At Halo, in Paris, “the aromatic power of the rock fish juice in this red mullet dish leaves you speechless”

Ua fine selection of vintage designer pieces (dresses from 300 euros), bottles of home perfume (195 euros), a designer chair covered in ice (6,800 euros)… At Halo, at 12, from the rue Saint-Sauveur, in Paris, there is an embarrassment of choice for those with expensive tastes.

On the other hand, apparently nothing to eat. Slight cooking fumes confirm that the place does include a restaurant. All that remains is to let yourself be guided, by the tempting smell, towards the dining room, hidden behind the curtain of a fitting room.

Concrete floor, chrome metal chairs and open kitchen denote a fashionable address. One of those that was always full during the recent Paris fashion week. So much the better, because, between fashion, design and gastronomy, Victor Goyeneix and Matthieu Nicolaï, the two thirty-somethings at the head of the place, were unable to choose. “We have a taste for beauty”, one concedes. “And good stuff!” “, added the other.

Two inclinations which led them to entrust the kitchens of their boutique restaurant to the multi-tattooed chef Victor Blanchet, often presented as “the stylish candidate” of the 2023 edition of “Top Chef”. Passed through the Arpège d’Alain Passard (three stars in the Michelin guide) and Neso – the Michelin-starred restaurant of Guillaume Sanchez, seen in the same show five seasons ago – Victor Blanchet prepares southern cuisine here whose quality we can only praise.

Flambé with pastis

So matured red mullet, textured potato, rouille sauce and bouillabaisse juice. A nod to this totem of Marseille gastronomy that the Mayennais discovered in 2023. “When the boys told me they wanted a menu with southern accents, I launched the idea of ​​a road trip to their respective corners: to Victor, in the Basque Country, and to Matthieu, in Marseille,” remembers the person concerned.

It was at the Auberge du Corsaire (locals will say “Chez Paul”), in the Goudes district of Marseille, that he tasted his very first bouillabaisse. The one that inspired the red mullet recipe in question. “I thought about bringing together all the markers of the dish on a plate that doesn’t look like one,” sums up the chef.

One thing promised, one due: the delicate taste of the fish, matured for five days and simply snacked, is enhanced by a just dose of rouille, a siphon of mashed potatoes with squid ink and, above all, a fish juice of rock whose aromatic power leaves you speechless. “I don’t gut the fish and, once colored, I flambé them with pastis before letting them reduce like meat gravy,” reveals the person concerned.

For the crunch? No croutons as in the traditional recipe but a crumb of chips which completes this imitation bouillabaisse into a large plate… with good escort: it is accompanied by a fondant brunoise of potatoes linked to fish stock. Like a risotto, with Marseille sauce.