Paris Opera Restaurant : Awaited for 136 Years, Paris Opera Restaurant is Finally Ready to Open Its Doors

Paris, France, June 02, 2011 --(PR.com)-- Deliberately kept secret until the last minute, the chosen Chef who will sign the menu is the two star awarded Chef, Christophe Aribert. He has been working for the last thirtheen years near Grenoble, at the restaurant "Les Terrasses," in Uriage, where he discovered his true passionate talent for gastronomy.

Authenticity, strictness, creativity, perfection, these are words that define the very personal work of Christophe Aribert.

Christophe Aribert, two star Chef : "To this day, the general public doesn't know me a lot because I have always, voluntarily, kept away from the media. I am someone who is passionate and discreet. Accepting the L’Opéra Restaurant, is no trivial matter: it is associating my work to a highly Cultural place, to a building classified within the French national heritage. It makes a lot of sense. I am very enthusiastic about the idea of being the first to write a menu in a place so charged with history."

Pierre François Blanc, restaurant owner: "During the course of our quest for a chef, we had great encounters throughout France. But it is Christophe Aribert who seduced us with his approach to cuisine, both classic and contemporary, in perfect harmony with the spirit that we want for this unique restaurant."

A team at Paris Opéra

To elaborate the menu, he has worked, in collaboration with the Executive Chef Yann Tanneau (Castel Beau Site, Mama Shelter), Sous-Chef Didier Quennouelle (Royal Mirage, Le Fouquet’s) and the Pastry Chef Hervé Moreau (Pierre Gagnaire, Michel Rostang), who will form the heart of the L’Opéra team.

A classic and contemporary menu

Together, they have elaborated the future restaurant menu, in the image of spatial architecture, where the contemporary forms imagined by architect Odile Decq respond to the conventional forms of Charles Garnier.

The menu will be adapted in the form of classic dishes which will respond to the other imagined and well-thought out dishes, in a resolutely creative style, like the dessert Opéra which will be reinvented around the honey that is harvested on its roofs.

Around the bar the cocktail list will follow the same adaptation. Here, as well, the very classic “Martini Charles” responds to the surprising and disconcerting “Phantom by Martini.”

An architectural place

On the architectural side, the place has been designed by French architect Odile Decq. The restaurant room is located behind the pillars of the eastern facade. The project answer to very high stresses protection related to the historical monument character.

The restaurant's facade undulates like a simple veil of glass placed behind the pillars. No visible structure, only a simple steel blade holds the totally transparent glass in place, as by magic.

Inside, a mezzanine was designed as a kind of vessel slipped beneath the dome. Its curves refer to the shape of a fluid ghost. The space is open and opens the view to the outside.

The red down the steps of the staircase so theatrical and spread across the black soil.

Everything is made ​​here to describe the quality of the restaurant located in the Opera Garnier, without mimicking the existing architecture, respecting it but actually affirming its contemporary character.

Paris Opéra is a place of quality and high prestige and its restaurant will be the same.

The L’Opéra restaurant will be accessible to everyone, directly from Place Jacques Rouché, every day of the week, from 7am until midnight.

Behind the Chefs, a whole team is being set up. Recruitment for the dining room and the kitchen is taking place now and those interested can apply via www.opera-restaurant.fr

L’Opéra
Place Jacques Rouché
75009 Paris
www.opera-restaurant.fr

Opening : June 2011
A la carte is around 60 euros (starter + main dish+ dessert)

For additional information please contact :
Virginie Degraeve
Port : +33 6 65 95 23 17
presse@opera-restaurant.fr
http://www.opera-restaurant.fr/presse/

Download the original press release on :
http://www.operarestaurant.fr/presse/release.pdf

About

The Palais Garnier was inaugurated on January 5, 1875. Since its opening, Charles Garnier, the architect, envisioned the creation of a restaurant. His project was not realized due to lack of funds.

Two other attempts were made by theatre directors, in 1973 by Rolf Liebermann, followed in 1992 by Pierre Bergé, but these did not see the light of day due to similar reasons.

In March 2007, the current director, Gérard Mortier, in the face of international competition of opera houses and with a willingness to bring opera to new audiences, decided to re-launch the project through an invitation to tender.

After 16 months of negotiations, the presented project by Pierre François Blanc was accepted by the Opera on July 1st, 2008.

After a year of preparations, the architectural project of Odile Decq has received appraisal from the National Commission of Historic Monuments on June 15, 2009.

The restaurant will be situated at street level, Place Jacques Rouché, at the crossing of rue Halévy and rue Gluck, in a space denominated "Rotonde des abonnés."

The project, which started in the summer of 2010, will end on June 27, 2011, allowing the dining room of the restaurant to open its doors, continuing the history of the Palais Garnier, after 136 years of waiting.

Thus begins the story of one of the most long awaited restaurants of all time.

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