Word: parisianize
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...famously gastronomic France, the trend has been surprisingly slow to catch on. In Paris, where restaurant menus boast langoustine from Madagascar and caviar from Iran, few gourmets imagine it possible to compose a meal from produce grown within 50 miles of the capital. But today, born-and-bred Parisian chef Yannick Alléno and a handful of others are doing just that. Their rhetoric stresses exclusivity and the revival of forgotten flavors rather than the reduction of greenhouse gases, but the end result is the same: both diners and the environment benefit...
...Some dishes were best forgotten: "There are recipes preserved in the Tour d'Argent archives from the period of the Franco-Prussian War for cat, even rat!" says Ribaut, referring to the records of the celebrated Parisian restaurant that claims over 400 years of history. But the overall loss of recipes deprived modern Parisian chefs of a precious base for creativity. "Composers like Bartók or Stravinksy composed variations on old, traditional airs, and cuisine is the same thing," adds Ribaut, who has personally unearthed many forgotten dishes. (Watch TIME's video "Bocuse d'Or: Americans in a French...
...with produce in hand, says Alléno, "we try to imagine what Parisian cuisine would have become today if it hadn't been abandoned." One wonders why it ever was after tasting his fillet of sole with Paris mushrooms, based on the Normandy sole first served in the 1830s on Rue Montorgeuil; his lamb chops Champvallon-style, said to have been created by a mistress of Louis XIV to seduce him; or his fricassee of Gâtinais chicken with artichoke and potatoes, a modern take on the dish served in 1790 at Le Cabaret...
...started something of a trend. At the chic Café Moderne, Normandy-born Jean-Luc LeFrançois serves Parisian delicacies like Gâtinais-rabbit farci with Poissy-cherry chutney and fricassee of Brie-Comte-Robert escargots with girolle mushrooms. "Like Alléno, I believe that, as Paris chefs, it's our responsibility to work with the produce of our region," he says...
...does most of the world travel on the right side today? Theories differ, but there's no doubt Napoleon was a major influence. The French have used the right since at least the late 18th century (there's evidence of a Parisian "keep-right" law dating to 1794). Some say that before the French Revolution, aristocrats drove their carriages on the left, forcing the peasantry to the right. Amid the upheaval, fearful aristocrats sought to blend in with the proletariat by traveling on the right as well. Regardless of the origin, Napoleon brought right-hand traffic to the nations...