Chocho, top chef Thomas Chisholm's excellent first restaurant in Paris

Many of the candidates in season 12 of Top Chef have unveiled projects in Paris since the season began, some of them ephemeral, such as Mohamed Cheikh at the Jardin des Plantes and the Pagode de Cos, Sarah Mainguy at the Hôtel Le Grand Quartier, Chloé Charles at the Musée Carnavalet, or permanent, like Pauline Sené and her excellent Fripon in the heights of Ménilmontant.

Now it's the turn of Thomas Chisholm, one of this season's outstanding candidates, to open his first Paris establishment, on rue de Paradis in the 10th arrondissement. Named Chocho, this new restaurant offers a cuisine d'auteur raisonnée et de saison .

As local gourmets will have gathered by now, Chocho has opened in place of Le Bel Ordinaire, in this charming, high-ceilinged venue. Now, two large tables d'hôtes allow you to have lunch with your friends without worrying about space, while comfortable banquettes invite couples to a more confidential dinner.

On the à la carte menu, creative small plates with Catalan and American influences celebrate the young chef's origins. The focus is always on the finest produce from sustainable agriculture and small, committed producers, enhanced by exciting combinations, original condiments and even unusual presentations.

We're thinking in particular of this teq paf' of pollack (11€), recommended at the start of the meal, and which takes the form of a real teenager's teq paf', minus the alcohol: the chef invites you to lick a mixture of sugar, salt and spices off the back of your hand, to swallow the inside of a shot filled with a fish cream and coriander oil, before biting into the lime on which the pollack tartare rests. A salty-spicy-acidic mix that sets us up for what's to come, while keeping us entertained.

The rest of our meal is a succession of perfectly mastered small plates, with a strong emphasis on vegetables: fabulous Jerusalem artichokes lacquered with maple syrup (10€); crispy turnip tatin boule d'or, raw horseradish cream and kimchi condiment (12€); roasted squash, fir pesto and burnt butter sabayon (12€)... As you can see, Thomas Chisholm takes great care to develop new preservation techniques - or rather, to revive ancestral ones - and transforms seasonal produce in his laboratory into syrups, vinegars and various lacto-fermentations.

Nevertheless, the à la carte menu includes some fine meats, such as wild boar, fermented Jerusalem artichokes and potato mousse (16€), as generous as our grandmother's shepherd's pie, and roast pigeon, Japanese crosnes, confit leg and egg cream (22€), in which every part is used - from the liver to the breaded leg; but also fine seafood, from roasted diver scallops with seaweed butter (16€) to the unmissable - we weigh our words - half-cooked Banka trout, romanesco cabbage, beurre blanc fleur de fenouil and chive oil (16€), one of our finest discoveries.

It's hard to resist the call of desserts, but our already full stomachs beg us not to ask for more. So we opt for a dessert of lightness and contrast, a grapefruit granita, fresh goat's cheese, meringue, clementine and dill condiment (11€), a little sweetness that crowns a perfect lunch .

This test was conducted as part of a professional invitation. If your experience differs from ours, please mention it in the comments.