Yesterday I ate at L’Arpège, the 19th best restaurant on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list, and holding three Michelin stars for the past twenty years. He was featured in the French season of Chef’s Table, the superb documentary series on the world’s top chefs. Owner of the restaurant for the past thirty years, Chef Alain Passard has become renowned for discarding meats and fish, and only cooking vegetables for twenty years, without losing his Michelin stars. He has slowly and minimally reintroduced fish and meat.

My first interaction with the restaurant started off badly, having had wifi problems in Galeries Lafayette which meant that I had to take a taxi instead of the super-efficient French Uber service.  I was taken to a downstairs section of the restaurant, an enclosed space with no natural light, a problem for photographs, and no wifi, which made me feel claustrophobic. Waiter Arthur was very patient with me, taking my phone upstairs to connect to their wifi, but the connections did not last long. Manager Hélène came to see me, and promised to find a table upstairs as soon as one became available. She was charming, explaining the menu options to me, and patiently translating the dish descriptions for me, there being no English on the menu. Sitting close to me was a couple from Washington, a chef and his wife. They were very excited to be eating at L’Arpège. 

Chef Alain arrived in the downstairs section just as I asked the manager whether I could meet Chef Alain and take a photograph of him. He was charming, stopping to talk at each table, and told me that he had never been to Cape Town. I said that he should come, and he offered to teach me to cook his dishes – what an offer! Arthur told me that 10 – 12 chefs work in the kitchen. Chef Alain chose a musical term (a chord spread) for his restaurant name, his second love after food. 

Since 2001, far ahead of his time, Chef Alain has focused his menu on vegetable cooking, setting up three vegetable gardens outside Paris. Organic principles are used in his gardens, with no pesticides or chemical fertilizer, and wildlife is encouraged into the gardens. In his newest garden he has cows, chickens, and a goat too. ‘I have trusted nature with my creativity; it is nature that dictates my actions’, he writes on the website. Chef Alain is so passionate about quality produce that he now offers vegetables from his gardens for sale every week. 

Tables have minimal decor, only having a table cloth, a neatly presented generously-sized 

napkin, a side plate with a red rim, and an underplate with a vegetable, each place setting having a different vegetable-inspired design. Hélène explained later that the stained glass work in the restaurant doors upstairs and on the wall downstairs relate back to Chef Alain’s book ‘The Art of Cooking with Vegetables’, being the themes for the illustrations. The underplates are removed as soon as the first courses are served. Cutlery is sterling silver, with very discreet hallmarks.  No spices or vases of flowers are on the table. Chairs are modern in design, with steel armrests and frames, and finest red or tan leather.

A Sommelier poured water and then offered me a taste of the Chef’s home-made apple juice, without declaring its price. It was very good, a blend made from three apple varieties grown on one of Chef Alain’s gardens, 250 km from Paris: Calvil, Reinet des Reinet, and Clochard. Waiter Arthur brought a moreish bread to the table, which he described as ‘homemade with leaven flour’. It was accompanied by semi-salted butter from Brittany. I need to post a warning about the bread, which kept coming to the table, and Arthur described it cutely as the more I eat the bread, the more he would bring to the table! Not knowing how many courses there would be on the Surprise Menu, it was difficult to pace oneself.   

Arthur had brought the folder with three menus, just leaving it on the table without explanation, or translation, as it is only presented in French! The menu cover contains the dates 1986 and 2016, a celebration of the thirty years of Chef Alain taking over the restaurant from his then boss Chef Alain Senderens. Hèléne explained the menus, starting with the garden vegetable one, consisting of twelve courses. She translated the items on the revealed menu, and it helped me in telling her which ingredients to exclude from my dishes. Some of the menu items reflect the cleverness of using vegetables in the dishes, such as beetroot sushi, celery risotto without rice, onion tart, potato spaghetti, blanquette of vegetables, cous cous vegetables and sage, macaron and artichoke, millefeuille apple and kiwi, and more, at the cost of €320. A twelve-item €390 ‘Terre & Mer’ menu was not translated, but some terms were recognizable, such as a vegetable lasagne, scallops, multi-coloured ravioli, celery risotto, millefeuille, and friandise. The menu also contained an a la carte section, with starters costing €78-95, main courses €115-165, and desserts €44-50.

I selected the Surprise Menu, for which the number of courses and the ingredients of the dishes are a … surprise, one only knowing the cost of €145. Dietary requirements were established, and I requested the exclusion of onion, garlic, chili, red cabbage, and cous cous. Somehow the red cabbage exclusion did not reach the kitchen, two of my dishes containing this vegetable. The total number of courses I was served was thirteen. I was asked to trust the chefs in preparing the meal, which could consist of vegetables only, or also meat or fish dishes. In the end, eleven dishes were vegetable-based, and one each were meat and fish. 

The first course was a Trio of Tartlets, each presented on a crisp: beetroot, shallot, and bay leaves; carrot and Jerusalem artichoke; and celery and parsnip. Soon thereafter came a beautifully presented velouté of carrots and parsnips, topped with hay Chantilly cream. I could confirm that it had been made from hay, but how it was used in the cream is and remains a Chefs’ secret. 

The third course was a variety of leek, an oyster emulsion, and topped with red cabbage. I had to ask Arthur for a spoon to eat it with. It was served in a silver bowl, on a red rimmed plate.  I noted that the courses were small portions, but at thirteen in total and the amount of bread we ate it wasn’t a bad thing at all. 

Arthur told me that the downstairs ‘dungeon’ started off as a coal cellar, followed by a pastry kitchen when the building was used as a restaurant, then a wine cellar, until it became a small addition to the restaurant. The walls are brick, with no plastering. All staff wear black suits and a tie ( there is no Tie colour prescription), befitting of a restaurant of this caliber. 

Course four was a salad of endive, thinly sliced apple, Parmesan shavings, and fig leaf oil. It was served in a most beautiful white bowl, almost looking like an emulsion. 

It was at this stage that I was moved upstairs, to a table nearest a window, providing much better light, despite the grey rainy Paris sky. I noted the handbag stools, which I have seen at all the top restaurants, but the ones at L’Arperge looked completely out of place, in looking like a rustic small table made from sticks bound together.

The upstairs section decor is Art Deco inspired, with pear wood panels adding warmth to the decor. Throughout the room there are exquisite panels inset into the wood panels, made with Lalique crystal, depicting bunches of grapes and a man and two women. My response to the latter to Hèléne will remain in the room! The crystal glass panels are modeled on those on the Orient Express, she told me. The ceilings have tan coloured panels too, but are concrete covered in cloth, probably to absorb the sound in the room. The restaurant can accommodate up to 60 patrons. Behind me was a picture of Chef Alain’s grandmother, and one could sense her ‘checking on things’ in the dining room! The front door has a glass waves design effect too, by Bernard Pictet. 

The fifth course was ravioli of vegetables, which consisted of the following: smoked red cabbage with beetroot, shallot, and bay leaves (a repetition of the ingredients in one of the tartlets of the first course); lemon, orange, and carrots; and celery roots and leaves, leeks, and horseradish. This was served with a broth of artichokes and celery. A vegetable broth has never smelt and tasted this good!

Course number six was Hot and Cold Egg, a signature Amuse Bouche over the past thirty years, I was told. Hèléne told me it has warm poached egg, with a topping of cream with sherry vinegar, and topped with maple syrup, all served within an egg shell, placed in an egg cup.

Another (initially) delicious vegetable dish was various cuts of leek, with smoked potato, and served with a sabayon made with yuzu, a dish with a strong salt taste. 

The eighth dish was scallops grilled in the shell, with endive, prepared with cumin and a very light taste of curry. The knife for this dish was by Opinel Inox, and was branded with the restaurant name and the 1986 – 2016 anniversary celebration on the wooden handle. 

Course nine was slices of pork, which had been cooked for four hours, and a waiter had walked the roasted pork, which was sourced from Brittany, through the room to show us, somehow missing my table, but I did call him to my table, so that I could photograph it. With the pork was served carrots, cabbage, radish, and turnips. The same wood handle knives were offered for this dish. 

Course number ten was an unusual honey soufflé, a simple idea but powerful in its execution. I had gone to the bathroom at this point, and a fresh napkin had been placed on my table

Course eleven was even more unusual, a Portuguese pastry Pastel de Nata with parsnip and cumin. It appeared to have less custard than I am used to. The edges seemed burnt. 

Course twelve was a plate of friandise, disappointing in its presentation compared to all the other dishes, and just placed on my table. I had to ask Hèléne to tell me what they were, and again they were unusual in their preparation: a tuille was made with thyme; a pannier was made with sage; toffee was made with honey from the Chef’s garden; Timut (Nepal pepper) macarons with carrot; and popcorn with caramel and salted butter. At this stage it was difficult to eat anything more, so I asked if I could take the treats with me, to enjoy while writing this review. 

I was surprised that a thirteenth course followed the friandise, and it was a Paris Brest, which I had first eaten at Foxcroft Bakery in Constantia.  This pastry was very rich, filled with walnut cream, and was plated with caramel sauce. 

Arthur had spent time in the U.K., so his English was above average compared to his colleagues. Unfortunately he brought back a bad British habit of calling patrons ‘my dear’, a pet hate.  Not declaring the cost of the apple juice was cheeky I thought, especially at the cost of about R600 for the three glasses. The waiter serving me upstairs was difficult to understand, making sherry sound like ‘cherry’ – not having a (Surprise) menu listing the items of the meal makes it difficult to check terms. The quality of sterling silver cutlery says a lot about the restaurant, but the very rustic looking handbag stools communicate the opposite. Disappointing was the stretching in front of me when placing the cutlery, especially upstairs and even by Hélène. The timing of the serving of dishes did not appear perfect upstairs, some dishes (unintentionally) overlapping in arriving at the table. But the attention paid to creating dishes that use seasonal vegetables, and reconstructing well-known dishes with vegetables, fruit, and honey, is worthy of accolades, in making eating healthy vegetables trendy. Amazing was being able to book a restaurant of this calibre without having to pay a deposit, and being able to get a table two weeks before my departure. 

Restaurant Arpège, 84 Rue de Varenne, Paris. Tel +33 01 47 05 09 06 www.alain-passard.com Twitter: @ArpegeLive Instagram: @AlainPassard Monday – Friday Lunch and Dinner.

Chris von Ulmenstein, WhaleTales Blog: www.chrisvonulmenstein.com/blog Tel +27 082 55 11 323 Twitter:@Ulmenstein Facebook: click here Instagram: @Chris_Ulmenstein