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Cook 'n With Class: French cuisine in Montmartre

Image: Jade Barker

Text: Nicola Hebden

Cooking is at the soul of French society. Whether it’s the morning trip to the boulangerie, a long, convivial lunch with friends to break up your day, or the latest hi-tech gastronomy; love and tradition are the key ingredients.

Cook 'n With Class, a French cooking school based in Montmartre, take the essentials of cooking like a Frenchie, and passes them on to students. Don’t be fooled by the the name - the school was set up five years ago by bona fide French chef Eric Fraudeau, and has gone from strength to strength ever since.

35 Parisian New Year's Resolutions

Image: I Still Shoot Film

Text: Guillermo Martinez de Velasco

1-Don't go to the Eiffel Tower on New Year's Eve

2-Actually do that thing where I pick an area of the Louvre per week, and visit it very attentively

3-Buy a bicycle and throw away my carte imagineR

4-Actually go to Château de Vincennes, not just talk about going

5-Promise to go to one of the presentations/lectures/workshops at Beaubourg or the Fondation Cartier per month

6-Don't cheap out on French Vogue or Egoïste

7-Finally get my membership for the Hôtel-de-Ville Library and The Bibliothèque Fornier / Go study in these libraries

8-Get photographed by The Sartorialist, at least

9-Volunteer at Shakespeare and Co. (But also check out the Abbey Bookstore)

10- Promise to learn more about wines, it's embarrassing that you always go for the 4-5 euro Bordeaux

Independent Boutiques in Paris 9ème: Le Rocketship

Text + Images: Anne Ditmeyer, Prêt à Voyager

As the holidays quickly approach, it's always a good reminder to support local businesses. I'm lucky to call the 9th arrondissement home, which is full of interesting, independent shops, and one of the most recent additions is Le Rocketship. Part design boutique, and part coffee bar, owner Benoît Touche has been dreaming up this project for ages, but only officially opened its doors on October 5th.

The location is prime in the 9th arrondissement, around the corner from Hotel Amour, a block from rue des Martyrs, and just a few steps away from a handful of restaurants with sprawling terraces. Additionally, it's an area full of locals, giving the neighborhood extra charm.

Tous au Restaurant!

Text: Omid Tavallai

Want to eat reasonably at some of Paris' fancier addresses? From the 19th to the 25th of September, you can.

Chef Alain Ducasse may spend more time in boardrooms than in kitchens these days, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. His company's "Tous au Restaurant" initiative – based on successful "Restaurant Week" and "Dine About Town" events in cities around the world – was a success in its own right for its first iteration in 2010, and now it's back for 2011 with even more restaurants covering even more regions of France, meaning there's much great value to be had.

For one week, restaurants from casual eateries to chain-owned brasseries to Michelin-starred hotspots will offer half-priced menus and/or two-for-one offers following the slogan "Your guest is our guest!" Reservations begin at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday 7 September at www.tousaurestaurant.com

To ensure your spot at one of the better or more popular tables, it's recommended you sign up as soon as reservations begin.

Ever your friend in town, VINGT Paris has cherry-picked the restaurant list for the Paris region and recommends the following:

• Au Trou Gascon (Michelin-starred French)
• Benoit (the only bistro with a Michelin star)
• Chez L'Ami Jean (haute Basque)
• Citrus Étoile (California-inspired French)
• Kei (haute Japanese-inspired French)
• Maison Kaiseki (haute Japanese)
• Moustache (contemporary bistro)
• Rech (seafood)

 Bon appetit!

A Taste Of Africa In Paris

Image: Flickr CC emkeller
Text: Ndali Amobi

Home to over 5 million people of African and Arab descent, France enjoys a rich culinary diversity; and where better to experience this than in the cosmopolitan metropolis of Paris.

Stroll around any of the 20 arrondissements and you’re bound to find a restaurant serving up authentic African dishes. Yet despite the popularity of such eateries, it’s difficult to know where to look and what to expect. Online search engines often describe these restaurants as ‘African cuisine’ – a rather oversimplified term for a continent with 54 countries, hundreds of diverse religions and thousands of different languages.

There’s a whole host of Parisian restaurants bursting with African flavour and fragrance and, contrary to popular belief, they are not exclusive to neighbourhoods mostly populated by African communities.

Unspoken Rules Of Paris: Supermarket Savoir

Image: Flickr CC Sylvain Raybaud
Text: Guillermo Martínez de Velasco

As skinny as everyone around you looks in their rolled up navy or khaki pants, people in Paris have to eat. As a matter of fact, you have to eat also. In short, we all do. But unlike other things that we as humans cannot live without - sleeping, breathing, laughing, listening to early Madonna - food costs money.

In a mythical time some have come to call the 90s, people had secure jobs and the euro was not this impossibly valuable currency. During this era, Parisians managed to keep food shopping at a medium level priority, right in between learning another language and finally taking that trip up to Normandy. As times have gotten progressively tougher however, people have had to worry more and more about what to buy and where.

This may have disturbed the cherished 'natural' order of things in the city but it has also prompted some to explore more places on the fringe and find cheaper ways to eat well. There are bistros on every corner but even if you could afford to eat there every day, for three meals a day, you would get tired of it. Besides, spoiler alert, (don't read the end of this sentence if you like to eat out a lot in Paris) most of their food is pre-bought and frozen. Hopefully this breakdown will help you be kinder to your taste buds, and your bank account (which did take about a month to open).

Unspoken Rules Of Paris: Boulangerie Basics

Image: Flickr CC joana hard
Text: Guillermo Martínez de Velasco

Who doesn't like bread? It's probably humanity's oldest baked good, and when it comes to breadlove, Parisians take it to the next level. The Boulangerie is not just a place to get bread, it is a neighbourhood institution much like your local Alimentation Génerale or Brasserie. I know it may seem odd to think that something as meaningless as getting a baguette could go so potentially wrong. Therein lies the first mistake; a baguette can be regarded by Parisians as more meaningful than most of the things you'll have to face in a typical city morning.

Out of taking the crowded métro only to change lines at Gare de l'Est; walking through streets full of vendors, noise, cars, unpleasant smells; walking up five flights of stairs constantly, and God forbid, breaking a sweat because of the heat; a baguette is the only thing that is constantly good. This explains why they take special care of the stuff made in their bakeries and why you should too! As these series of articles are meant to illustrate, protocol is protocol.

Pousse Pousse - Pushing Paris In A Healthy Direction

Images: Alice-Kate Raisch / Plaza Athénée
Text: Alice-Kate Raisch

Well, the sprouts must be working. Lawrence Aboucaya sits across from me in the famed Hotel Plaza Athénée with painted nails to match the hotel's awnings and a vivacious smile to match her enthusiastic disposition to talk about the current collaborative project at Alain Ducasse's La Cour Jardin. Vivacity is the theme.

Continuing until mid-September, the Hotel Plaza Athénée will continue this inventive menu selection headed by Chef Christophe Marliex. Even though he has a lot on his plate, Chef Marliex and his team mastered the art of the sprout and crafted plates focused on the freshness of spring, with the generous assistance of Aboucaya. 

Puttin' On Ecole Escoffier

Text: Alice-Kate Raisch & Omid Tavallai
Images: Omid Tavallai

Fellow VINGT Paris contributor Omid Tavallai and I bravely approached the red awning, a beacon within the Place Vendôme’s cobblestoned sphere. It’s the Ritz. A-game.

Our purpose for the evening was to attend, alongside some fellow writers in Paris, the famed Ecole Escoffier housed at the Ritz. To ease us into the cooking portion of the evening, the Ritz graciously hosted our class in the Imperial Suite on the first floor of the famed hotel. It did not disappoint. Ruby-coloured silk curtains open up to the plaza below, chandeliers are suspended from the moulded ceilings, and there’s gilded… everything. Like I said before - it’s the Ritz.

Coutume - Paris, Meet Good Coffee

Text & Images: Omid Tavallai

There has been much talk lately about the state of coffee in Paris. Slashing through the images of postcard-perfect zinc counter tops and romantic sidewalks lined with little round tables peddled to the masses, some have started to say it out loud: The coffee here kinda sucks.

But rising above the Parisian sport of complaining sans cesse, there are people doing something about it. Among them are the passionate staff behind Coutume, a roastery and café ready to buck the Parisian tradition of substandard coffee, which finds itself in the highly traditional 7th arrondissement. An unlikely spot for such a mission, perhaps?