Heidi Ellison
La République de la Malbouffe
FRENCH MICHAEL MOORE TAKES ON NATIONAL FOOD INDUSTRY
Xavier Denamur, the owner of five small restaurants in Paris, is a man on a crusade. It began with the 2009 decrease in value-added tax from 21.6 percent to 5.5 percent on restaurant meals, which he says favored big chain … Read More
Le Square Gardette
Food and Service Run Hot and Cold
Le Square Gardette is the kind of restaurant where you feel right at home – your grandparents’ home, perhaps, but a home – amid its witty and charming flea-market decor, which suggests a lifetime of accumulation of beloved objects. Mismatched lamps … Read More
GourmanDeal
GOURMET GROUPON
Two young (24 and 26) French businessmen, tired of working for big corporations, have had the excellent idea of launching GourmanDeal, an upscale, more exclusive Groupon-style site for restaurants only, great news for those of us who have had … Read More
La Rotonde
Post-Cinema Dinner in the Round
The Rotonde de la Villette, one of Paris′s architectural bijoux, has finally been renovated after sitting sad and forlorn and unused for years. The lovely round Neoclassical tollhouse designed by Claude Nicolas Ledoux just before the French Revolution has been … Read More
L’Orient d’Or
Some Like It Hot, Hot, Hot
When a friend told me that she sometimes dreams at night about the sizzling lamb at a Chinese restaurant called L’Orient d’Or, I knew I had to get there soon. French food is wonderful, but now and then I crave … Read More
Le Pantruche
Constant Excellence Among Young Paris Chefs
A new wave of young chefs is creating a renaissance on the Parisian dining scene, some 15-20 years after the first wave of bistronome chefs – Yves Camdeborde, now at Le Comptoir, for example, and Eric Fréchon before he went … Read More
L’Amour Dure Trois Ans
Love vs. Cynicism in Woody-Allenesque Film
For those who are unfamiliar with Frédéric Beigbeder, a few words of explanation are in order. He first became known in his early 20s as a sort of militant night owl from a bonne famille who went so far as … Read More
Le Huffington Post
LE HUFF POST
Le Huffington Post, the French-language version of the The HuffPo, went online Monday with a coup that was sure to make the French media stand up and pay attention: last week, it was announced that journalist Anne Sinclair, wife of … Read More
Blend
French Chefs Improve on American Specialty
Continuing the gourmet burger saga we started here last week with Le Camion qui Fume, Paris’s first food truck, we paid a visit to another new gourmet burger spot, Blend, a place I had already heard many raves about even … Read More
Intouchables
Driving Monsieur Philippe: The New French Blockbuster
I resisted seeing Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache’s new feel-good film, Intouchables, for some time on the principle that any film that popular couldn’t be very good, but when its ticket sales just kept climbing and started to break records … Read More