Arriving in Paris. A Fine Dining Experience Dinner. Meeting Elie Your Driver in the Capital
♪♪ ♪♪ Good morning, good morning. The story started from Lebanon, in the plane, 4 hours, we passed in France, we passed very fast and there was no crowd in the airport, I said, brother, brother, brother, great. We entered Paris and the crowd started.
We arrived on the flight and all of golden from the first day, zapnap didn't laugh of cause love, Marchar Fonbore Rasta So I was very busy and the time started to pass We passed by a cashier, I put my stuff, I went to check in at the hotel and we continued the trip and I met Elie, who took me from the airport He is so nice and so kind, he's been here for 20 years and I think that when I'm touring, I don't order a taxi Elie, come and give me a ride Hi, I'm Elie Basila from Hadad, Lebanon I've been in France for 20 years and I'm a private taxi driver I've been in Lebanon for 20 years, I came to the university and while I was studying, I decided not to work on my own and that's how it was, I went through a lot of difficult times but thank God, I stayed patient and determined and I got what I wanted and the West is not easy, it's very difficult but thank God I'm a private taxi driver now I can transport everything from Paris to the airport from the airport to Paris long distance, availability everything I can transport everything if you want, I can transport two people from Amno Of course, I'm thinking of going back to Lebanon We've been thinking for a while about going back to Lebanon but since the situation is not stable, unfortunately we're still waiting we hope that the situation will get better so we can go back to Lebanon because life in Lebanon is not the same even if you go anywhere, life in Lebanon despite all the problems is different if someone wants to come to France and visit France and wants to visit France he can call 06 63 97 14 67 and I'll take care of him from A to Z Welcome This week is a very long project I'm not going to show you the video because it's not windy as I told you, whether in France, Lausanne or London but we're going to start with a new card we're going to start with dinner Etoile and there's a new menu I've been here 7 or 8 times and I'm not getting bored every time there's something new this time he told me Anthony, you will be impressed Anthony, good morning welcome I saw you coming from America we're speaking English how are you my friend? everything ok? welcome to the restaurant I'm very happy to see you I've missed you a lot I haven't seen you for a month welcome to the restaurant Anthony, welcome to Alain Njeam restaurant. This restaurant started in 2017. It became the first Lebanese restaurant to put French food in 82 0:10:21,440 --> 0:10:07,000 I'm coming. Lebanese flavor.
It became the first Michelin star in 2018. Today, the only Lebanese chef in France, who is a Lebanese star, is Alain Njeam. I tried to make this restaurant more than a dinner and lunch. I tried to make it as an experience and a voyage.
A trip that takes a person from Paris to Beirut. I tried many Lebanese things. There are many surprises. When I was young, I used to hide something in the kitchen. I used to hide a magic under the pillow to surprise my cousin, my sister, my brother. There are many surprises here.
I'm happy today because I'm going to live this experience. I'm going to leave you to enjoy the opportunity for 30 years. You will spend a great time in Alain Njeam restaurant. It's more than a dinner. It's a trip to Paris and Beirut. To make your aperitif more pleasant, we offer you a box filled with roasted sauvage seeds.
It's a special box because when you shake it like this, a small meringue appears. This meringue is filled with dried caviar mixed with smoked labneh. We invite you to taste it in a bite, followed by a spoon of caviar with citrus.
Enjoy your meal. We started and we came back. At Alain Njeam restaurant, there are things you've seen before and things you're seeing for the first time. The idea is that it's a proper food, but it's an experience and a journey. We're going to stop, eat, and enjoy.
We're going to live a test. Each team member and staff member will tell us something. They will tell us a story and what's happening.
It starts with a dried fruit with rose water. It smells very nice and refreshing. Everything is on a certain plate with certain details.
What I didn't tell you about before and what's important is this. I think you know it by now. This is the djej, the olive which represents Lebanon, and the thyme, the beautiful crisp, the special biscuit which also represents Lebanon, and the thyme that comes from Lebanon. It starts like this. We continue with meringue, labneh, and kaffir.
Sweet, sour, flaky, and the strength of the kaffir and the taste of the iodine. Cheers! The taste of the iodine We're going to continue with the amuse-bouche, which I will explain to you by way of tasting. We'll start with the little red cabbage tacos, which is filled with a vegetable oyster leaf with a naturally iodized taste, the tarama dorsin, and the fried eggs. You'll have to take the little taco with your fingers and taste it in one bite. In a second time, you have the peanut trompe l'oeil, which we prepared in a fat foie gras, and which we filled with a peanut praline, citron con bava, and cayenne pepper. We invite you to finish with the hummus, hazelnut crumble, and kaffir lemon.
The test continues. Things you know, we did them before, and are still beautiful in their own way. Small details, and we haven't started eating yet. We're still trying, tasting, and being welcomed.
My tongue is moving, my tongue is moving. Nice textures, crunchy, acidic, lemony. It's something nice. I said it before, and I'll say it again. It's a shame to have two stars, not one.
Foie gras. Then, you feel your lips, your lips feel the salt, and the light biscuit crunch at the bottom. Simplicity. Lightness.
Each bite has a test, a feeling, time, work, a team working. No mistake. No mistake. Look how delicious this is. We're talking about a French kitchen, upscale, high-end, with a Lebanese spirit.
You feel, you go from the foie gras to the tahini. You start with the labneh, and finish with the caviar. In the name of God, we're opening a restaurant every day. If I may invite you to taste, we have a cruche. It was prepared with a green mayonnaise. We put a little bit of it on top.
And as a base, you have a little bit of cruche. Thank you. I told you, I told you, I forgot it the first time. Or I didn't know it was there because it was a set, so I was like, oh oh.
Asmallia, and with lobster. Good? Premier. Anthony, the chef always offers a little introduction here in Lebanon, with a little excerpt from Khaled Gibran, with his book The Prophet, where the chef finds himself a lot in one of his quotes.
You picked the little manoucheh tulle in the olive tree. That's the authentic taste, of course, here in Lebanon. And also here, you'll be able to drink this little orange-flavored lemonade. You can't make it more authentic.
You would have already left Paris with just these two little things. Good continuation. I thought the only game was the zaatar game, but there's another game. Also, a very cute, small cup. And we drink lemonade. It's really strong, with the taste of zaatar that I was suspicious of in its top part.
Rosemary, sourness, like a... Like a Dabouche or a coffee drink. Like a true normal, we can call it that, but it's not ice cream.
And now, it's time for zaatar. It's time for the experience that every foreigner loves a lot. Of course, here, authentic zaatar. We stay on the taste of the chef's childhood, with this magnificent zaatar, which comes directly from the north of Lebanon, near Tripoli.
With an oil, however, which comes from the south of France. We are on a AOP of the Baux de Provence. It's very... It's very voluntary.
A mix between France and Lebanon. You will be able to taste, not with Lebanese bread, but with bread from our bakery. We will offer you a puff pastry brioche, to start with. Which is... which is coming right away. Here, to start, the green and white asparagus. We worked on a crispy structure, the crisp rosette.
You will have a puff pastry, which is very alveolated, inside the kashkawal, with the spices of sujuk, green olive tapenade, green and white asparagus tartare on top. You have a parsley powder with peanut butter, mustard seeds pickles, slices of kashkawal and asparagus. The little asparagus cream that I poured here, pealed with chives oil, on a sujuk gel.
Here you have a small bowl, which will summarize your entrance, with fessel, bread and sujuk gel, in a bowl. And inside this cup, it's a green asparagus sorbet, with bread bread praline, white asparagus spice. And tradition forbids, of course, butter in France.
This butter is smoked, which represents the Lebanese symbol, the cedre, with a little smoked salt flower. I don't know where to start. The table is full in front of me, and I'm amazed. I was thinking before coming here, what else do I need to fix.
I've been here 6-7 times, 3 years, since I took the table, I know, we became friends. What else do I need to change? The cedar is amazing, the idea of the cedar, wow, astonished. The brioche bread is great, great, great. In the past, they used to add thyme, or make it half white half black, they started doing it like it is now.
When you add thyme with it, imagine for the people who don't like thyme, or who heard in the Middle East, or who heard in Lebanon, it was their own thing. Thyme. It's a big deal. The bread is very delicious, it has a bit of sugar. A lot of butter, it tastes like croissant. The thyme is amazing, the original Lebanese with olive oil.
Original. 255 0:20:23,000 --> 0:20:01,000 Look at this. Unrivaled. The butter is soft.
A lot. It has salt and pepper, look at the pieces. It's like labneh. It's appetizing.
Of course not the butter of the supermarket. Wow. We continue.
Piece after piece. Come back. Go Alain Jaam, go. Wow.
They don't have tastes. I've eaten them together before. Wow. It brought me back to Lebanon.
I'm putting myself next to a stranger. These tastes that I've never tasted in my life, I've never felt them in my life. How they are all put together in one bite. Why did we take two stars? Why? Why did we take two stars? I won't say more than that.
I won't say more than that. It's as intense. We are now offering you the smoked lamb falafel.
We invite you to start with the pita bread that we stuffed and that we stuffed with lamb cream. The ideal is to taste it up as a whole for a sense of texture. Then the falafel that is in the center of the plate is prepared with vegetable coal. The coal will make the falafel taste lighter and make it softer.
On top, there is another little ball. Radis d'Aicon with dried anchovy. And around it, the cream is tahini, the white sesame paste that we emulsified with yogurt. Here is your piece of eel, which we smoked and lacquered with pomegranate molasses. So after tasting the pita bread, the chef will invite you to eat first the first half of the falafel, with the little Radis d'Aicon pickle on top, while tasting a little bit of tahini cream, and tasting the other half of your falafel with the piece of eel.
Here comes excitement! Because it's time for the bread. I'm going to toast it. It's time for the falafel.
It's time for the eel. I don't know what I'm choosing. It's time for...
Unbelievable, unbelievable. Wait, let me get back. Tahini cream. A piece of black falafel cut in half, and you eat it like this, with grains of chickpeas on the bottom. Wow.
You'd think you're eating falafel. This is an Etoile restaurant. The taste of tahini, the taste of chickpeas, the taste of falafel. The chickpeas are cleaned very well.
The falafel is great. It tastes good, it's not covered in anything, it's not too much vegetables. And in the end, after you've gone to Lebanon, you make...
A sea. The Clos de l'Ours, Lagachon, a very beautiful province, half Carignan, half Saint-Saëns. You have the power of Carignan, and you also have the fruit, this lightness, this freshness. It's a very, very beautiful wine, from a very beautiful region. Champagne eau rosée, Paul Lored, Valais de la Marne, we're on Routes sur Marne.
A very, very beautiful champagne. It's a very, very beautiful finesse. It's aromatic.
It's a very straight champagne. It's a pure wonder. So, for the rest, we're going to ask you to choose your companion on the road, with carbon blades here, the Chambriard house in Thiers, and wooden handles of different colors, naturally.
Which one would you like? This one? Wait, the second one. The name of the wood is engraved just below. We're going to continue with the bar row, where we've prepared you a bunier. On the top of the bar, we've got thin slices of pickles, with a Normande mori, which we've garnished with a fine filling of nut powder and shallots. In the background, we've worked on the small peas, with a jelly of small peas and a coulis of koumkouats.
Here, a white butter of mori, vinegar of xerès, and verjuice. And we'll invite you to taste, at the same time as the main course, this bread from the bar, which we've prepared in the spirit of a croque monsieur, which we'll invite you to dip in the brnaise au zaatar. Enjoy your meal. Oh, it's still there! Oh, it's so good! A mix of zaatar. Brnaise! Nice! With zaatar.
Nice. Very nice. And a nice white butter, made with the mori. Oh, delicious. I don't know how to explain it. Its crunchiness, its feeling under the tongue, and all these words I'm using, I don't know how to explain it.
It's so complex. And every time a plate comes, I say, no, I won't finish all of this. I'm eating a lot. I don't want to finish all of this. I can't stop.
Is there more? What are you saying? There's still a lot left. So, before the second dish, we're going to offer you a refreshing pastille, a bit in the spirit of the tronormand, but without alcohol. Here you have a pastille with kiwi, green apple and mint.
You can take it with your fingers. This is the tronormand. Refreshing.
We cleaned the thyme, the sausage, everything we ate before, and now, the fun begins. There's still this knife we didn't use. So here we are today, at the Agnodelet of the Pyrenees.
We offer an Agnodelet that is entirely made. Its cutlet here, which you can see, is finished with a barbecue, it's roasted. You can really taste the wood coming out.
We also worked on a little panouf, pressed here, cooked for three hours, and it's going to be very confit, very tasty. A slice of eggplant with the famous baba ganoush, with all the little oil, which is going to be slightly smoked. On top, it's really a whole work, it's much more meticulous. You have a little square of eggplant that's been barbecued, with the traditional eggplant pickles on top, with the roasted macadamia nuts.
The little garlic cream, but made without, with the little zucchini condiment and its meat juice. Here, of course, you will be able to taste the traditional quai bénaillé, revisited in the form of a tartlet, with this caviar egg topping, still in the scenter of the Prunier house. And we offer, of course, because the juice here is entirely made with the parures of lamb. So you will see here, I am very concentrated. So I will keep you here, you will be able to see it. New here, quai bénaillé, garlic, baba ganoush.
Unexpected, really unexpected. I will start with the quai bénaillé. It is a tartare, with a toast, with sweetness.
A very good idea. The piece of meat is like butter. It didn't even need this strong knife. Let's see it together. Toast, biscuit, and baba ganoush.
You heard the crunch? Better than jam. It melts like butter. Pomegranate molasses. 440 0:30:09,840 --> 0:30:01,800 The piece of butter, not the meat. I haven't eaten this food and I haven't seen this food before. I don't think anyone else has eaten this food before. It's a trip.
Really, uitar. An unexpected away trip. Le char, hind keep sname We've refreshed you a bit and we'll invite you to taste the toasted pine nuts. And then on the side, you have the French cheese with the two sheep, Basque, the Soirati, in small fondant layers.
Good continuation. How Shanklish and French cheese. How they stay together, how they sit together.
Before, I gave a banana ice cream on the Sumac, I remember it very well. This time, Shanklish, it's perfect. And this cheese.
Two different experiences. Hot and cold. One is sticky and the other is not.
One is sour and the other is... How can I say? Basic. Acidic. Beautiful.
Beautiful, beautiful. You see them together. Pine nuts. So complex. So complex. Unbelievable.
Unbelievable. I can imagine what's happening in the mouths of people. I can imagine what's happening in this world. Two stars. And he deserves it.
Here is a cloud of Knefeh. We worked here with Sorbet Sorghoni, with semolina soaked in orange juice. Supreme orange, with a creamy turmeric honey, and also candied orange peels. We then covered it with a Hacheta espuma. We worked with the Ribo milk, of course, the fermented Breton milk.
A Lebanese person will say this is not Knefeh, but it is not Knefeh. This is a revisited version of Knefeh. I can imagine, again.
Japanese next to us, Spanish over there, French over here. And all the nationalities of the world will eat it and say, what is this? What is this? Sweet. Bitter. Creaminess. Creaminess, what is this? I am just taking gastronomy to the next level. The Lebanese, Dutch...
I don't know the words. Bravo. We will finish this trip with Baklava.
We prepared it with a base of toasted pistachios, lacquered with syrup and orange flowers. Caramelized on the side, and crispy. On top, fresh aniseed strawberries, with a cream of strawberries and a rhubarb compote. Next to it, the labneh ice cream, garnished with a slide of acidulated rhubarb.
We invite you to taste the ice cream while you eat your Baklava. The Miniardises. Here, a very regressive dessert, the traditional Mahlebiye, coated with a white chocolate pistachio crust.
We invite you to take the little stick and taste it in a moucheh, because it is creamy inside. Here, on these little candied sugars, a soft caramel, prepared with salt flower and kalamata olive powder. In this tube, there is a digestive, a reduction of walnut wine, prepared with the liquor of the Chartreuse pears and the pear juice. To taste the tube, you will have to unscrew the cap, turn around, pierce the hopper and suck into the tube directly. Since the taste is quite powerful, do not hesitate to taste the caramelized walnuts that are under the tube, prepared in the spirit of the French Valentine's Day pralines.
And finally, the cardamom coffee, which we reworked for you, to be chewed. So, for the tasting order, number 1, 2, 3, and 4. A story, a very big story.
You stand and look, and say, what a nice dessert, what a nice plate, what a nice thing, and then you open the box. This box, what does anyone want to eat to eat? This is a meal for one, a complete meal. What did you say? Ice cream with labneh? Very light, very very light, frozen yogurt with labneh. Next to it, pistachio, like the Mafroukeh at the bottom.
Excellent. The taste of strawberry, the pistachio that sticks a bit to the teeth, the ice cream is very delicious. Sticky pistachio, crunchy pistachio. Amazing, we wore the jacket because Paris is the motto. Really, Alain, bravo.
I say the same thing every time, but you really went to another level. How much you want to invent, how much you want to do things, of course, they will be jealous of you in Lebanon, ice cream with labneh, ice cream with cashews, ice cream with dates. There was ice cream with sumac at the time. Correct. It was very delicious, you removed it. Because we remove and renew. God bless you.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. We try to invent and bring new things. This French identity with Lebanese flavor. But the best thing is the butter on the cedars. Very strong. You want to tell me where did you get this Moul? It took me 2 months to recommend.
I sent them a cedar wood, I told them it is from Lebanon, I told them that it is from Moul Moul Moul, you should make a Moul on its size. Amazing, the butter is delicious, the spices are delicious. Let's go.
On the motorcycle. This motorcycle is new, I think it is the same. No, it is not the same.
Oops. Wow. Wow.
Wow. You haven't eaten yet. I haven't eaten.
I can eat if they are delicious. You didn't eat Kamel Maak. I ate. The potato is hot.
Hummus. Wow. Listen. I missed it. I go by plane, I miss my heart, I want hummus and thyme.
People, you are living abroad, how do you do it? The potatoes are crispy, the spices are delicious. Amazing. I was at your friend's place in Ajam in Saziane. He made exceptional food. The experience was amazing.
Really, a star, exceptional, it deserves 2 stars. They like your food. But I told them that before we sleep, empty crew.
God bless Anthony, but the menu in your country, they had 599 0:40:23,460 --> 0:40:01,000 I didn't eat today. 30 plates. But they are not happy. Thank God. I feel like I am giving a pregnancy to the rest. God bless you, God bless you, God bless you, God bless you.
God bless you, you like to eat like this. You are famous, this is what you eat all the time. Eat, eat, eat.
2023-06-10 16:42
