The eating out scene in Paris is bubbling away right now with restaurant openings by both  renowned chefs and hot young talents, alongside a new trend for affordable  gastronomy. New food movements like Le Fooding (www.lefooding.com) and Omnivore (www.omnivore.fr) are offering daring alternatives to the venerable Michelin Guide, and there is a real buzz that France is finally waking up to the reality that the country may be the ‘cradle of gourmet cuisine’, but that fine dining has moved on to embrace a more inventive, cosmopolitan approach - typified first by  Ferran Adria, now by Scandinavia’s Noma and Spain’s Roca brothers. 

 

The perfect example is the opening last month of Terroir Parisien in the grandiose Palais Brogniart, once  home of the French Stock Exchange. This is the brainchild of stellar chef, Yannick Alleno, who recently departed from his Three Star Michelin restaurant in Hotel Meurice, but still oversees a Two Star temple of gastronomy in chic Courchevel, as well as restaurants in Marrakesh, Peking, Dubai and Beirut. But in his new bustling, modern bistro in Paris, foodies can sample Alleno’s innovative cuisine - he describes himself as the heir to Auguste Escoffier - using products that are essentially sourced from farms around the Paris suburbs, and at prices that certainly don’t break the bank. Not surprisingly, the bright open dining room, designed by architect-guru Jean-Michel Wilmotte, has been packed out from the day it opened. 

 

Alleno brings reivents classic Parisian dishes that have  all but disappeared from today’s bistrots: ‘celeri a la remoulade mimosa d’oeuf’, creamy celeriac topped off with tangy egg mimosa, ‘ma gratinee des Halles aux p’tits oignons’, a hearty French onion soup with beef marrow, ‘raie aux capres au beurre noisette’, poached skate with capers and brown butter. And looking around the dining room it seems no one can resist the ‘brioche “Nanterre” perdue glace vanille’, a wicked take on French toast, using spongy brioche and to-die-for vanilla ice cream. The wine list is excellent, beginning with afforbable €19 bottles like a crisp little-known Apremont ‘Terres Blanches’ from mountain vineyards in the Savoy Alps, upto a 1995 Margaux, Chateau Bel Air, from Alleno’s personal  Cave Privee, priced at €65 

 

Terroir Parisien really is a welcome contrast to the stiff formality people often expect from a Parisian restaurant, and looking around at lunch today, diners look quite surprised at the friendly, casual, but very efficient waiters, flitting between the tables, and the chefs working away in the open kitchen wearing flat butcher’s caps instead of the stuffy toque. Many customers who don’t want a full meal sit round the big round bar in the centre of the restaurant, and here there you can order more old-fashioned favourites, relooked by  Alleno, like ‘croque-monsieur’ toast, a delicious ‘pate en croute rustique’, and even a ‘sandwich jambon-beurre, veritable parisien’ - just don’t expect it to taste like a normal ham sandwich. After 4.00pm, the Rillette Bar opens too, serving not just the traditional duck, pork and rabbit varieties, but lighter, healthier versions made from fish and even vegetarian rillettes - mon Dieu, this could be the start of a new French Revolution. 

 

Terroir Parisien

Palais Brogniart

28 Place de la Bourse, 75002 Paris

Metro: Bourse

tel: 00 (0)183922030

www.yannick-alleno.com

Three course lunch or dinner costs around €40, without wine. Be warned that servings are not enormous so you won’t be taking a doggy bag home.