posted by Paige Donner
This year Chef Inaki Aizpitarte's Le Chateaubriand made it into the Top Ten of the World's 50 Best list.
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The dinner choice is Prix Fixe and no one has ever complained. If you have one restaurant to try when you are in Paris, this is a Winner!
By Paige Donner
Several of Paris's Starwood Group Hotels, in addition to independently-owned restaurants and cafes have dedicated their Spring menus to using exceptional, locally Ile-de-France sourced ingredients. Local here is defined as originating no farther than 200 km. outside of Paris. This both supports Ile-de-France regional growers and eliminates much of the negative environmental impact that long-distance transportation of food products requires.
At the Paris restaurants: L'Orénoc duMéridien Étoile, the First at the Westin Paris-Vendôme and the Étoiles at the Sheraton Paris-Charles de Gaulle, you will find these specially crafted "Local" gastronomic menus that are being served in their main dining rooms, for room service and even for conferences and meetings.
In addition, at Le Meurice, the triple-Michelin-starred Chef Yannick Alléno has created a "mythical and savory" menu which he has dubbed « Terroir Parisien® » that he is serving for his lunch time guests. A range of products he has sourced from nearby Ile-de-France villages including mint from la Forêt (52 km).
Similarly the new trendy Lafayette Organic on Grands Boulevards is featuring all organic produce and products from Ile de France. And if you choose to dine at the restaurant, Chez Bruno, you will have the chance to enjoy artisan coldcuts from Michel Ballereau, of Sceaux (14 km), farm-raised chicken from Pouligny à Jouy in Morin (76 km), and fresh cheeses from the 30 Arpents Farm in Favières (41 km). And that's not all, you will also get to try local honey from beekeeper Rémy Vanbremeersch and Carl Marletti's artisanale pâtisseries. And when you find yourself in the Denfert Rochereau quarter with an appetite for some local flavor, stop in at Ghislaine Arabian's restaurant, Les Petites Sorcières, where she is spotlighting the local produce of Claude and Catherine Gallienne from Neuville (67 km), and the fresh-baked breads of Parisien Jean-Luc Poujauran.
On a recent weekend in Paris, I found myself underneath the glass pyramid of the Louvre, in the grand marble Agora Exhibit Hall, spitting out champagne. And not just any champagne, the best champagne in the world: Louis Roederer, Bollinger, Veuve Fourny et Fils, Piper Heidsieck, Perrier- Jouët, G. H. Mumm, Nicolas Feuillatte, Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin, Moët et Chandon...When Moët poured me their 1975 Reserve Vintage, that's when I started drinking. It would have been a sacrilege to spit that out. If there is a metaphor for the Festival of Wines that Michel Bettane and Thierry Desseauve have organized for 5 years now, it is this: Your cup runneth over. At the festival, named Le Grand Tasting, I found myself in an earthly paradise filled with many of the world's best wines, from mythical vintages to ones barely known outside of their own appellations, and most all of them from France. This year, 2010, as an exception, there was a side exhibit of Italian wines also featured. As a local explained to me, Bettane & Desseauve are more than just a couple of France's most celebrated and respected wine journalists, they are even more than simply the authors of Le Grand Guide des Vins de France, they are the "Robert Parkers of France and French wines." This year's event was held over the Friday and Saturday of December 10th and 11th at Paris's Le Carrousel du Louvre, which is the underground shopping center/ exhibit hall that is right underneath the Louvre. For a mere 25 Euros you could taste your way through more than 2000 wines and 350 individual producers from France and a small representation from Italy. "We have Festivals of Film, we have Festivals of Litterature, but until Le Grand Tasting we haven't had a Festival of Wine...Every wine, like a book or a film, tells its own story. It is the story of the winemaker, of the creator, and sometimes, of genius..." said Thierry Desseauve who, with Michel Bettane, is the co-founder of Le Grand Tasting. Desseauve and Bettane, according to Desseauve, have plans to take their show on the road to English-speaking countries. Their highly successful Hong Kong Festival of Wine earlier this year has injected them with enthusiasm and they are starting to eye the U.S. and Canada.Their Grand Guide des Vins de France will be published in English in 2011 by Abrams Books. When asked how was it to take the Festival of Wines to Hong Kong, Desseauve replied that he enjoyed the Chinese habit of embracing fast-paced development and he also noted that as Europeans, they are accustomed to dealing with significantly different cultures and languages. He pointed out that Germany, Italy, Spain are just as different from French culture as is the Chinese culture, in many respects. Both Bettane and Desseauve invested many years as journalist and wine critic at La Revue du Vin de France until it was bought by the Marie Claire publishing group five years ago, which is the same time they founded Le Grand Tasting. According to Bernadette Vizioz, press liaison for the event, 10,000 people attended Le Grand Tasting over the course of two days. It's not hard for them to keep count, the price of admission includes a glass for the wine tastings, supplied by Riedel. The attendees on average were surprisingly young and very much the trendsetting crowd. I've heard mention a few times that the regional wine syndicates are actively promoting their wines particularly among the French whose consumption of their native juice is down significant percentage points in recent decades. Le Grand Tasting does its part to elevate wine drinking to its proper podium among Gen Y in France. And the event is doing so in ways that present the people who make the wine as people who are just like you and me, except they spend their days in grape vineyards and in fermenting cellars. What sold out in advance were the special courses, such as the Master Class, that took place simultaneously in the rooms adjacent to the Hall Agora. The standout of these courses was, according to French site iDealwine « Le Génie du Vin ». The 'Genius of Wine' class, included Cuvée René Lalou by Mumm (1998 Vintage), Chateau Angélus 2000, Chateau Gruaud Larose 2000, Clos de La Roche GC (2004) from Domaine Dujac, Châteauneuf du Pape (1998 Domaine duVieux Télégraphe, château Climens 1989, Ridge Monte Bello represents California and finally riesling Clos Ste Hune 2000 by Trimbach. Another sold out course offering, of which there were 20 separate classes, was l'Ecole des Terroirs. I managed to bump into a few Americans while I roamed the airy, well-lit, elegant and wonderfully climatised hall - underneath the Louvre! - who were thrilled to have just accidentally happened upon the festival last year. This husband and wife marvelled at the feast of wines they were getting to taste, all for a mere 25 Euro entrance fee. They loved last year's event so much that they actually planned their trip around the Festivalthis year. We North Americans couldn't help but compare Napa's $25 average cost per wine tasting flight/ per winery to the 25 Euro entrance fee which put 2000 wines, including the best champagnes in the world, at your fingertips and lips. The only limitation to your wine tasting is the hours in a day and your stamina for how many tastings you can fit in. Le Grand Tasting marked a few firsts this year, notably in the category of positioning themselves more internationally. To that effect their Italian space welcomed 2000 visitors in a relatively small area of 90sq. meters located towards the back of one of the main halls. In addition, this was the first year that they invited notable European wine critics: José Penin (Espagne, Penin), Neil Beckett (Grande-Bretagne, World Of Fine Wine), Armin Diel (Allemagne), Marco Sabellico (Italie, Gambero Rosso), Enzo Vizzari (Italie,L’Espresso)! An elegant, hip, affordable, culturally illuminating wine tasting event, Le Grand Tasting's Festival of Wine is not to be missed. Read More Here: Guy Savoy and Thierry Desseauve discuss holiday food + wine pairings.Bettane & Desseauve's Festival of Wine
WATCH VIDEO HERE
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Post by Eric Tenin of Paris Daily Photo
Denise owns the Etoile d'Or chocolate shop in Paris, just next to the Moulin Rouge!
Yesterday I had lunch at rue Lepic, with Grazia, an Italian friend of mine who lives in Paris and knows it like the back of her hand. When she asked "what's going to be you PDP photo today?" I replied. "Er... I don't know yet". She said "follow me I have the perfect idea for you..." Then she dragged me into Denise's A l'étoile d'or boutique, the chocolate lovers' den, at rue Fontaine (a few feet away from the Moulin Rouge). Oh my! What a gas. Not only is Denise an extraordinary character, but on top of that she really knows what she's talking about when it comes to chocolate. You HAVE to visit this place if you come to Paris. No wonder David Lebovitz (the Paris chocolate master, among other things) spotted her a long time ago already...
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 | Le Cordon Bleu entertains Chilean President The Ultimate Accolade Le Cordon Bleu recently had the honour of entertaining Chilean President, Sebastiàn Piñera serving canapés prepared with products from Chile. These products were promoted in the SIAL fair. Chef Terrien, Chef Pablo Galvez from Chile, and a team of students prepared over 1500 canapés, which were served during the official cocktail at the Embassy of Chile. |
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 | The 2011 Rugby World Cup Cooking Match: New Zealand ‘v’ France Our network is expanding into New Zealand next year, we are opening a school in Wellington – the same year the country hosts the 2011 Rugby world cup – their national sport. The first “culinary rugby match” was held on 18 October in Paris. Two teams comprising of Chefs and rugby men competed to make recipes using authentic New Zealand ingredients. International rugby stars Chris Masoe and Dimitri Szarzewski participated in this event. |
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 | Hautes Etudes de Goût "Note à Note" dinner by Le Cordon Bleu Chefs Hautes Etudes du Goût is a program designed to cover all aspects of “Taste” studies. This specialized intensive course is only held once a year – this year’s participants were entertained to a unique “note à note” menu prepared by the Chefs from our faculty in collaboration with Hervé This.
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