What a difference a year makes writes Meg Zimbeck in Happy Birthday, Frenchie (April 2) celebrating the restaurant's first birthday.
She reminds us while he's now treated like a celebrity, 11 months ago, chef Greg Marchand was hanging by a thread.
Nobody loves you when you're down and out as John Lennon sang
The consensus seems to be that a contender to the crown of Foodies Favorite is Yam'Tcha, offering Franco-Chinese cuisine since March 2009.
Ullrich Fichtner, the French Food Fool wrote "I think it’s fair to say that Frenchie is the most prominent place to eat in Paris right now (together with Yam’tcha, where a French lady is cooking Chinese)" (March 27, 2010).
Last year, Alexander Lobrano of Hungry for Paris called Yam'Tcha-A Sweet New Bistro (May 1, 2009) and told us:
former second to Pascal Barbot at L'Astrance, has passed through global
gastro cyber space with the intensity and speed of a comet. Because
Grattard actually is a serious, talented and original cook,
I'd like to think her table, which she runs with her Hong Kong born
husband Chiwah Chan, will withstand the blow-back of a culinary media
world that's so desperate for news that it exalts anything that's even
slightly different and half plausible."
The menu changes often. As an example of dishes you might find, Poached Foie Gras in a Chinese and Korean Mushroom Broth or Ginger Sorbet on the Sweet Side.
In the Via Michelin review (December 09) Adeline Grattard describes her approach:
The restaurant got its first star from Michelin Guide in March 2010. Another rookie making the grade was Passage 53.
Adeline also made it onto the WWD Lifestyle People to Watch List of 2010.