L'Aube, chef Thibault Nizard's first gourmet restaurant

Chef Thibault Nizard has opened his first Paris restaurant, L'Aube. We're not getting ahead of ourselves in announcing that the latter could well be in the running for the stars.

Chef Thibault Nizard took a major step forward this year with the opening of his first restaurant in Paris, a stone's throw from the Palais-Royal and the Louvre, soberly named L'Aube, like a poetic, long-desired birth. At the age of 30, the Paris-born chef took his time, acquiring over the years and the establishments he frequented a wealth of experience in fine French gastronomy, as well as a precise idea of what his first table would one day be.

From the stoves of Le Collectionneur and Le Chiberta, where he began his apprenticeship, Thibault Nizard went on to rub shoulders with three-star chefs Alain Solivérès at Le Taillevent and Gérald Passédat at Le Petit Nice, before returning to Le Taillevent, first in the 110 and then as sous-chef of thehistoric address. Undeniably drawn to the three-star level, the young sous-chef later met up with Guy Savoy at La Monnaie de Paris, and rounded off his journey of fine dining at Drouant, asEmile Cotte 's second and then head chef at just 28 years of age.

With excellence, elegance, rigor and discipline in mind, Thibault Nizard opened L'Aube in place of Zebulon. With its double exposure, the restaurant extends its 320m2 from the rue de Richelieu to the rue de Montpensier, all sober and contemporary. With gray and blue tones and designer lighting in the shape of ship's blades, the restaurant plays the purity card.

Yet it's in this hushed setting, with its crisp white tablecloths and meticulous service, that everything is played out before the eyes of aesthetes. The kitchen opens onto the dining room, and the chef's table seats six, with a front-row seat in front of the black granite pass where Thibault Nizard prepares the dishes and desserts at a moment's notice; but also with the cutting and flambéing carried out directly in the dining room, under the direction ofElinor Nizard, the chef's wife.

Whether it's the food or the beverages, the idea here is to let yourself be carried away and have blind confidence in this chef trained by the greatest - which is to say, it's easy to let yourself be convinced. The menu is divided into several tasting menus: 3-course at lunch (49€), 5-course at lunch and dinner (95€), 7- and 9-course at dinner only (150€, 190€), and even an after-show menu on reservation, offered between 10pm and 11pm to coincide with the nearby theaters.

As for the 300 or so wine references, they can be discovered through food and wine pairings straight from the mind of the head sommelier and the well-stocked cellars - 6000 bottles strong - located beneath the restaurant and open to visitors before dinner.

L'Aube is undeniably gastronomic in its dressings, service, pairings and table preparations, and is even aiming for the stars of a certain red guide. Lunch gets off to a slow start with tomato amuse-bouches (confit, tartar with pickles and vanilla vinaigrette, parfait givré) and a dish vying for the title of 'best foie gras creation' in the Lebey guide: foie gras in ice cider jelly and apple compote deglazed with cider, chutney style.

But it's afterwards that things really get going, with mussels in Sichuan curry butter, deglazed in a carrot reduction and served with chorizo, yellow and red tomatoes from Ile-de-France, a chorizo emulsion and a devilishly sapid mussel au gratin.

Lunch even ends on a high note, with a Charolais beef chuck that looks like a royal hare, covered in a red wine sauce with foie gras butter (devilishly reduced and glazed, not surprising for this chef, a trained saucier), and its raviole stuffed with mushroom duxelles. We dive into autumn without looking back!

Thibault Nizard is also responsible for the sweet side of the equation, with a palet of plum marinated in plum and lavender juice, red plum and greengage compote, vanilla tuile and lavender ice cream.