Ah, Paris in the summer would make any Briton sell their soul, with its endless days of clear blue skies and hot afternoons that lead into perfect evenings. Truly the city of love, walking in Paris is achingly beautiful and spending an evening on the banks of the Seine with a picnic of foie gras, champagne, ham and bread with raspberries to go with mille feuille as you watch the sun set is nothing short of poetic. Having been infuriatingly depressed with the gastronomic offerings on a previous visit, the expectations of grandeur were firmly kept in check – a caution I found to be exercised by many epicureans of late.
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August 22, 2012
Epicure at The Bristol, Paris
May 28, 2012
Per Se, New York
It’s only been rated 6th best restaurant in the world this year, and spent the last 8 years on the list of 50 Best Restaurants, been given higher ratings than any other restaurant in North America (with maybe the exception of its sister in California) and I could go on and on, but the truth is that Thomas Keller’s Per Se, aside from its glorification, is also one of the most over-hyped restaurants in the world – one that keeps pushing one’s expectations higher and higher until they could possibly go no further, a very serious contention for disappointment and despair. Having sampled the fare of French Laundry in its London avatar, I wondered just what Per Se might have up its sleeve…
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December 10, 2011
Kojyu, Tokyo
It’s always hard going to a well known restaurant the day after you’ve had an exceptional meal as the expectations are high. The first was Creations de Narisawa, a 2 star Michelin in Tokyo, with Kojyu, a 3 star in Tokyo the night after. Would this change my experience from European Michelin restaurants where 2 star places always outperformed 3 stars? A 3 star restaurant with 7 covers, 2 private dining rooms, serving Kaiseki cuisine was the only one out of all the other restaurants on my list that was available on the night, so we decided to go for it…
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September 27, 2011
L’Arpege, Paris
Ah Paris, a city rich with history and culture, home to the Eiffel tower, one of the world’s most recognizable and famous landmarks and the Louvre, the world’s largest single museum that has 16km of galleries including the wealthy Mona Lisa, worth a staggering £700 million. The city of lovers, the city of poets and writers, of artists and philosophers and once upon a time, the culinary capital of the Western world – the crowning glory in French gastronomy, ruling the guides with 18 restaurants given 3 Michelin stars and an army of 2 and 1 stars. Paris with its seductive charm and reckless traffic is a foodie paradise. Whilst it may not be as culturally diverse in its offerings as London, there is no shortage of fine dining, with some restaurants taking it a step further into opulent dining.
