I Prefer Paris: Parisian of the Month: Alec Lobrano

Photo by Steven Rothfeld
I am thrilled to have Alec Lobrano as my Parisian of the Month. Alec is the author of the runaway bestseller Hungry for Paris:The Ultimate Guide to the City's 102 Best Restaurants, the new Paris restaurant bible that everybody swears by lately. We sat down for long coffee at the Cafe Le Nemours at the Palais Royal, and as we got to know each other we realized we both lived in New York in the late 70s, so for most of the interview we happily reminisced about all of our wild and crazy disco nights at various New York clubs including Studio 54 . Alex kindly gave me a signed copy of the book which I will treasure.

Where were you born and where did you grow up?

I was born in Bronxville, New York and grew up in Westport, Connecticut.

What were some of your early cooking or food influences?

I spent many boyhood summers with my great-aunts in New Orleans. They lived in the family home in the French Quarter—my father’s family has been in New Orleans since 1790, and these two porcelain doll sisters, neither of whom ever married, loved their food and had an amazing cook, a barrel-sized Octaroon woman named Adele. She was warm, funny, generous and good-humored, and I spent all of my time in the kitchen with her—she showed me how to cook and shared her profound love of the true cooking of New Orleans, which is an fascinating mixture of French, Spanish, American Indian, and African dishes.Mom deserves some credit, too. Even though she had to feed a family of six day in and day out, and was stranded in suburban Connecticut, she had a lot of gastronomic curiosity and was an adventurous cook for the 1960s. We ate artichokes, Indonesian food, all kinds of things that were pretty atypical for America in those days.

When did you move to Paris and why did you move?

Following an ill-advised affair, I moved to Paris from London in 1986 to take a job as an editor in the offices of Fairchild Publications, which were then located just up the street from Chanel on the rue Cambon.

How did you get into food writing and also tell us about your stint as a fashion reporter?

Though Fairchild had hired me to write about fashion, W Magazine also covered restaurants and did the occasional gastronomic feature story. I had already been doing a lot of food writing in London, but covering the same field in Paris was absolutely fascinating. My first Fairchild story was a profile of the Androuet cheese shop, which was then located in the rue d’Amsterdam. Old Monsieur Androuet showed me around the cellars under the shop and my French was so bad at the time that I only understood two words, “chevre” and “vache,” but the tasting of cheeses we did was mind-blowing.

You live in the 9th arr. , which is not a tourist neighborhood. What are some of your favorite food and drink haunts?

I love the 9th arrondissement, which reminds me a lot of what Saint Germain des Pres was like when I moved to Paris over twenty years ago. It’s not at all touristy, which means the neighborhood restaurants live or die on repeat local trade and so their standards are much higher than those in other parts of the city. I love Casa Olympe, where chef Olympe Versini does terrific Corsican influenced bistro cooking, and also Chez Georgette. Georgette is a hoot, a funky little bistro furnished with a hodge-podge of fifties and sixties flea market finds. The food is fresh, generous, homey old-fashioned French, including excellent soups and lots of wonderful plats mijotees, or long simmered dishes like boeuf aux carrottes (beef with carrots) or blanquette de veau.

If you were stranded on a desert island and had to choose one appetizer, one main course, and one dessert from a Paris restaurant(s), what would you choose?

If I were banished to a desert island, I’d beg to be allowed garlic, onions, olive oil and Parmesan cheese—otherwise life wouldn’t be worth living. For my gala meal, I’d have a triple portion of the langoustines with crème fraiche and caviar from Alain Ducasse au Plaza Athenee, boeuf bourguignon from Josephine Chez Dummonet on the rue du Cherche Midi, and for dessert, Ducasse’s Chibouste etc.

Create the scenario: Your favorite Paris restaurant, your favorite dishes to be served, and one person living or dead you would most want to have dinner with.

I have too many favorite Paris restaurants and favorite people to be categorical, but I’d love to have lunch with Colette at the Grand Vefour and let her order, and invite E.M. Forester for lunch at Pierre Gagnaire and give the chef carte blanche.

In the past few years some critics have said that New York, London, and San Francisco have surpassed Paris in terms of inventive, creative food and also the quality of the food in many Paris restaurants has gone down. Where do you stand on this?

There’s no question that New York, London, Sydney, San Francisco and many other cities have superb dining scenes today. Where Paris triumphs, however, is that classically trained French chefs have a technical knowledge of the science of cooking and a long historical knowledge of taste that informs everything they do, and I’m not just talking about haute cuisine chefs, but brilliant younger ones like Guillaume Delage at Jadis or Gregory Marchand at Frenchie. The best restaurants in Paris still display a gastronomic elegance and exigence that’s unique in the world.

If you did a second edition of Hungry for Paris, what restaurants would you remove or add? Is there a new book waiting in the wings?

Unfortunately, one restaurant I’d strike is Mon Vieil Ami on the Ile Saint Louis. The food’s still very good, but the service is so chaotic and often rude that I’d no longer send people there. Among the places I’d add are Yam’Tcha, Jadis and Frenchie. My next book is on France.

I have a monthly feature Under 20 Eats, where I write about 2 or 3 course meals for under 20 euros. What are some of your top food bargains at this price?

Two cheapies I like are Hokkaido, which you can read about on my blog, for great cheap Asian food, and Lescure, a century old bistro tucked behind the Place de la Concorde.

What do you prefer about Paris?

What I maybe love most about Paris is the aesthetic of the city. There’s a casual elegance about daily life that’s unique in the western world. Parisians still dress to please each other when they go out, the shop windows are amazing, the architecture is sublime, and as a writer, I find that the way Parisians prize the aesthetics of daily life tremendously nourishing. It’s also a wonderful place to be alone—the city keeps you company and human interactions are so formal and formatted that you can easily retain your anonymity.

Click here to order Hungry for Paris

Alec's website & blog: http://hungryforparis.squarespace.com/

Coming soon: Eye Prefer New York Tours

New! Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes
I am happy to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes. Come take an ethnic culinary journey with me and chef and caterer Charlotte Puckette, co-author of the bestseller The Ethnic Paris Cookbook (with Olivia Kiang-Snaije). First we will shop at a Paris green-market for the freshest ingredients and then return to Charlotte’s professional kitchen near the Eiffel Tower to cook a three-course lunch. After, we will indulge in the delicious feast we prepared along with hand-selected wines.

Cost: 185 euros per person (about $240)
Time: 9:30AM- 2PM (approximately 4 1/2 hours)
Location: We will meet by a metro station close to the market
Class days: Tuesday,Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday
Minimum of 3 students, maximum 6 students.

Click here to sign up for the next class or for more info.

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