The Food Lover's Guide to Paris [Paperback]

Let's face it. Finding the best of the fabled cuisine in Paris can be difficult for us Americans. We're thrown off by the language, the numerous terms for eateries, and the French themselves, who love to pretend they don't speak English.

That's why Patricia Wells's updated guide, now in its fourth edition, is a hit. With detailed information on 450 restaurants, Wells takes readers by the hand and demystifies the culture so well known for its luscious food and demanding gourmands. Sidebars abound: she dissects breads, foie gras, and oysters--and even gives the cultural background on why the French may drink wine in the morning (to kill worms, of course), as well as discussing the pros and cons of eating the rinds of cheeses. Also listed are the best bakeries, cafés, and specialty shops, as well as 50 recipes to try at home.

If there is a criticism to be made of this sturdy and informative book, it's of the writing of this International Herald Tribune critic, which is sometimes riddled with stock descriptions and clichés. Yet readers are likely to forgive her this occasional foible, as Wells's interesting details and enthusiasm are enough to send devout Italophiles, even, to Paris--where they can sink their teeth into those crusty baguettes. --Melissa Rossi

An internationally acclaimed authority on French cuisine, an award-winning cookbook writer, and restaurant critic for France's weekly International Herald Tribune, Patricia wells knows a thing or two about food in Paris. And what she knows she shares with one and all in her Food Lover's Guide To Paris, the book Bon Appetit calls "a must for every food lover." It's been six years since Ms. Wells last revised the guide, and for the Fourth Edition she's returned to the more than 450 restaurants, bistros, cafes, patisseries, and specialty food shops listed. She samples, she reviews, she updates all vital statistics -- and she drops those that have disappointed. She tells us what is new and wonderful (over 50 restaurants and 100 bakers, cheesemongers, wine shops, and other food establishments have been added), what is old and still trustworthy, what will make us shake our heads with amazement, and what will comfort us with the knowledge that what we loved 20 years ago we can return to today. Included with the Fourth Edition are 50 recipes, 10 of which are new, and an expanded glossary so that readers will never be at a loss when they are facing a French menu.

The Food Lover's Classic Brought Completely Up to Date.

An inveterate explorer of all things culinary, Patricia Wells brings us the very best of Paris: not only unforgettable evenings in her foolproof selection of restaurants, bistros, and cafes, but the places to find the flakiest croissants, earthiest charcuteries, sublimest cheeses, most knowledgeable wine merchants, gleaming pots and pans, and the holy grail of breads, pain Poilane.

Whether the urge is a simple one, like satisfying a midafternoon sweet tooth on the rule de Buci (try Jean-Pierre Carton for its puckery tarte citron or deep, rich tarte au chocolat), or grander - deciding between hallowed Taillevent or the poetic, audacious Pierre Gagnaire - Ms. Well's guidance is infallible. She tells us what is new and wonderful (more than 50 restaurants and 100 specialty food shops have been added to this edition) and what is gloriously familiar and still to be treasured. She even manages to coax recipes from her favorite chefs - 50 are included in the book.

"'Patricia Wells is a genuine phenomenon."' An authority on French cuisine, she writes regularly for Food and Wine, The New York Times, and Travel and Leisure, and she is the restaurant critic for L'Express, the French newsweekly, and The International Herald Tribue. Ms. Wells and her husband live in Paris and in a farmhouse in Provence.

A Taste for Paris From the moment I set foot in France one chilly, gray January morning in 1973, I knew that Paris was a city I would love the rest of my life. More than a quarter of a century later, after spending twenty of those years in this gentle city, each day I am moved by Paris's elegance and beauty, its coquettish appeal. The quality of life here is better than in any other place I know, and eating well has much to do with it. This is the book I came to Paris to write. Equal only to my passion for food is my love for reporting. I have always thought that one of the most enjoyable aspects of journalism is that you get to know people on their own turf, and you get to poke around, asking the questions that any curious person wants answers to. In researching this book, I - along with various companions - walked just about every street in Paris in search of the gastronomic best the city has to offer, talking, chatting, interviewing, meeting with the city's men and women who are responsible for all things great and edible. We set out to find the crispiest baguette, the thickest cup of steaming hot chocolate; to spot the most romantic site for a warm morning croissant or a sun-kissed summer lunch; to track down the trustiest cheese or choclate shop; to uncover the happiest place to sip wine on a brisk winter's day. We quickly gave up counting the number of times we got lost or rained out as we checked off addresses and discovered back streets and sleepy neighborhoods. We toured the markets and tea salons, sparred with butchers, laughed with the owners of a favorite bistro, and shared the incomparable aroma of a great loaf of bread as it came crackling from the oven. We rose eagerly at dawn to catch a pastry chef as he pulled the first batch of steaming croissants from his wood-fired oven; climbed down rickety ladders into warm and cozy baking cellars to discuss the state of the French baguette with a skilled baker; shivered as we toured the aromatic, humid, spotless rooms stacked with aging Brie and camembert, Vacherin and Roquefort. Each day we lunched and dined, sometimes at modest neighborhood bistros, sometimes in fine restaurants. We gathered recipes from pastry chefs, cooks, bakers, and teashop owners, and tested, tested, tested until my apartment took on the same irresistible mixture of aromas as the food streets and shops of Paris. Throughout, it was an exhilarating labor of love, one from which I hope you will profit, the joy of which I hope you will share. This is a personal guide, and whenever I had to decide whether to include or delete a shop, a restaurant, a market, I asked myself one question: Would I want to go back there again? If the answer was no, the address was tossed into the ever-growing reject file. In choosing restaurants, I have tried to be comprehensive but selective. I have tried as best I know how to tell you exactly what I think you will want to know about a restaurant: why you should go, where it is, how to get there, what you'll find when you arrive, and what it will cost. I intentionally did not rate restaurants, for I find personal restaurant ratings clumsy, arbitrary, Dan generally unreliable. Besides, they make a burdensome science out of what should, essentially, be joyful discovery. No doubt, some places you will love less than I. Some you will love more. I hope this book will stimulate every reader to explore, look around, and ask questions, and will help everyone to understand just a bit more clearly the history, daily customs, and rich texture of Paris, the great gastronomic capital of the world. Excerpted from The Food Lover's Guide to Paris: Fourth Edition. Copy right (c) 1999. Reprinted with permission by Workman Publishing.