The space is tiny, only 17 square meters. Between the tiled walls, you can only jostle or graze. This kitchen of a restaurant in rue Beethoven, in the 16e Parisian district, although it is very small, many of them have been there and learned everything there. L’Astrance, the restaurant of Pascal Barbot which has counted up to three stars, has hosted the most informal, the most confidential and one of the most fantastic French cooking schools. There, thirty of the greatest cooks now established in Paris and elsewhere began.
Men – Magnus Nilsson, Shuzo Kishida, Guillaume Foucault, Baptiste Day – and many women: Adeline Grattard, starred chef of Yam’Tcha, in the Halles district, with a menu inspired by her many trips to Asia, Manon Fleury, who is causing a sensation this fall with her ephemeral table at the Perchoir de Ménilmontant, Chloé Charles, gifted ex-candidate of “Top Chef”, Tatiana Levha, of the renowned Servan, in Paris. And so many others.
Different courses, but which have all been transformed by the few months or years spent in these 17 square meters. They are the ones who affirm it. “This internship, in 2007, changed my life”, said Chloe Charles. As an apprentice at Astrance in 2013 then again in 2016, Manon Fleury talks about the experience “most important” of his training. “I have kept so much Astrance”, testifies Adeline Grattard. They are not the only ones to speak thus of their years with the Auvergne chef. The thirty great chefs trained in this restaurant are all laudatory when they talk about their experience, which earned the weekly Telerama to wonder, in 2018, if Astrance was not the “Gastronomic Hogwarts”.
A school of respect
This microscopic kitchen, Pascal Barbot has resolved to leave for a larger space, at 32, rue de Longchamp, in the same arrondissement, where the Astrance is preparing to reopen its doors on December 19, after works which dragged on, the date having been constantly shifted. In what was the old Jamin, the restaurant which earned Joël Robuchon his three stars in 1984, the 50-year-old starred chef will offer his soups with toasted bread, Auvergne blue cheese snow, honey madeleines and others. delicious meals.
In the world of gourmets, Pascal Barbot is known, considered one of the greatest. Just like others. But he is undoubtedly one of the most discreet. He takes care of only one restaurant, when his high-profile colleagues, such as Alain Ducasse or Yannick Alléno, manage several addresses. Almost pathologically shy, he doesn’t like microphones or cameras. “What he likes is cooking”, said Chloe Charles. And he likes to train.
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