Grand Véfour

Le Grand Véfour (French pronunciation: [lə ɡʁɑ̃ vefuʁ]), the first grand restaurant in Paris,[1] France, was opened in the arcades of the Palais-Royal in 1784 by Antoine Aubertot, as the Café de Chartres,[2] and was purchased in 1820 by Jean Véfour,[3] who was able to retire within three years, selling the restaurant to Jean Boissier.[4] A list of regular customers over the last two centuries includes most of the heavyweights of French culture and politics, along with le tout-Paris.[5] Sauce Mornay was one of the preparations introduced at the Grand Véfour. Closed from 1905 to 1947, a revived Grand Véfour opened with the celebrated chef Raymond Oliver in charge in the autumn of 1948. Jean Cocteau designed his menu.[6] The restaurant, with its early nineteenth-century neoclassical décor of large mirrors in gilded frames and painted supraportes, continues its tradition of gastronomy at the same location, "a history-infused citadel of classic French cuisine."[7]

In 1983, the restaurant was destroyed in a bomb attack. It was then bought by Jean Taittinger who restored and reopened the place.[8]

When it lost one of its three Michelin stars in 2008[9] under the régime of Guy Martin for the Taittinger Group, it was headline news.[10]

Notes

  1. ↑ Elizabeth Sharland, A Theatrical Feast in Paris: From Molière to Deneuve 2008:40ff, "Le Grand Véfour".
  2. ↑ A compliment to the aristocratic landlord, the duc de Chartres, soon to be known as Philippe-Égalité.
  3. ↑ Rebecca L. Spang, The Invention of the Restaurant: Paris and Modern Gastronomic Culture, pp. 6, 64, 182, 187, 206, 220, 224, 226, 238f and 245.
  4. ↑ Sharland 2008:41.
  5. ↑ Little brass plaques mark the favourite seats of notables like Colette and Victor Hugo.
  6. ↑ ""Les étoiles du Grand Véfour"". Archived from the original on 30 October 2007. Retrieved 19 June 2008.
  7. ↑ Frommer's Guide
  8. ↑ Sharland, Elizabeth (November 2005). A Theatrical Feast in Paris: From Moliere to Deneuve. iUniverse. p. 44. ISBN 9780595374519.
  9. ↑ The third star, awarded Olivier in 1953 and lost with his departure, had been regained in the 2000 Guide Michelin ("Les étoiles du Grand Véfour" Archived 30 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine).
  10. ↑ "Grand Vefour restaurant in Paris loses third Michelin star" International Herald-Tribune,, 3 March 2008
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