French cuisine has a long, proud history. François Pierre La Varenne published the first French cookbook in the mid-1600s. More than a century later France was well into its Napoleonic Era, with classic recipes and techniques spreading like beurre salé across each colonised country. Then in 1903, Georges Auguste Escoffier introduced the new world to haute cuisine with heaving with more than 5000 narrative recipes. But Paris today is a different story with exceedingly diverse narrators. They vary from coated waiters in decades-old brasseries and Michelin-starred celebrity chefs, to thriving migrant communities and young operators obsessed with low-intervention wines. For visitors, this variety translates to an overwhelming number of options where a meal can cost anywhere from under $15 to more than a thousand. Paris can no longer be segmented into culinary chapters across a timeline. In the lead up to the 2024 Olympics (or simply Europe’s next summer), it’s time to choose your own adventure.
