Le George

The pass held in a hotel kitchen

The risotto reaches the pass glossy and close-set, and Simone Zanoni works that station as Executive Chef at Le George in Paris, inside the Four Seasons Hotel George V at 31 Avenue George V. The room belongs to a modern Italian Mediterranean register, but the discipline is hotel-sharp: formal service, à la carte and tasting menu formats, and plates that have to carry lightness without losing structure.

Zanoni came out of Gordon Ramsay’s kitchens and opened Le George in September 2016 with a brief he has kept since: light, flavour-forward cooking that bridges the French Riviera and northern Italy, with freshness, seasonality and sustainability doing the arguing. His years under Ramsay left a pedagogy of relentless refinement, and the plates read as Italian heritage held to French finesse. That was a deliberate counterweight inside the hotel, which already held the three-starred Le Cinq and became, by 2017, the first hotel in Europe with three Michelin-starred restaurants. Le George asks for food that can sit between Riviera ease and northern Italian clarity and still meet the polish of a Paris palace. The hand has to stay visible. The plate cannot lean on weight.

Tomato, lobster, veal and restraint

The menu works through small, bright portions rather than a grand procession of heaviness. Tarte Tatin de tomates confites sets confit tomatoes over pastry and brings pepper ice cream against the sweetness; the gesture is simple enough to read, but exacting in the pass. Risotto au homard depends on the rice holding its centre while the lobster and seafood broth pull the dish toward the coast. Vitello Tonnato keeps the Italian line clear, veal with tuna sauce, capers and arugula, a cold dish that lives or dies by proportion.

The kitchen also turns to fresh pasta with cèpes and parmesan cream, arancini built from saffron and cheese risotto, and desserts that move through tiramisu, nuts, coffee, mascarpone and a cheese-inflected crème brûlée. Technique is not displayed as spectacle. Confit, searing, emulsification, foams and seasonal rotation do the work, with the hotel’s Versailles kitchen garden feeding part of the sourcing logic. Le George holds one Michelin star and a Michelin Green Star, which places the garden, the sourcing and the kitchen’s lighter hand inside the same discipline.

White room, chandelier, courtyard

Service moves through a white interior under a Baccarat chandelier, with floral arrangements held low enough not to interrupt the line of sight across the room. The conservatory rises high and looks toward the courtyard, giving the restaurant a different tempo from a sealed dining room. Conversation stays possible.

The pass has to answer that atmosphere with food that feels composed rather than ceremonial, because the room is chic but not stiff. A tomato tart can travel here without losing its edge; a lobster risotto can arrive with polish and still read as rice, broth and shellfish. Le George sits inside a hotel known for formality, and its counterweight is the Mediterranean program, the vegetable-driven freshness, and the quiet tension between Baccarat glass and confit tomatoes.

A star held through repetition

The restaurant received its Michelin star in the 2017 guide, the year after it opened, and has retained it through the guides cited for 2024 and 2025. Awards are not the craft, but they do mark continuity when the daily work depends on repeated judgment at the bench and the pass. Tarte Tatin de tomates confites remains the dish that makes the room’s argument, in pastry, tomato and pepper ice cream.