anissa helou | anissa's travels

Anissa’s next culinary tour is a weekend in Paris with Francois Simon, the legendary French restaurant critic who may or may not have been the model for the critic in Ratatouille from 27 to 29 April 2012. The itinerary is as follows:

We will check into the Relais St Germain Hotel early afternoon and once we have settled in and perhaps taken a walk over to Pierre Hermé for a macaron, we will meet Francois at 6 pm to have a drink at the Bonaparte. Francois will explain about the restaurant scene in Paris, what has changed, which are the improvements and what has been lost. We will return to the hotel at 8 pm to have dinner at Le Comptoir with a menu devised by Francois and Guy de Camdeborde who we will meet if he is not travelling. If we are still feeling energetic after dinner, we may go to a nearby bar for a nightcap or perhaps just walk in St Germain des Prés.

The following morning Francois will pick us up after breakfast at the hotel to take us to his favourite market where we will shop for the dinner he will cook for us that evening. Once our shopping is done, we will go to La Crèmerie which will be booked for us only for a picnic lunch made up of amazing French products such as boudin en terrine, excellent hams and cheeses with salad and grilled vegetables. Again Francois and the owner of La Crèmerie will devise the menu and wines.

Francois will leave us after lunch to go and prepare our dinner while we go to the Musee d’Orsay. Then we will rest at the hotel for a short while before meeting at 7.45 pm to walk over to Francois to enjoy his famous poulet roti and other dishes with excellent wines -- he knows as much about wine as about food.

The next morning, we will have breakfast at the hotel then we will go out for a walk and a café at one of the classic terraces, either les Deux Magots or le Flore, before meeting Francois for brunch at a new place of his choice. Then it is goodbye if not to Paris for those who decide to stay on, at least to Francois and me!

And in the autumn, Anissa will lead culinary tours to Istanbul, Safranbolu and Gaziantep; Tangiers and Fez; and Lebanon. We will be posting details for these trips in the next couple of months.

For more information please contact us.