Alt Paris

France's culinary reputation precedes it, but dining in Paris tells a more global tale, writes SOFIA LEVIN.

- SOFIA LEVIN.

French cuisine has a long, proud history. François Pierre La Varenne published the first French cookbook in the mid-1600s. More than a century later France was well into its Napoleonic Era, with classic recipes and techniques spreading like beurre salé across each colonised country. Then in 1903, Georges Auguste Escoffier introduced the new world to haute cuisine with Le Guide Culinaire, heaving with more than 5000 narrative recipes. But Paris today is a different story with exceedingly diverse narrators. They vary from coated waiters in decades-old brasseries and Michelin-starred celebrity chefs, to thriving migrant communities and young operators obsessed with low-intervention wines. For visitors, this variety translates to an overwhelming number of options where a meal can cost anywhere from under $15 to more than a thousand. Paris can no longer be segmented into culinary chapters across a timeline. In the lead up to the 2024 Olympics (or simply Europe's next summer), it's time to choose your own adventure.

FRESH HOTELS

The bar has been raised in recent years when it comes to Paris' restaurants, courtesy of a herd of new hotel openings. Take, for example, La Fantaisie, home to Golden Poppy, a Californiainspired restaurant by Frenchborn, San Francisco-based chef Dominique Crenn. Designed by Swedish-born interior architect, Martin Brudnizki, it's the city's most talked-about opening. People snuggle into upholstered floral banquettes in the conservatorylike dining room, while the serene garden setting is a million miles from the bustle of Paris' 9th arrondissement. Playful plates include Parker House rolls baked in a skillet with egg yolk jam, soured cream and whipped butter, as well as dry-aged sea bream with condiments, pickles and leaves to wrap each mouthful.