Taste of Paris: Gourmet Wonderland at the Grand Palais

Taste of Paris, held May 21-24, provided four glorious days of gourmet feasting at the temporary tables of Joel Robuchon, Alain Ducasse, Guy Savoy, Kei Kobayashi, and Pierre Sang, to name a few. “Taste of – Enter city name here” currently operates in 21 different cities around the world, bringing a selection of a city’s best restaurants together in one venue for a weekend of glorious eating.

It’s shocking that it took so long to get one of these to Paris considering Paris’s reputation as one of the culinary capitals of the word. What is Paris, if not known for its food? Just the most beautiful city in the world, that’s all. Regardless, it arrived, and this marked the first year that the “Taste of” series came to Paris.

One of the best things about the festival was its magnificent setting in the beautiful Grand Palais. Nearly any chance to hang out in this building will be a reward in and of itself. But put some of the most renown chefs in the city under one roof (a gorgeous sprawling glass roof), add in a crowd of food lovers, and game on.

The unique thing about Taste of Paris is that it gives you the opportunity to try the signature dishes of many famous Paris chefs, all the way up to the 3 Michelin top dogs Guy Savoy, Alain Ducaisse, and Joel Robuchon. Here’s the 13 chefs and restaurants who participated, bringing their restaurants and their dishes in mini-form to the Grand Palais:

The most basic festival pass was 35 euros which included entrance plus 15 tokens (valued at one euro each) to enter for an afternoon or evening session. So basically you pay 20 euros to enter and then get access to buy mini versions of what would otherwise be very expensive meals.

Most restaurants offered 3 different dishes – an entrée, plat, and dessert, which ranged from 6-12 tokens per dish. Once your 15 tokens ran out, you could buy more at the “bank”. It was like a gourmet version of the State Fair, with 13 restaurants and a slew of other producers, from Laurent-Perrier Champagne to the Maison du Chantilly.

Restaurants were set up across the Grand Palais serving up individual sized servings to all the excited food lovers, lined up and ready to devour the delectable dishes.

Joel Robuchon’s duck confit parmentier

I relished the opportunity to try Guy Savoy’s famed Artichoke truffle soup with brioche. Even though it was a small portion, I was happy to get to try the dish at 12 euros rather than the 300 euros a typical meal would run. The problem is that after trying the soup, it makes me want to go have a full meal all the more.

Pierre Sang Boyer’s stand was without question the most animated of them all. They had a guy custom designing their stand throughout the evening drawing on the walls, with the likes of Beyoncé and other jams blasting while we danced in line. They were clearly having a great time, and so were we. And just look at that tart.

Two standout dishes came from Kei Kobayashi of Restaurant Kei, offering his outstanding forest of vegetables that get mixed up like a salad where each bite is completely unique (one of the standout dishes from a recent lunch visit), and lobster raviolis.

A gold-flecked chocolate masterpiece by Stéphanie Le Quellec of Le Prince de Galles.

Admittedly, the lines were long at each stand, and the only way to prevent lines like that would be to have more restaurants participate in order to distribute the people more evenly. Let’s cross our fingers that they add more chefs next year.

The only downside to the event was inevitable waiting – at the entrance, at the bank to buy tokens, and then again at each stand, so if that can be fixed by adding more spots to buy tokens and more restaurants to hop to, then I would buy all the tokens and hop to all the stands I could possibly fit into an evening. And I’m sure others will, too.

Beyond that, the restaurants were well prepared and well staffed, the food was high quality and fresh, prepared à la minute, and even though they were small portions in disposable plastic ware, they were beautifully presented and showcased what the restaurant could do, making you want to go for the full affair. In the end, the chefs ended up sending out over 68,000 tasting plates to the 16,000 foodies who attended the event over 4 days.

Was it fun? Yes. Was the food good? Absolutely. Did we drink Champagne? Better believe it. Next year I’m coming armed with flats & a bag of tokens instead of heels and a tiny sachet. I want to try it all. Think of how much your willing to pay for a meal on any given night, buy that many tokens, and go at it. I want to try everything next year, providing those lines decrease a bit.

Let’s hope this is the first of many years to come, and that the restaurants who participate continue to increase until people start flying to Paris for the event. If they continue in venues like that with chefs like that, then it’s not a far off possibility.

Update: The next Taste of Paris will be held in February 2016, February 12, 13, and 14.

Worldwide locations of other cities’ events can be found at their main website below.

http://tastefestivals.com
http://paris.tastefestivals.com/en-gb/