La Dame de Pic

This landmark on the map of great Parisian restaurants was opened by top chef, Anne-Sophie Pic, just a stone's throw from the Louvre. The restaurant may be 550km from Valence, where Pic’s family name is so entwined with the history of French cuisine and where her father and grandfather also earned three Michelin stars, but it embodies the chef’s distinctive signature. Delicate, precise cuisine, coupled with a lively sense of inspiration: such is the hallmark of this grande dame of gastronomy. Her innate sense of the harmony of flavours, freshness and accuracy is ever present, always underscored by cooking times and seasonings that she has down to a T: berlingots of smoked farmhouse Camembert, Cévennes onions and consommé of fig and camomile; Racan squab flavoured in lavender and finger lime, different textures of Nérac sweetcorn and a gutsy gravy; slow-baked cooking apples in balsamic apple vinegar, sobacha, whisky and caramel…