Passard's Ephemeral Vegetable

Alain Passard - the Michelin three-star chef of l'Arpege - has opened an "ephemeral restaurant" called Vegetable in the department store Printemps. If you are in Paris right now - go - I mean right now. They're serving dishes straight off the restaurant menu - with produce from Passard's very own garden - including the legendary egg amuse-bouche and the life-changing herb-stuffed raviolis. But instead of paying up to 320 euros for a seasonal tasting menu, you can get three eggs for 8 euros or a bowl chock full of the raviolis for only 11. When I had the raviolis at the restaurant, they were roughly 10 euros per single ravioli - not that I didn't think they were worth every single centime. I went today for a late lunch with James - former sous-chef at Manresa - passing through town from a stage at The Fat Duck to a stage at elBulli - and FOP - Friend of Pim's. In the Small/Weird World Files, James got his stage at elBulli after Manresa chef/owner David Kinch read my post about How to Get a Stage at elBulli. Even though I raved about the raviolis - I could tell from the look in his eyes that he was thinking "Girl, how good can they be?" But the look on his face when he bit into the first one justified my raving. "Man, what are in these things!" Leeks for sure we could discern - inside the transparent but resistent handmade pasta wrappers - and chervil, chives, and parsley at least - but our cooks' curiosity was tempered by the fact that we just wanted to eat them. Vegetable is open from lunch through dinner - service non-stop - until June 5th. No reservations - unless you hold a Printemps credit card and then it's still reservations for dinner only at that. FOH is managed by l'Arpege's director of the dining room himself with one of his regular servers - and BOH by the sous-chef with a team from the restaurant. Go. Now.

Comments

[Pim]

I'm back in town tomorrow and you guys couldn't wait? Heh.

[Anne]

Oh! Oh! Oh! I'm going to Paris next weekend! And this sounds *perfect*! I've been looking for really fun things to do - we're just going on a Friday-Sunday trip to celebrate my birthday and we've never been to Paris. Thank you so much for this tip - I really hope we're able to go, and get a table. :)

[Greg]

My wife and I had lunch at Vegetable today. My wife started with the cream of mushroom soup with cashews and I had the chaud/froid eggs. Both were fantastic. We both had the raviolis for a main course. Wonderful. Can’t figure out what the herbs were, however…will trust your palate’s chervil, chives, and parsley…

Thanks for the great tip…and I am now vindicated for brining my laptop along on holidays…

[marc]

I had lunch there today too arrived at quarter to 12 and was the first seated had the eggs, the onion, the ravioli and the chocolate dessert two glasses of white wine for 45 € The Bargain of the century!!!! Thanks for the super tip Louisa.

[Ryne]

Holy moly! I wish I were in Paris this month, instead of last month; it makes me jealous... If these eggs and ravioli are, in fact, the same as the ones I had at L'Arpege then I think this more than makes up for the high (but fair in my mind) prices that Passard has been charging at his flagship. Are they offering more directly from the tasting menu?

[susan]

Oh my goodness, this sounds soooooo good. You know, I almost bought one of those egg topper thingies last week at a restaurant show but it was more than US$50. Damn, I wish I had bought it.

[Louisa]

Pim - you couldn't call? We would have waited if we knew when you were back in town! ;)

Anne - happy birthday - definitely a fun AND gastronomic way to celebrate!

Greg - we had the mushroom soup too - garnished with crushed peanuts actually. Amazing - more a puree than a soup. And heck yeah - I never leave home without my laptop!

Marc - you were in town and you didn't tell me! You are most welcome, sir - I'm glad you were at least able to make it there. :)

Ryne - if you flew over just for this you'd actually be saving money by being able to taste so much of Passard's food without paying l'Arpege prices. ;) I'll edit the post to add all the menu items - now that I have a little more time!

Susan - I can't believe you resisted a kitchen buy - you being the girl who brought how many kilos of boudin noir from Paris to Hong Kong?

[john]

Thanks for your blog. We are here for a week and I checked your site at the hotel. Had lunch there today, Friday. I had the eggs and my wife had the chamoignons for entrees. On to the ravioles and spinach with carrots. How does he do those ravioles? Outstanding! Desert was the chocolate noir and sorbet ananas. Thanks for your research!

[Anne]

Just an update - we did indeed eat lunch there, and it was absolutely wonderful. We couldn't manage more than one course each, but I had the amazing ravioli (add me to the list of people wanting to know how to make these! It seemed like a special type of pasta too, not just regular dough) and Per had the risotto which was also great. Thank you SO much for this wonderful tip!