Where gourmet food is affordable.

A noble dinner need not go beyond the holiday box office: Young chefs in Paris, offer the finest dishes, but require only a fraction of the prices of incumbent Altstars. A report from the capital of haute cuisine with insider tips.
  Paris - A wiry man with the black shirt polished zinc, the bistro bar. On tablecloths has in "Le Grand Pan" waived. On food cards, too. There are Rindskotelett. For two. Chops from the Basque Ibaiona pig. For two. Veal cutlet. For two. And Brittany lobster, a whole crustacean, 900 grams? for a. These fries, homemade.
The courts are supported by a slim cooking school boys with facial hair and recently by a hatch in the hall served. He says Benoît Gauthier and has always worked in bistros. "Because I wanted to have even a course, good and uncomplicated, with great suppliers," he says. "Here, the lobster, which comes from Carantec in Brittany. The pork comes from the Basque Country, by Louis Ospitale. And my beef, which is a 'Blonde d? Aquitaine'? The best race."
Gauthier boil away the Champs-Elysees in the 15th Arrondissement. There are no magnificent boulevards, hardly facades from the Haussmann era. A culinary no-man's-land. The guests, and there are many who take directions like to purchase, they will not interfere in the jewelry-free interior. Here is honest and well cooked.
FOUND IN ... THE GOURMET magazine 11/2008InhaltAktuelles booklet bestellenwww.der Gourmand club.deGauthier is not the only one of a special relationship with its suppliers maintains. Appetizing rosy, with a trace of seasoned capers, the gentle lamb in the "L? Agape" served a narrow, but local micro luxurious north of the Arc de Triomphe.
"Do you like that?", Interrupts us a little snooty Lord Black: "Our meat comes from Hugo." The suppliers when first names to identify him, perhaps even as "our friend Hugo" on the map to set, which is currently in fashion in Paris. For chefs and growers rife the "name-shopping.
Hugo and Jean-Luc on the map signal: We buy at the best. These are culinary artisans like the vegetable Gärtner Joël (Thiebault), the butcher Hugo (Desnoyers), the butter-maker Jean-Yves (Bordier) and the baker Jean-Luc (Poujouran).
The finesse is in the details
Anyone who has a first name, the industry no longer in question, although it obviously bakers who are as good as Jean-Luc, and gardeners, whose salads such as the spicy taste of Joël. At the same time respecting the cooks the ingredients a little more praise than their suppliers professionals. And that is actually quite good.
So the meat comes from Hugo, and chef Bertrand Grébaut it simply served as carpaccio. The "L? Agape" you sit dapper: silver, crystal, high wine prices, little space at the table. But look past you should necessarily. Just 26 years old is "le chef", and he looks a bit as if he already had the morning to five with the cleaning vegetables started.
Grébauts kitchen is calm, he examines in detail the finesse. "I want to respect nature," he says. The best succeed him. The parsley root soup: ideal abgeschmeckt. The Italian asparagus in bacon: classic and good. The lamb with beans, cabbage and grilled hazelnuts: technically perfect.
Grébaut can do something, but the two patron tarnish the mood a little. They operate much too stiff and set a venue for this class. "L? Agape" is one of the many interesting new releases this season.
From neo-neo-bistro with gastro
Well 15 years raves from the Paris already neo-bistro, the small rustic restaurant with prices humane and imaginative young chefs. Now is quite slow the neo-Gastro through, a classic restaurant gastronomique à la française in a trimmed down version.
The mostly young men to the herds are good, but not prominently. Approximately 45 to 75 euros currently cost their menus. For Altstars such as Pierre Gagnaire, there is not even a starter? only the price of the famous name on the restaurant can be roughly at 200 euros taxi.
Listened to the new type of "L? Agape," with its modern interior in ocher tones. Or "La Bigarrade." Meanwhile, chief Christophe Pelé stunned earlier in the elegant Hotel Royal Monceau, "the Paris in June during a large-scale demolition party itself were scrapped; who wanted to brandish the hammer, had three hours waiting at the entrance.