Q&A with Alexander Lobrano, author of Hungry for Paris: The Ultimate Guide to the City's 102 Best Restaurants
How has the dining culture in Paris changed over the last 20 years?
The two largest changes in Paris are the death of the bourgeois restaurant, that polite upper-scale restaurant popular that Americans always think of as the typically fancy French restaurant, and the bistro revival, which is what is seeing French cooking into the 21st century.
The mains reasons for the demise of the bourgeois restaurant are the demise of the business lunch—Paris executives no longer have time for two-hour plus meals in the middle of the day, the 35 hour work week in France (which makes kitchen labor prohibitively expensive), and the fact that a new generation of Parisians have no taste for the formal old-fashioned dining rituals these places represented.
The bistro revival is what’s leading French cooking into the 21st century. A spectacularly talented new generation of chefs have basically reinvented the bistro from the ground up—cooking food that’s lighter, healthier and intelligently off-beat. Among the chefs leading this charge are Thierry Breton at Chez Michel and Stephane Jego at L’Ami Jean.
How has influx of international tourists caused the Parisian dining scene to evolve?
Tourism basically killed off the Parisian brasserie, those wonderful romantic restaurants like La Coupole, Bofinger and others. As the tourists took over, the quality of cooking at most brasseries went into free-fall. On the other hand, it’s thanks to tourists that the French have finally learned to love the salad and respect vegetables.
Considering the continuing trend of dining on the run, is wine still an important part of the dining experience in Paris? Why?
Wine is hugely important to the experience of dining in Paris, and Paris wine bars are booming as format that everyone’s fallen in love with all over again—a great glass of wine, a plate of great cheese or charcuterie, or maybe a homey daily special like blanquette de veau, and everyone’s happy. A great example is Les Fines Gueles, which serves terrific organic wines and a kitchen that works only with pedigreed produce.
Are there certain vineyards that are represented on many menus?
Yes, there are a handful of trendy cult winemakers that show up on many Paris wine lists. Two good examples are Cote du Py Morgon and Domaine de l’Oratoire Saint Martin Cairanne.
What type of grape variety is most popular among Parisian diners?
The French are mystified by the American practice of referring to wine by cepage, or grape variety. To them, Merlot on a bottle doesn’t really mean anything, because single cepage wines run contrary to the whole art of winemaking, which is constructing a great wine from an assemblage of different grape types.
What is the trend in terms of ordering by the glass vs. the bottle?
More and more serious Paris restaurants are serving good wine by the glass, and the old-fashioned French tradition of serving house wines in carafes of gradated sizes is making a major comeback. Carafe wines are often a great buy in Paris, and their quality is dependably good.
Is bring your own wine or corkage becoming popular in Paris restaurants?
No, this isn’t really a part of Paris dining habits for two main reasons—many restaurants earn their keep on the mark-up they make on wine and Parisians consider that part of the fun of dining out is discovering a new wine and being guided and advised by a sommelier. On the other hand, even though they’d always scoffed at the American tradition of the Doggie Bag, some Parisian restaurants are now allowing customers to bring home wine they haven’t finished—France’s very strict laws on drunken driving explain this.
Considering the storage limitations in Paris as in any large city, are consumers more likely to drink wine most in restaurants?
No, in fact with Parisians drinking less than ever, when they do drink, they like to drink something really good, and they’d rather do this at home than in a restaurant for reasons of price.
Are wine storage facilities becoming popular?
Not to any noticeable degree—what many affluent Parisians do is store their good wine in the basements of their country houses and then only bring back to town wine that they’re planning to consume in the immediate future. The habit of constructing a wine cellar for long-term aging is dying out as people drink less and move more often.
What are some dining tips you would give to visitors when traveling to Paris?
Eat your main meal of the day at noon—lunch prices are often appreciably cheaper than those charged at dinner. And don’t leave town without trying something you’ve never eaten before—tripe, pig’s feet, kidneys, etc. You don’t travel to Paris to eat the same chicken breast and steaks you live on back home!
Do you find mostly French wines in the restaurants in Paris?
Yes. The French respect Italian and Spanish wines but are strikingly incurious about foreign wines, which are still mostly regarded as curiosities. Many younger Parisian sommeliers have added wines from Argentina, South Africa, New Zealand, California, Chile and elsewhere to their wine lists, but they unanimously report them as slow sellers. -- J.S.
Photos courtesy of Random House Publishing
