Le Taillevent

The pass held to product and seasoning

The lobster meets whisky at the pass before Giuliano Sperandio, Executive Chef at Le Taillevent in Paris, sends it back toward a limpid shellfish jus. His station is the flagship dining room on Rue Lamennais, in the 8th arrondissement, where the kitchen carries a house founded in 1946 and now held at two Michelin stars from the 2022 guide through 2025. Sperandio arrived in September 2021, after years beside Christophe Pelé at La Bigarrade and Le Clarence, and after a stage at Balzac with Pierre Gagnaire. At Le Taillevent, that training is not worn as quotation. It shows in the discipline of product, cooking, and seasoning: sole vol-au-vent, roe-deer, meagre, lobster with touches of soy or saké, and permanent icons such as pâté en croûte. The house has always asked its chefs to move inside a tight frame. The name itself looks back to the author of Le Viandier, and the cooking still treats French form as a living method, not a museum piece.

Four services, old gestures, new edges

The menu structure gives Sperandio room to work without loosening the line. Le Taillevent offers tasting menus in 4 services, including Menu Héritage du Taillevent, Menu Gestes du Taillevent, and Menu Instant Végétal, beside à la carte plates that return to Parisian grammar. The technique is direct: flambéing, confiting, sauce work, fish handled for clarity, meat cooked for depth rather than weight. Homard de casier flambé au whisky brings trap-caught lobster to shellfish nage with tomatoes, young zucchini, and Melba toast with edible flowers. Agneau double-grilled sets a lamb chop beside boulangère potatoes, marjoram-stuffed pepper, and seaweed condiment. Chiffonnade de boeuf wagyu et foie gras layers beef, foie gras, caviar, green beans, and blackcurrant berries with the kind of cold precision that needs restraint more than ornament. The wine program works in the same register. The cellar holds nearly 3,000 bottles, and Wine Spectator has given the restaurant its Grand Award since 1984. Pairings such as L’Accord du Taillevent and Les Trésors du Taillevent are part of the craft here, not an afterthought to the plate.

Oak, cut stone, and a quieter room

The room keeps its formality, but the recent renovation softened the old lines. Architect Yann Montfort preserved the oak woodwork, cut stone, and pilasters while bringing in curves, warmer light, and a less severe rhythm. Service remains formal, with the room held at a conversational register, and the pass works behind that calm rather than against it. This is a house where a sauce can carry the memory of postwar Paris, a wine pairing can shift a dish by one degree, and a dining room can stay composed without becoming remote. The renovation reopened in September 2021 with Sperandio in the kitchen, giving the old mansion another working life. Crêpes Suzette Taillevent still belongs to this room.