Le Fooding celebrates its 10th birthday with an all-star lineup of chefs

Photo credit: ©roulious.com

Le Fooding celebrates their 10^th anniversary this October with an incredible lineup of 18 of Paris’s best chefs who will take turns cooking for 72 hours non-stop in homage to ‘La Marmite Perpetuelle” —the continuously bubbling pot— a reference to Madame De Marme’s 18^th century establishment on what is now the rue des Grands Augustins, where she sold capons simmered in a large pot over a fire that never went out.  Legion says that the fire lasted nearly 100 years and more than 300,000 capons were cooked, one after another, in the same stock.

Here is the schedule:

October 1

00h00- 4h00 : Inaki Aizpitarte (Le Chateaubriand) ; 4h – 8h : Yves Camdeborde (Le Comptoir du Relais) ; 8h – 12h : Christian Etchebest (La Cantine du Troquet) ; 12h – 16h : Alberto Herraiz (Fogon) ; 16h – 20h :  Stéphane Jégo (L’Ami Jean) ; 20h – 00h : William Ledeuil (Ze Kitchen Galerie)

October 2

00h – 4h : Christophe Pelé (La Bigarrade) ; 4h – 8h : Waiting to be confirmed ; 8h – 12h:  Rose Carrarrini (Rose Bakery) ; 2h – 16h : Federica & Fabrizio Mancioppi (Caffé dei Cioppi) and Cédric Casanova (La Tête dans les olives) ; 16h – 20h :  Christophe Michalak (Pastry Chef) ; 20h – 00h:  Jean-François Piège (Thoumieux)

October 3

00h – 4h :  Petter Nilsson (La Gazzetta) ; 4h – 8h:  Waiting to be confirmed ; 8h – 12h : Grégory Marchand (Frenchie) ; 12h – 16h :  Christophe Beaufront (L’Avant Goût) ;
16h – 20h : Guillaume Delage (Jadis) ; 20h – 00h : Adeline Grattard (Yam’Tcha)

Les Ebullitions Perpétuelles
Galerie W
44 rue Lepic
75018 Paris
1-3 October, non-stop

To reserve you will need to wait for details on Le Fooding website : www.lefooding.com

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Street Food Soirées in Paris II: 5 July at Batofar

M.I.A.M continues its summer “Street Food Soirées“, where some of Paris’s most renowned chefs serve up their renditions of “la cuisine de la rue”.

The next soirée has been announced for the 5^th of July and the theme this time around is Fish and Chips, the beloved British take-away dish which incidently turns 150 years old this year.

The chefs themselves have yet to be announced, but I promise to update this post as soon as they are.  Stay tuned for more…

When: July 5, 18h-2h
Where: Batofar, Quai Francois Mauriac, 13th

Yogurt Bars Are Popping Up in Paris

It seems that yogurt bars are becoming quite trendy in Paris with a newly opened yogurt bar in Saint Germain and pop-up yogurt bars appearing at both Colette and the Bon Marché just in time for summer.

It Mylk, a cute boutique recently opened by two young fashionistas on the rue de l’Ancienne Comédie, serves fresh and frozen yogurt with a nice selection of toppings, all made with first-rate ingredients including local farm-fresh milk from la ferme de Viltain, seasonal fruit, granola, homemade compotes, crumble, chocolate and more.

They also serve homemade cakes made by award-winning pastry chef Gabrielle Jones.  I had a taste of the vanilla frozen yogurt sweeten with agave nector and can attest that it was creamy and delicious.

Fans of the French yogurt Mamie Nova will want to reserve a spot at Colette, the hyper-branchée Parisian concept store, on 16 June for the release of Mamie’s latest flavours: green apple and kiwi, prune, and pistachio.  To animate the festivities, they’ve invited starred chef Hélène Darroze to be on hand to reinterpret some of their most popular flavours.

And finally, Michel and Augustin, who you might know from their line of gourmet boxed cookies, are getting into the yogurt business as well and have set up shop until 3 July in the Grande Epicierie at la Bon Marché with an impressive ephemeral yogurt bar where you can create your own flavours from a base of plain, vanilla or raspberry blueberry yogurt with a possibility of 21 different combinations.

Where to find them:

It Mylk, 15 rue de l’Ancienne Comédie, Paris 6th

Colette, 213 Rue Saint-Honoré,  Paris 1st

La Grande Epicerie de Paris, 38 rue de Sèvres, Paris 7th.

Omnivore in NYC, 4-5 June 2010

For those of you who didn’t get into Frenchie on your last Paris trip, you might be able try Gregory Marchand’s cooking this coming weekend as Omnivore is bringing a team of young, talented French chefs to New York for two nights of cooking, master classes and a street party on 4-5 June.

Gregory Marchand of Frenchie, Peter Nilsson of La Gazetta, Gilles Choukroun of MBC (all from Paris), Eric Guérin of La Mare aux Oiseaux in Saint Joachim, Philippe Hardy of Le Mascaret in Blainville-sur-mer, and Jean-Luc Tartarin from Le Havre will be cooking along side American chefs like David Kinch, Dan Barber and Paul Liebrandt.

The five French chefs will then team up for a special night of “live cooking” for 500 lucky guests at a Brooklyn block party at the Invisible Dog complete with food truck, DJ and more that is sure to be a blast.

For more information and reservations head to www.omnivore.fr

More in the Press

Omnivore Returns to New York

Rendez Vous Gourmands, 27-30 May 2010

Last year, just before Christmas, a colleague asked me to join her at a tasting at the nearby Byzance,  the Boulogne Bilancourt  branch of the company that also brings us Bellota Bellota in the 7th and Jaburgo  Iberico  Co in the 8th.  I happily went having no idea what to expect and was certainly glad I did.

Like Bellota-Bellota, Byzance offers very high-end products, including, of course, some of the best Spanish ham you can find.  There’s a counter where you can also sit and eat, but on this day they had stands throughout the shop where you could sample just about everything.

This weekend Byzance will open its doors again for their 24th “Rendez-Vous Gourmands” and if it is anything like the event last December, it’s definitely worth attending.

Here’s a list of just some of what they will be serving in their two story shop during the next three days: seared and raw Obsiblue shrimp, a rare, slightly blue shrimp, farmed in a protected lagoon in New Caledonia and served in some of Paris’s best restaurants; Naccarii caviar; Iberian pork loin à la plancha from Pata Negra pigs; fresh “Medjoul “ dates from Israel; all sorts of luxury smoked fish like smoked salmon, herring, anchovies, sardines, tuna belly; foie gras and Spanish cheeses; and incredible aged Bellota-Bellota ham.  At the last event they also had  pastries and chocolates by Sadaharu Aoki and were serving Spanish wine.

It was a very fun event, and amazingly completely free, although after trying such incredible products it’s very hard to resist and not buy, so I ended up spending at least 100 €.

You may need an invitation to attend, so be sure to visit their website to print one out (www.bellota-bellota.com)

Rendez Vous Gourmands

27-30 May, Friday 28 May until 23h00, Saturday 29 May 12h00-22h00, Sunday30 May 11h00-18h00

Byzance
27 rue Yves Kermen
Boulogne Billancourt (which is a suburb just outside Paris and served by the Paris metro)
Metro: Pont de Sevres

See it on the map

Street Food Soirées in Paris

Drawing by Philippe Neumager

M.I.A.M, a free urban magazine, is organising a series of “Street Food” soirées all throughout the summer with some of Paris’s most renowned chefs serving their renditions of “la cuisine de la rue”.  The first will be held on June 1^st and will be dedicated to that all-American classic—the Burger.

Three-star chef Yannick Alléno, will be serving up his world famous burger, which is made with two cuts of beef—chuck and rib—and supplied by Yves-Marie Le Bourdonnec of Le Couteau d’Argent, a butchershop in Asnières, a suburb just outside Paris.

Celebrity baker Gontran Cherrier has thought up a vegetarian burger for the evening—the Greenwich—made with guacamole and radish sprouts, paired with Zubrowka bison grass vodka.

Christophe Adam, the Executive Pastry Chef at Fauchon who has been touted as the next Pierre Hermé, will be making a “sweet” burger while Romuald Sanfourch, the young chef from the Batofar, will be serving his creation, a duck burger.

As an American, I’m not sure what to think of the “sweet burger” or the duck burger, but given the quality of the chefs, I wouldn’t miss it.

When: June 1^st 18h-2h
Where: Batofar, Quai Francois Mauriac, 13th
Price: starting at 6 €

A Unique Monday Night Dining Experience in Paris

Catch budding stars of the food world, one Monday night a month in Paris, at Les Lundis de Fulgurances, a unique concept created by Sophie Cornibert and Hugo Hivernat, which invites the second in command of the world’s top restaurants to break out on their own and create their own cuisine for 50 guests in Paris.

The first “second” chef was pretty impressive with Sam Miller, René Redzepi’s sous-chef at Noma, one of the world’s top restaurants. The 8 course menu, paired with wines choosen by Noma’s sommelier, was only 75 €, so quite a bargain.

Tomorrow night marks the second “Lundis de Fulgurances” with Nicolas Guiet, sous-chef at la Mare aux Oiseaux , a Michelin-starred restaurant in the Parc Naturel Régional de Brière praised for its inventive cuisine. He’ll be bringing the pastry chef of the Mare aux Oiseaux as well for what promises to be a unique Monday night in Paris.

Dinners take place at Les Combustibles, 14 rue Abel, in the 12th.
For reservations: reservationlldf@gmail.com
For more information visit Sophie Cornibert’s website www.fulgurances.com

La Fête du Pain

This week marks the 15^th Fête du Pain in France with events being held throughout the country.  One of the highlights will take place Saturday, May 15^th when the city of Paris hosts the 7th “Master de la baguette de tradition française”, a competition which pits teams of master bakers from Ile de France against each other to determine which department makes the best baguette.

The baking teams will bake 40 baguettes each and will be judged by a professional jury with the winner being announced at Notre Dame de Paris at 16h45 on Saturday.  Djibril Bodian (this year’s winner of La Grand Prix de La Baguette) and Daniel Pouphary (the runner up) will represent Paris; Cédric Niel and Dominique Guignier will represent les Hauts-de-Seine; Jérôme Duchamp and Anis Bouabsa will bake for Seine-Saint-Denis; and Éric Sanna and Cyril Polledri will represent Val de Marne.   Check back here on Saturday to see who won!

La Fête du Pain:
10-17 May

Happy Birthday Fooding!

Drawing by Asako Masunouchi

It’s been nearly ten years since Alexandre Cammas, then writing for Libération and Nova, coined the term Fooding–a mix between food and feeling–and launched the first “Semaine de Fooding” in December of 2000.  Since then Le Fooding has been holding some of the best culinary events in France with their “Semaine de Fooding” and “Grand Fooding d’Eté, both of which invite some very big name French chefs to serve playful dishes in unusual atmospheres at very democratic prices.

I’ve been to winter carnivals where Yannick Alleno and Yves Camdeborde served up street food in the village Saint Paul, summer BBQs with Inaki Aizpitarte, Pierre Gagnaire, and Alain Passard and this year’s aptly named “Les Incorrects“, which served up some pretty politically incorrect dishes, like bunny and horsemeat, in the spectacular Piscine Molitor.  This year the Fooding gang even took on the Big Apple with Le Fooding d’Amour, which brought together some of France’s and New York’s best chefs, American and French alike.

For its 10th birthday, Le Fooding has planned ten incredible events to celebrate. As always, proceeds go to Action Contre la Faim

Val d’Isère: 25 April

Fooding à la Neige (aka Fooding in the Snow): Taste the cuisine of Christophe Aribert (Les Terrasses D’Uriage), Emmanuel Renaut (Flocons de Sel), Alain Perillat (Atmosphères) and Patrick Walker (La Fruitière) from the terrace of the Folie Douce on the summit of Val d’Isere.  Entrance 25 €

Paris: 2, 9, 16 May

Fooding à la Ville (aka Fooding in the City):

2 May: Eric Fréchon (Bristol) and Federica and Fabrizio Mancioppi (Caffé dei Cioppi)

 9 May: Giovanni Passerini (Rino) and Grégory Marchand (Frenchie)

16 May: Alberto Herraiz (Fogon) and Cédric Casanova (La tête dans les olives)

For an invitation visit their site at 10am on 29 April

Nice: 5  June

Fooding à la Mer (aka Fooding by the Sea)

 Mauro Colagreco (Le Mirazur), Mickaël and Gaël Tourteaux (Flaveur), Armand Arnal (La Chassagnette) and Mickael Gracieux (L’Aromate) will be on hand for a BBQ at Hi Beach in Nice.

For an invite, visit Le Fooding on 3 June at 10am.

More events are planned throughout the year, with events in Paris, Biarritz, Milan and NYC again.  I will be posting more information as it becomes available.

More about Le Fooding

Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, April 5 2010: No Rules! Is Le Fooding, the French culinary movement, more than a feeling

Amazing videos and interviews of the Fooding d’Amour in New York

Some photos of Fooding events