Photo courtesy of Les Restos.com
Despite the conventional thinking that in France eat French food, mixing it up a bit with a restaurant that has a definite California twist can be pretty uber delicious as well and is a must if your in Paris.
Market is a restaurant by superchef Jean-Georges Vongerichten http://www.jean-georges.com/who is recognized througout of the world and has a pretty great background. Ok so with a name like that the guy has to be french and can't be American, right? Ok, he is french but he's lived in the US for the past 28 years and his food is Asian/ nouvelle French inspired and the cuisine is fresh, bright and delicious reminding me of what you would find in a Globe http://www.yelp.com/biz/globe-san-francisco or a great spot in San Francisco.
Photo coutesy of NY Grubstreet
I love Jean-Georges story of growing up in France and helping his mamma and grandma prepare lunch daily for their 50 employees. I mean it's pretty impressive that for his 16th birthday Jean didn't get a shiny new red bmw or throw a MTV style sweet 16 bash but this guy at the age of 16 was gifted from his family a 3 star Michelin rated auberge for his birthday. Jesus, when do birthdays at 16 get that good? Acclaimed with 4 star restaurants in NY, having taken Food critic Ruth Reichl's "breath away" and essentially single handedly invented America's answer to nouvelle cuisine I am going to go ahead and say this guy is the real deal.
His space, Market, is big, wide and open with dark wood, raw materials, lots of natural light and huge windows (designed by Christian Liagre who does a beautiful job with wood http://www.christian-liaigre.fr/?lang=en_US). The neighborhood around Market is chic and right next to Chrisites auction house so if you feel like looking at some incredible paintings and sculptures that you can't afford but want to dream about after a truffled pizza and a few glasses of bubbly it could be a good idea. Apparently the Chef's table is often reserved by celebrities (I know Gwyneth Paltrow loves it from her blog).
Overall the place is cute, trendy and a bit expensive but not overly. The dishes are original, the plating is vibrant and the dessert is delicious. The menu changes daily and the service is pretty good. I'd order a few table appetizers to start: the pizza with shaved black truffle and fontina, the watermelon soup with fried shrimp if they have it and the tuna tartare. Then maybe the oven cooked Cabillaud fish with basil oil marinated veggies, the market burger with brie and truffle vinegareete or the farm raised chicken crusted in parmesean and dusted with lemongrass butter. For desserts the cheese cake or passionfruit sorbet is killer.
My sis and I getting ready for the super meal
Watermelon Gazpacho with Tempura Shrimp, Cucumber cream fraiche and lychees- Flavor combination blew my mind. Already re-created this one and I left my guests a bit confused as most of them being from Asian countries had never heard of gazpacho. Watermelon gazpacho really threw them off.
Tuna sushi with 3 sauces (the various sauces were a sweet and sour combination and the rolls were soft, light and tasty)
Coconut Milk and Chicken soup with Galangal, mushrooms, lemongrass and asian herbs served alongside thai rice
Fontina Pizza with Mushrooms, White truffle oil and Field greens
Cabillaud Fish Oven Roasted served with Gnocchi, Pesto oil, Parmesan and Oven Roasted Tomatoes
Farm Raised Chicken Crusted in Parmesan, Lemon Butter and Basil served with Creamy Mashed Potatoes
Vanilla and Carmel Ice Cream with Toffee Popcorn and a Sugar Crisp
Creme Fraiche Cheesecake with Raspberry coulis
Grand Mariner Souffle with Passion Fruit Sorbet- This one was incredible
Molten Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Icecream
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