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Laurent

A billionaire's dream

Jorg Zipprick's Culinary Journal - Free Lance Correspondent to the Paris Pages
Text copyright (c) June 1995 Jorg Zipprick - used with permission.

Sponsoring is a fine thing: it makes tickets for concerts or theatres payable and the artists can work without economic sorrows. But even if Music- festivals or sports-events can easily find a "big spender", the creators of our culinary pleasures are a bit chanceless om money-matters. So why shouldn't a man who almost has everything buy a restaurant? A place to meet his business-friends, a place to celebrate or simply have a good meal. Naturally this shouldn't be a "everyday-restaurant", but one of the best, situated not in a culinary no-man's land but in Paris, the capital of Haute-Cuisine.

Sir James Goldsmith, an anglo-french business-man , speculator and one of the richest men in Europe did exactly this: He bought the "Laurent", a magnificent restaurant behind the Champs-Elysees, renovated the house of 1842 and engaged the experienced Edmond Ehrlich as "President-Directeur" of his new enterprise. The wine-cellar was confied to Philippe Bourgignon, one of the best sommeliers of France, and the great chef Joel Robuchon was gained as consultant. Its his disciple Philippe Brown (the nephew of three- Star-Chef Emile Jung in Strasbourg) who is now well-occupied with the pots and pans in Laurent's kitchen. The young alsatian chef nearly doesn't need any consultation of his former master - for the great surprise of his guests he regularly creates new dishes in a very own style.

Now multimillionaire Goldsmith is the owner of one of the most beautiful restaurants of Pars, with great cuisine, first-class-service and a magnificent terrace for Paris-summer-nights. And as this man doesn't really need this place to make money, he offers the guests of Laurent the very best value for their money: Only 380 FF for a two-star-meal with for example gelee d'araignee de mer or foie gras aux feves noires (this is a kind of foie-gras-chili which Philippe Brown created when marrying in Mexico!), ragout d'homard au polenta or pigeon grille au puree de petits pois (roast pigeon with mashed peas), cheeses and dessert. When choosing a la carte, you will have to pay more than the double - but you'll taste some rare french specialities like the boeuf de Coutancie - meet of oxes of the south of France which are massaged once a day and fed with three liters of beer, like the Japanese Kobe-Beef.

Laurent: 41, avenue Gabriel, 75008 Paris, Tel: 42 25 00 39

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Updated 06/95