L’Arpège @ Paris

A genius and Masterchef woke up one day and got so sick of preparing meat and doing the same thing over and over, he did something that no one dared to do in the highest level of French fine dining – change the entire menu.

Arpège is a derivation of the musical term arpeggio. This is perhaps the only Michelin 3 Stars that has kept changing its menu, a bane for Michelin inspectors as they are looking for consistency.

The elegant modern dining room features Jean-Christophe Plantrou”s pear wood panelling, Lalique glass decorations and white linen clad tables dressed with red cover plates, Bernaudaud crockery, Christofle cutlery and customised glassware inscribed “Fabrique pour Alain Passard”. No detail is spared when it comes to this epitome of French fine dining.

Famously removing meat from the menu before it was popular and fondly referred to as the ‘maestro’ of vegetarian cuisine, chef/owner Alain Passard caused a small revolution while making non-meat eaters very happy. While some protein has since crept back into some dishes since his 2001 announcement, the stars of the menu are undoubtedly vegetables and plant-based ingredients. The gastronomical journey for the transformation has been documented in the opening episode of The Chef’s Table (France edition) on Netflix, which indicates Chef Alain’s influence.

Breton-born Passard’s passion is vegetables and he grows his own fruit and vegetables in his ecological garden just outside Paris. His menu also features fish, shellfish and poultry and occasionally will include red meat such as Kobe beef and venison.

Merveille de la nature eau d’automne

Red cabbage, carrot

The fresh produce that forms the backbone of the dishes served at Arpège is harvested daily and delivered from Passard’s three biodynamic and organic farms and kitchen gardens just outside of Paris. Not only do they supply the restaurant and cut down on food miles, they also support a rich ecosystem of local wildlife. Nothing is refrigerated for long periods of time.

Nuances de octobre, jardin du Gros Chesnay

Collages et coloriages | Collages and coloring pages

The produce is picked by a team of gardeners and served or sold that day in order to preserve the true integrity of each ingredient. As you can see in this second amuse bouche, a plate of lightly salted vegetables of the day was plated so beautifully that we almost could not bear ourselves to eat it.

Gaspacho tomate, crème glacée au céleri perpétuel

Tomato, celery, olive oil

Pain au levain

The country loaf was extremely dense and flat, with inconsistent crumb. I had expected a better bread in a 3 Star restaurant.

2009 Domaine Pigmier Vin Jaune Côtes du Jura

Savagnin aged for seven years in oak barrels under a veil of yeast. Full-bodied with a palette of aromas that is unique to the Jura. Golden. Decanted. Deep, rich, with lovely curry and aged nuts flavors. Amazing tension. Simultaneously austere and generous. Lovely lingering finish. Excellent bracing acidity. Superb.

Transparence de tomates arc-en-ciel du domaine du Gros Chesnay

Caviar Kristal ou huile d’olive de Nyons

“What a beautiful dish!” exclaimed Princess in front of this majestic plate. This is perhaps the most photographed and instagrammed tomato dish in the world. It is also the simplest and most complicated dish to make in the world.

The tomatoes came from the gardens of Gros Chenay. They were sliced paper thin and skilfully plated to form an explosion of colours – red, yellow, green and other shades of the rainbow. No wonder this was named the rainbow dish (“arc-en-ciel“).

Topped with a quenelle of caviar, this was the only ingredient not from their gardens. Kaviari Kristal caviar has rich and complex flavours with hints of almond, a favourite among the top chefs.

Nyons olive oil from the Moulin de Haute Provence is particularly sweet, buttery in the mouth and finely fruity. Dressed with the olive oil and sea salt, this was deceitfully simple but yet so difficult to get the balance right. Start by trying to slice the tomatoes so thin and yet not destroying the structure of the fruit.

Sushis légumiers fleuris à l’huile de feuilles de notre figuier

Larme d’olive noire | Tears of black olives

This next dish is also Alain Passard, according to the now popular imagery, the man who whispers cauliflower in the ear at the bottom of his vegetable garden near Nonancourt.

Fig leaf oil has a variety of uses in the kitchen, from being used as a dressing and dip for bread to deep frying. Specifically, raw fish is great to drizzle this oil over. And this was used in the cucumber and tapenade sushi, although there was no fish, I could close my eyes and believed it was.

We have spent our entire lives as deluded diners, mistakenly believing that beets and celery are supporting actors rather than culinary leads. The second piece of sushi came with beetroots that have been infused with geranium oil that one would have been mistaken as tuna.

Chimère poulet & canard

En 2 services

Like a culinary Dr. Moreau, before cooking the franken-poultry in hay, this course is the work of a maître rôtisseur and served in two services and is enough for two persons to share.

This is Alain Passard’s “chimera“, his original claim to fame in the crowded world of French haute cuisine. These unlikely hybrids that he invents every year, marrying animals that did not imagine being reunited one day such as chickens and ducks, can be disturbing for some.

The first service was the breasts, a piece each of the chicken and duck breast are placed on a bed of leeks and a quenelle of purple corn puree, and served with whole chestnuts and beetroot sauce. The chestnuts were delicious, I wouldn’t say as much about the sauce.

If there’s one thing that I didn’t like about tonight’s dinner, it has to be this beetroot sauce. Firstly it was bloody red, and with Franken-poultry it looked disgusting. Then it was the taste of the sauce, which is syrupy in texture and really sour. I left the sauce alone.

The second service was for the dark meat of the birds. I got a duck drumstick and a chicken thigh, a chicken drumlette and duck wing. Princess got the opposite.

This is the first time I was served the duck head in a fine dining restaurant. But I was asked beforehand if I would like the duck head. Once again, the birds were delicious, but I would not say the same about the sauce.

Millefeuille croustillant “Caprice d’enfants”

Fruits de nos vergers | Fruits from our orchards

The millefeuille was filled with rhubarb, surrounded by rhubarb jus and served with a fig leaf ice cream on the side. This was also a really nice dessert: a beautifully crunchy, airy pastry that was maybe a bit overwhelmed by the tangy rhubarb flavour, and a great ice cream.

Chef Alain has said he’s never written down or recorded a recipe—he creates or adapts dishes based on the morning’s delivery, a process that sometimes, according to Chef’s Table, chills him with fear. Who would have thought of using rhubarb in a millefeuille like this? Or the fig leaf ice cream?

Profiteroles glacées à l’infusion de romarin fleuri du Bois Giroult

Parfum de pomme et rhubarbe | Fragrance of apple and rhubarb

 I liked the flavour of the rosemary ice cream (Princess found it really too weird), but the texture was icy. The choux pastry had good crunch and the caramel was almost toffee like.

Tarte aux pomme de roses et caramel

Chef Alain created in 2013 an apple pie in the shape of a bouquet of roses. In this version, the apple slices are rolled on themselves and then placed in a puff pastry base. Nice little mignardise to finish the dinner with.

The vigorous Chef Alain was in fine form, flirting and joking and working the adoring room of 40 guests. Cellar not huge like in a palace, but well chosen and reinforced with foreign labels by the new Italian sommelier. The kitchen, complex and dazzling, obviously confusing, is still one of the most beautiful in Paris, at least unique, justifying at each service a very chic assembly of customers from all over the worlds.

Working with a recipe enforces a regime of experimentation and guarantees a certain element of surprise, which is no trifling matter in an era when ubiquitous Instagram spoilers allow would-be diners to virtually experience every single garnish on every single course over and over again. Definitely a destination that is exceptional cuisine that is worth a special journey.

Restaurant L’Arpège
84 Rue de Varenne, 75007 Paris, France
Tel : +33 1 47 05 09 06 (Reservations)

Visited Oct 2024

Michelin France Guide 3 Stars 1996-2024, 2 Stars 1988-1995, 1 Star 1987

World’s 50 Best #45 (2024)