Paris restaurant L’Arpège with three Michelin stars and £430 menu is skewered by food critic who finds a piece of PLASTIC in his fleur de courgette – while reviewing it for Le Figaro
- Three Michelin-starred restaurant under fire after serving dish containing plastic
- Among world’s top restaurants, L’Arpège is run by ‘legendary’ chef Alain Passard
- Passard, 66, at forefront of ‘farm to table’ cooking and championing vegetables
- L’Arpège charges £430 for its taster menu – excluding drinks – and €185 for lunch
- Le Figaro critic Stéphane Durand-Souffland was reviewing Parisian restaurant
A three Michelin-starred restaurant in Paris, which charges £430 for its taster menu – excluding drinks – has come under fire after serving a top French food critic a dish containing a piece of plastic.
Regarded as one of the world’s best restaurants, L’Arpège is run by ‘legendary’ chef Alain Passard, who is said to personally inspect each meal before it goes out.
Passard, 66, is known as being at the vanguard of ‘farm to table’ cooking, and featured in Netflix’s Chef’s Table series after his 36-year-old restaurant ditched meat and focused on championing vegetables.
L’Arpège, a three Michelin-starred restaurant in Paris, which charges £430 for a taster menu – excluding drinks – has come under fire
Chef Alain Passard, 66, is known as being at the vanguard of ‘farm to table’ cooking
But last week, a customer – who was in fact a food critic from French newspaper Le Figaro – was served his fleur de courgette with a ‘two centimetre’ piece of soft plastic in it.
In his scathing review, Stéphane Durand-Souffland wrote that the mistake was just one part of the meal which left him and his fellow diners feeling like they had been ‘taken for a ride’.
He describes some of the pricy tasting menu’s dishes, which have become a tourist attraction in their own right, as ‘banal’ and said the whole experience left him ‘perplexed’.
In his scathing review, Stéphane Durand-Souffland wrote that the mistake was just one part of the meal which left him and his fellow diners feeling like they had been ‘taken for a ride’
The restaurant’s tasting menus are priced at €490 and feature dishes including sushi
‘Passard was passive, without energy, as though going through some soulless routine. In this category, at this price, it’s unforgivable.’
To compensate for the plastic hidden in the courgette flower, the waiter brought Durand-Souffland one of Passard’s signature dishes, a lamb and pigeon fusion priced at £189.
The critic said of the dish, which was inspired by the work of Thomas Grünfeld, a German sculptor known for his ‘Misfits’ series of imaginary hybrid animals: ‘Sorry, but I got no thrill from this Frankenstein exploit.’
L’Arpège has held its Michelin status for a quarter of a century and is currently ranked number 31 in the World’s 50 Best Restaurants
In 2016, Passard featured in Netflix’s Chef’s Table, in which he conceded ‘A three-star restaurant is very demanding, everything has to be perfect’
He concluded his review, writing: ‘Three stars? Really?’
‘There’s nothing worse than a dinner that makes you sad.’
The critic got just a £60 discount, according to The Sunday Times.
L’Arpège was founded in 1986, has held its Michelin status for a quarter of a century and is currently ranked number 31 in the World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
Passard shocked the culinary world in 2001 by announcing that he would stop cooking meat, despite his restaurant being known for its roasts.
The critic concluded his review of the restaurant: ‘There’s nothing worse than a dinner that makes you sad’
Fish and meat dishes have now returned to the menu, but vegetables are still front and centre in the restaurant’s menu and ethos
Items on its lunch menu costs diners between €54 and €220, while its ‘Gardeners Lunch’ comes in at €185
Passard shocked the culinary world in 2001 by announcing that he would stop cooking meat, despite his restaurant being known for its roasts
He instead decided to focus on the vegetable produce of biodynamic farms he had set up around France and soon he became known as the ‘king of the turnip’ due to the personal care he took for the plants.
Fish and meat dishes have now returned to the menu, but vegetables are still front and centre in the restaurant’s menu and ethos.
In 2016, he featured in Netflix’s Chef’s Table, in which he conceded ‘A three-star restaurant is very demanding, everything has to be perfect.’
Before Passard announced that he would stop cooking meat at his restaurant, it was well-known as a rotisserie
Regarded as one of the world’s best restaurants, L’Arpège is the brainchild of ‘legendary’ head chef Alain Passard, who is said to personally check every meal before it goes out
His restaurant’s tasting menus are priced at €490 and feature dishes including sushi and a ‘golden onion lace with Parmigiano Reggiano’.
Meanwhile, items on its lunch menu costs diners between €54 and €220, while its ‘Gardeners Lunch’ comes in at €185.
L’Arpège has been contacted for comment.
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