Adrien Ferrand

The Climb

Adrien Ferrand began his career in Paris, taking on the role of chef at Eels in 2017. Since then, his work has been marked by precision and ambition, with a steady emphasis on structure as much as flavor. The path is narrow rather than wide: one address, one evolving vision, and a practice shaped by consistency in a city where kitchens move fast and standards do not bend.

Today

Since 2017, Ferrand has been chef at Eels in Paris, where his cooking carries a distinctly personal register while drawing on Asian influence: “I really like Asian cuisine.” That preference reads as a working reference point, not a garnish, and it helps frame the balance and clarity of his plates. When he speaks about emotion in a dish, he does so in terms of memory and image: “I think that it is memory and the return of images and emotion, whether it is a dish with technical qualities and a lot of work that can bring us emotion.” For Ferrand, cooking is an act of construction that aims to trigger recognition first, analysis second. That approach shows in the way he describes a dish built around lamb smoked by bay leaf: “The main element is the lamb, smoked by the bay leaf, and that is really what we will feel most in the dish.” The point is control of emphasis. One element carries the dish, with aroma and texture organized around it. At Eels, that gives the cooking a composed, deliberate quality.

Signature

Adrien’s signature dishes include smoked eel with reglisse (liquorice root), apples and hazelnuts, smoked eel with Granny Smith apple, and grilled white asparagus with a bergamot vinaigrette. Read together, they point to a kitchen built on contrast: smoke against sweetness, sharp fruit against rich fish, clean vegetable structure lifted by citrus. The combinations are precise, but they also leave a clear afterimage.

In Their Words “I think that it is memory and the return of images and emotion, whether it is a dish with technical qualities and a lot of work that can bring us emotion.” “The main element is the lamb, smoked by the bay leaf, and that is really what we will feel most in the dish.”