FIEF / Fait Ici En France — Restaurant in Paris

#122 bis of my Parisian Michelin Stars Challenge : After trying them all under a year (follow me for all the reviews and updates). I really wanted to go back in this one, as I went right after it got its star in 2022. Intuitively I knew that there were something more that I was missing. Actually there was. So much so that I’m doing something I never do: I’m writing a whole new review. There’s nothing wrong with the previous one. It’s just incomplete, missing what appears to me now as the main point. So I’ll post a screenshot of the previous one here and on Insta.

The title is still the same: Oh so French!

You start to be a man when you’re strong enough to say you were wrong. I’m half there then. Because I can say misjudged Victor Mercier. I’m saying half because I think he grew a lot from last year. Mory Sacko is now more mature in the usage of his vocabulary (usage of spices for instance), Victor Mercier went further in his reflection about French cuisine. Let’s back up a little bit. One could split (that one being me…) the Michelin chef in 3 generations. The old school (old school is cool), the 68-78 born, the new generation. The first one focuses on perfection, the second on their expression and the last one is left with questions. It’s still building his own style, although you can say a lot is already apparent. They tend towards Bistronomy in the form rather than a more bourgeois setting, they tend to have a stronger presence of the cooks in the dining room, etc... I personally find them more humble, may be because the first generation tortured people with perfection, the second is just tortured so this last one is simply traumatized! Of course there are exceptions in every generation, we can discuss it around a bottle of champagne if you wish. But not tonight. Tonight we’re speaking of Victor Mercier and his Fief. Yes, because you can witness live this reflection. Reflection about What is it to be a French restaurant today? What is French cuisine today? He started by saying that French cuisine is made by French products. That’s where I was wrong last year. It’s not just the expression of a generation concerned by the environment. Or it’s not just to convey the expression of a territory, like an Alexandre Couillon (or any other “expressionists”). No, he’s narrowing down in his gastronomic reflections. He’s telling that French cuisine is expressed by French ingredients. It’s an identity questioning and when you go down that path you want to eliminate all variables to go to the essence (and most certainly build from there). For instance, his answer is a more humble setting (some would say bistronomic), the heart would be the kitchen, it would be in direct contact with the clients, just separated by a counter, the cook could directly served them… You already had that last year you might say. Indeed, this year he went further. Now there’s a gastronomic menu only accessible on the counter (my last year dream!). But also, you can see that he thinks that French cuisine is bound to be gastronomic, if not sophisticated, mainly thanks to the sauce. Indeed, the sauces were already great last year, but they were a link. Now they speak. And I’m not mentioning the rôtisseur I saw now hiding behind, I keep that for next year. So yes, Fief is a great showcase of what the French cuisine is thinking of. He’s not the only one, there are great talents, some of the greatest are hiding humbly behind big names, institutions and/or multiple stars as executive chef.

But I’ve said many time, you’ll learn more about a country in a kitchen than in a museum. Museum is their vision of the past, kitchens are the heritage and the present. FIEF is a great place to pounder at this, or just taste it, feel it, enjoy it. The crowd is younger, the atmosphere is lively. I’ll recommend the counter for party of 2. Even if (especially?) it’s a date : if the chemistry is not there, at least you’ll have gastronomy!

He’s now clearly a very solid star, but more importantly, he’s an interesting one. A very French one. Ps: new pics...

A journey with increasing positive emotion. There are only 2 services of 8 guests per night who can enjoy for the chef suggestion menu (the rest need to go on à la carte). These special guests sit in front of the cooking brigade and can see how their dish were prepared.

I really appreciate the fact that the restaurant use only local and « made in France » product. They also try to minimize the waste, like using the rest of leek to produce a special bread. They also made us discover special local product like « La reine des prés ».

The amuse bouches and the appetizer didn’t “wow” me much, although I appreciate the work they put into the preparation of the beetroot to make it taste like ham (several day of smoking process) and the perfect cooking of the peas (I never try al dente green peas before). The potatoes with caviar dish was so good. It was a normal quality caviar but the baby potatoes was one of the best I’ve had. The cooking method was also very dedicated, by steaming it in a pot of soil to keep all the sweetness and juice inside.

No word for the two main dish except “I ate my tongue”. Both of them perfectly cooked and very very delicious. The duckling was accompanied by two sauces: one comté cheese sauce and one meat juice. Each of them was so good but the combination of the two make them unbelievable.

Moving to the dessert, the first dessert was rhubarbe with strawberry, which wasn’t my favorite but made us refreshing after the protein courses. The second one didn’t look promising but it was one of the best I’ve had. I kept guessing what kind of ice cream was hidden under the cracker, as it has a complex mix of hazelnut and vanilla taste. I failed to request the chef to give me more 😂. It was indeed a very special ice cream made of a special French flower, “La reine des prés”, which I never heard of.

The mignardise can be improved a lot, but I like the way it was presented. The wine pairing was great, 5/6 courses matches perfectly.

The ambiance was also very cozy, though the setting make it a little bit difficult to talk if you’re not a couple. But you can enjoy talking with the chef and cooks, who are more than happy to share with you their gastronomic knowledge.

Also a compliment for the decoration team. The lighting is perfect to have beautiful picture 😂

Worth to visit more...

Well, at least we know client service isn't "fait ici en France".

I had no idea what I was getting into or what this place was other than they were working on building it all summer and I live right next door.

They seemed ready to open this week and so I dropped in on the way home from work on Thursday and asked for a Saturday night reservation. The hostess I talked to described the 6 plate carte blanche at the counter (chef's table) or tapas style in the dining room. I explicitly asked for the carte blanche menu and asked to avoid seafood for my wife and confirmed for the first seating at 19h30 (730 pm).

When we arrived and they walked us back to the dining room I thought something was up..

Yep. We were bumped. They had our reservation but they said that it was for the dining room and that the chef's table was full. No phone call. No apology. No explanation.

My wife talked me down and convinced me to just have a good time and give the "tapas" menu a shot.

Fine.

It took a bit of googling for my wife to find and explain to me that this place has a celebrity chef who was a finalist for Top Chef France. Opening week... me making a specific request for a change to the chef's menu.. ok, I get it. Let's get into the tapas!

For starters we ordered the pork rillette, the peanut puffs (like Curly), and the caviar fries.

4€ for a bowl of Curly's... And that was the most memorable starter. The 18€ caviar fries were so thick and greasy that they washed out the caviar. And my corner butcher has better rillette for a lot less.

We did enjoy the cocktails with the starters. I had the "Reine dès Près" (14€) and my wife had the Cassis drink (12). Both were perfect.

For our bigger dishes, I ordered the beef tartar and she ordered the lentil dahl and we both were eagerly eyeing the cheese and desserts.

My tartar was unremarkable but when my wife spit out the second pebble from her dahl we had enough. The response from our server was, (translated from French) "Apologies but that is just a problem with the preparation process"... AND!?

As we paid 85€ for our meal the manager commented, "I heard you had a misunderstanding about sitting at the counter. Sorry you were confused".

Confused indeed. Good luck with the business. You're off to a...