Le Grand restaurant, Paris, France
I need to talk to you about Jean-François Piège and his cuisine
Technically, it is not a review but a reflection on gastromy at extensive and French contemporary gastronomy. I like Le Grand Restaurant, where guests have actual fun within the boundaries of a gastronomic journey (aka tasting menu) where every twist and turn is hand-picked by the Chef according to their logic and reasoning. Moreover, guests have fun also because the cellar is stratospheric, with excellent and impossible Bourgogne by the glass and the most extensive collection of Chartreuse I could imagine.
Opened in 2015, in the heart of Paris's Golden Triangle, Le Grand Restaurant is a signature restaurant of Chef Jean-François Piège, a renowned chef (according to Michelin, the chef is said to own one of the finest cookery libraries in Paris).
The restaurant is a self-described laboratory of gastronomic thought and creation. The Chef here works around and inside his ideas, all deeply inspired by French gastronomy. He is proud of his values and heritage, highlighting and showcasing his territories through the menus and interpretations called Le Tour de France des Territoires and Mijotés Modernes, his signatures.
It is a posh place, but the lack of (otherwise deserved) third star keeps a particular type of stiff customer at bay. The patrons sitting around the restaurant floor are there because they genuinely enjoy food, not because they must check yet another box in their imaginary Michelin to-do list.