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La Table d'Anvers

Duo Infernal

Jorg Zipprick's Culinary Journal - Freelance Correspondent to the Paris Pages
Text copyright (c) May 1995 Jorg Zipprick - used with permission.
Seen from the outside, the "Table d'Anvers" seems to be nothing special. A small restaurant in poor quarter of the french capitol, far from the glory of Eiffel-Tower and Champs-Elysees. But if you decide, to make a step inside, you can discover in this place two of the greatest chef of the next century, the "Duo Infernal of french Haute Cuisine: Christian Conticini, the chef, and his brother Philippe, the patissier, already belong to the most creative minds in french gastronomy. Their best recipe? Take French traditions, some inspirations from asian or italian dishes, lots of own ideas, mix up and stirr well and put it in the oven at 220.

The result are some dishes, that you won't get to know in any other french restaurant: gnocchi de homard, lobster served with italien gnocchi and small, spicy sausages, crosti de foie gras aux abricots secs confits et rhubarbe (goose liver with apricots and rhubarb), Pistou de Rascasse, lasagne de ventre de lapin (a lasagne of rabbit's belly), rable de lapin a la polenta - this is not only "food", it's a new experience of almost unknown flavours. Like his brother Christian, Pastissier Phillippe is not afraid of condiments: His variations of traditional french desserts like macaron and millefeuille belong to the best of the whole country, but take the (very small) risk order one of his specialities: They have promising names like "Kheops", "Jasmina" or "La passion de Venus", called Monte-Christo is made of pineapple, gingerbread, icecream and - tobacco-sauce.

Since the restaurant of our two flavour-acrobats is not as luxurios as Robuchon and Lucas-Carton, the pleasure of one of their menus will leave enough bills of French Francs in your pocket to pay taxi and hotel: Count 160 FF for Lunch and 190 or 450 FF for diner - the "petits menus" are the "best buys" in the whole town. La Table d'Anvers, 2, place d'Anvers, Tel.: 48.78.35.21, closed Saturday lunch and Sunday.

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Updated 05/95