Adrien Cachot, laid-back and uncommon gastronomy at the Perchoir Ménilmontant

He delighted many gastronomes, looking mind-blown their televisions, with his flambadou and avant-garde ideas, often subversive, flying every minute… Adrien Cachot, the brat from Top Chef France season 11 – whose own restaurant’s opening is highly expected in Paris – has settled in the kitchen of the Perchoir Ménilmontant, used to the practice, for a 6-month residency ending this late April.

Reserving a table was very difficult because the chef is highly coveted; and the most skilled foodies may have already activated an alert to warn them about the opening of bookings for the last month of this residency. A risky exercise for the Catalan chef fed with the cuisine of his terroir as he wanted to include his transcendent ideas into a place that is not his… But it worked.

Here, no program, no promise: the unique menu is entirely unknown and only served for dinner, for €96. And this menu is the delectable appetizer of cuisine renewed and modernized by a chef like no other. This collaboration unveils high-quality dishes, brilliantly created and made, shining a light on what France has best and is likely to delight all lovers of the French gastronomy’s terroir and traditions.

But it was without including Adrien Cachot’s endless ambition who – very delighted to transcend the simplest and less noble produces, like offal – mixes them with the condiment, seasoning, plant, vegetable or fruit that will uplift them.

The show starts with a bang with four appetizers laying the groundwork: flambadou oysters, ballotine sardine and bobun condiment, marinated duck tongue wrapped in nasturtium leaf, meringue anchovy butter; horseradish and parsley chlorophyl tartlet.

Then comes the 7-course menu’s variation of sunchokes (chips, candied, fermented, reduction), Irish coffee zabaglione, grated pure cocoa and black truffle from Lot; veal brains fritter served with Taiwanese beef stew with Korean pepper, ginger, lemongrass and garlic, like a mapo tofu; veal tongue teriyaki-style served with mushroom gnocchi, pickled pine nut quenelle and barbecued ice plant; as well as cod, cockles, and razor clams, tapioca beads, and Espelette pepper aioli.

• To be read
• Starving Club, the street-food food court by Thibaut Spiwack, at Galeries Lafayette
• Pierre Chomet (Top Chef 2021) signs the menu at Mama Shelter La Défense
• Tips for the week of April 29 - May 5, 2024 in Paris: free or inexpensive outings

Intermissions are as delighting, like this “bouillon-paysage” namely broth with vinegar quail egg, candied lemon, butternut, wild dagga and katsuobushi; this siphon Mont d’Or; or this sorbet based on red jalapeno, brunt avocado and mezcal. A way to prepare one’s palate to the highly anticipated dessert, the “gobelet trompe l’oeil en sucre”, the chef’s signature dessert.

Foodies leave wanting to know even more Adrien Cachot’s psyche, we are sure is still filled with great and beautiful culinary emotions for the years to come.