As I exited Dix-Huit in the 17th today, where the young Philippine chef Aaron Isip (ex-Apicius, Drouant, Ze and Pan) is cooking up a storm with a 24 E 3-course menu that has intriguing combinations of seafood, meats, vegetables, herbs, nuts, seeds and sauces, I asked myself where the inventive, innovative cooking in Paris was coming from in terms of their chefs' origins (realizing that I've been blown away previously at the Japanese-cheffed places Sola, Kei, Les Enfants Rouges, Abri, Aki, le Concert de la Cuisine, etc.,) and it looked like this:
Dix-Huit - the Philippines
Yard - Australia
AT - Japan
BAT - Israel
Kigawa - Japan again
Le Servan - the Philippines again
Le Pario - Brazil
Au Passage (now Bones) - Australia again.
La Table de Cybele - from the US of A
I'm not dismissing the interesting French folks at places like Sur le fil, the Bistrot du Maquis, Maison de l'Amerique Latine, Bon Georges, L'Envie du Jour, Will, La Faille, etc, but the infusion of new outside blood is a good sign I think.
PS I'm not talking about "fusion" or "ethnic" but French-French food.
