for each plate sent out, to each patron and year after year.

In starred restaurants such as these, the stakes are high, with the pressure to perform non stop sometimes at breakneck speed.  Not only must the food be perfect, but the service as well.

La Tour D’Argent, a gastronomic bastion of Paris for many years, is by the way  on the upswing again with their new chef, Philippe Labbé.

Of course no executive chef works alone in a big restaurant, but in a “brigade” or “equipe” that is  actually an orchestra consisting of multiple cooks.

Each one has the responsibility to execute one particular  aspect of the dish, such as searing meats, or making sauces, etc, and plating that goes into composing the resulting foods you see on your plate.

As each plate must be a visual work of art as well, presentation is extremely important! We taste first with our eyes and of course by smells before even  one morsel is lifted to our tongues.

Whereas an artist can take all the time in the world to create his canvas or sculpture, restaurant cooks can’t.  No dilly dallying on the line is allowed, or you would be dismissed in a second.

Precision and speed counts in getting a beautiful prepared meal out hot to patrons waiting at table.

Each chef had their own stand, with some of their brigade, helped by culinary students from the famous Parisian culinary school Ferrandi.  These students  often work  salons and shows as part of their training.

The day was warm and sunny as we met Amparo, Burt and Briana in front of the Grand Palais.  The whole building is huge, appropriately called grand in all aspects.

Just across the street is the Petit Palais, a misnomer if ever there was one, given its size and the magnificent baroque ceilings, elegant stairways, and interior garden.

Of the two buildings, I prefer the Petit Palais which houses a wonderful free museum and a lovely tea salon  set in the calm of the interior garden.  I like going there fairly often for the art and stopping off in the café where you can hear the chirps of tiny birds while sipping tea or a glass of wine.

The Grand Palais part facing the Champs Elysées is hosting a current exhibition of Rodin, and the lower part facing the Seine is a science museum, Palais de la Découverte.

Built for the International Exhibition at the turn of the century in 1898, the whole construction is a masterpiece of light and with its dome of  intricate steel filigree ceiling, which allows for almost a much illumination as being outdoors.

The noon sun beat down strong rays  in the middle, where you could almost as easy get a sunburn as outdoors. Inside there was the look and ambiance of being in garden party.

There was a good mix of people attending, with a surprising influx of young foodies.  In France, gastronomy has seen a revival of interest in the young who want to carry forth the riches of French culinary traditions, regarded as a national cultural treasure to be preserved in all of its world wide fame and grandeur.

The difficult part was deciding where to go, being that there were so many choices.  Between 3 to 4 dishes were available to try, consisting of either an entrée, main course or dessert.

Pricing was 6 to 12 euros, with the top price reserved usually for the restaurant’s signature creation that best expresses the talents and themes of each respective chef.

Some chefs, like Kei Kobayashi already had a long line waiting to try his very creative menu offerings.

For those of you not aware, there are a gaggle of talented  Japanese chefs in Paris who are doing classical French cuisine or in some instances a fusion between the two cuisines very successfully.

Of course there were  champagne and wine bars, that you could purchase a glass or two.  Unfortunately the champagne wasn’t a bargain with a flute going for 12 euros.

Having just attended another wine salon the day before, where they were pouring wonderful wines and champagne free to taste, I realised how spoiled I had become being in this wine centric country, where the richest bounty of wines is literally mind blowing in dimension.

It was nice to see at least three female chefs presented, though there are certainly more presiding over the realms of restaurants here.

Though things are now easier for females to invade a once totally masculine enclave, but they still have to prove themselves more and battle to get to the top than males.

Julia Sedefdjian, who at an unheard of age of 21 years old became the youngest Michelin starred chef of her restaurant La Fables de la Fontaine was there.

Another, Stéphanie Le Quellec had her cooks whipping up their menus to loud tunes of rhythmic rock, which was fun to see as they matched their moves to the music, like dancers on stage.

There are more females training to be pastry chefs these days, seemingly an easier avenue to break through the machismo.  The two pastry stands there were Christophe Adam’s L’Éclair de Génie and Lenôtre.

I enjoyed talking about the pastry chef scene of Paris with Briana and her friend Matisse, both aspiring to be one,  seen here with head pastry chef of Lenôtre, Guy Krenzer.

Briana is doing her  “stage” or on site work experience in the kitchens of the the elegant Hotel Peninsula here and Matisse at the likewise luxurious George V.

You may notice that he has a blue, white, and  red collar, which can only be worn by chefs who have won the very hard earned and prestigious Meilleur Ouvrier de France  competition, or MOF in their respective fields.

Of course there was more to do than tasting around the various menus offered.

One of the most enjoyable for me was the cooking stage where the great chefs demonstrate one of their dishes.

Super for picking up tips and getting a peek into  their personalities, in addition to their recipes.

Just these master classes more than warranted the entrance fee!

Several of them have already published books, which you could buy on site.     Throughout the day there were also interviews of those who had published, and other chefs who are well known in the city.

I would say the majority of chefs are rather introverted by nature, and unpretentious, as generally they are hidden away in their kitchens, only make the rounds at the end of their service.

Today though, being in the limelight  via media is becoming more and more a part of building their reputation, in addition to their restaurants.

Being a celebrity chef has its rewards, but those who open several restaurants at 4 corners of the world, obviously can’t be at each place, so must have very talented, trustworthy and devoted l’equipe to maintain their respective reputations.

Paris is chock full of incredible restaurants, but it is very expensive to eat out here.   Making the rounds of all of the chefs here would easily break most people’s banks, so getting a little glimmer of their dishes is a nice concept.

The only downside was that the portions were very small of course, and you stood in line and a lot of the time you had to eat standing up.

There weren’t too many freebies being passed out, but I did appreciate the Beaujolais bar offering samples of the various Beaujolais.

There were chocolate and various other foodstuffs for sell, as well as some utensils.  A Spanish promotional stand had a traditional dressed woman swinging a long stemmed cup from wine barrel to glass that caught my eye more than the wine sampled.

You could also buy some wasabi roots, if you were willing to fork out 250 euros a kilo.!

I liked seeing all the wonderful rare citrus available to be shipped either as fruit or plant from the Baches farms in southern France, where I had ordered a lime tree before.

Ditto for comestible flowers that I like to garnish my foods with these days.  Cream with herbs, fruits and what not were mixed then spread out on a freezing unit were a popular item, served scraped and rolled into cylinders.

From time to time, my heart felt very heavy and sad remembering the student days of my son when he was studying at Ferrandi, who was as passionate and gleeful as Briana and Matisse clambering to see famous chefs and their work.

Gastronomy of France is truly a heritage to preserve and celebrate as much as their wines, and is certainly one of the reasons why I much prefer living here.

Though I do not frequent “starred” restaurants as much as I did before , I do very much enjoy keeping up news about the fabulous restaurant scene and upcoming new chefs.

Aimée seen in this photo, has had to put up with my passionate food adventures and exacting nature when she acts as sous chef in my kitchen, but we do eat very well indeed!

Vive La France!