Kei

No country in the world seems more enthralled by classic French cooking than Japan, and dozens of talented, ambitious, hardworking young Japanese chefs come to France to learn every year. Many of them stay to open their own restaurants, and currently quite a few of the best French-cuisine chefs in Paris are Japanese-born. Kei, the excellent new restaurant on the edge of Les Halles, is the first independent restaurant of Kei Kobayashi, who arrived in France in 1999 and cooked with Gilles Goujon at his three-star Auberge du Vieux Puits in Languedoc-Roussillon and at Alain Ducasse’s Plaza Athénée before going out on his own.

Salmon and crunchy vegetables

In a chic gray and white dining room, Kobayashi offers two tasting menus, both spectacular. I loved my entire meal—foie gras with a vivid garnish of shaved vegetables and flowers; lobster en cocotte with red pepper sauce; succulent Pyrenees lamb in a velvety sauce of its own cooking juices; an excellent cheese course and a refreshing, very pretty dessert of citrus segments and sorbet in a deep bowl topped by a lattice of meringue. The precision and passion of Kobayashi’s cooking made this truly excellent meal worth every euro.

5 rue Coq-Héron, 1st, 01.42.33.14.74. Lunch menus €38 and €48 (4 or 5 courses), dinner menus €75 and €95 (6 or 8 courses).

Prices are per person without wine.

Originally published in the May 2011 issue of France Today

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Alexander Lobrano’s book Hungry for Paris is published by Random House. www.hungryforparis.com

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