As I stood over the pan of flawlessly decapitated egg shells floating in a shallow bath of barely simmering water, I might have recognised a modern culinary classic in the making. Each of the yolks reloaded into those shells would soon be masterfully transformed by...
Paris
My 15 Minutes with Macaron Maestro Pierre Hermé
Suspense was the flavour on my tongue as I approached the London Hilton at Park Lane for a short interview with Pierre Hermé. I knew I would have to broach – and therefore answer to – the tongue-in-cheek blog post I'd composed in July as an open letter to the pastry...
Review of my Paris local, before bistro was named world’s 11th best restaurant
I wrote this review of Le Chateaubriand for bloomberg in Feb 2007. Back then it was not yet the world's 11th best restaurant, but merely the local bistro, albeit a magical one, in my Paris neighbourhood. The only thing "11th" about it was the arrondissement. Bistro Is...
Tout Paris papered with image of Gainsbourg’s nose
I could never tell if my friend the French actor Eric Elmosnino was amused, annoyed or merely bored when he was ribbed about being born to play Serge Gainsbourg. Although Eric's scruffy appearance bears a strong likeness to the late singer-songwriter in his early...
Getting cornered at a Parisian brasserie
Table preference is often determined by features unique to a particular brasserie. At Bofinger, for example, first-time diners and habitués alike feel privileged to land any table under the brasserie’s resplendent stained-glass cupola. Sadly, reserving a table beneath...
For chocolate, a matcha made in heaven
Published in The Los Angeles Times – May 13, 2009 At a glance, the cross-cultural dessert pairing of chocolate and matcha, the prized Japanese green tea powder, may not seem the sort of combination to elicit uncontrollable cravings. Among the many terms used to evoke...
Bistro steak with Béarnaise sauce
Parisian bistro chefs invariably prefer the sizzling sear of a frypan to that of a charcoal or wood-fired grill for their steaks. They're after the reddish sheen mastered by chef Thierry Laurent at the marvelous Le Bistrot Paul Bert. To ensure your steaks have that...