TAKE-OFF
The lift climbs to the roof of The Peninsula Paris, and the city falls away like a runway left behind. Beneath an immense glass roof, the dining room seems to float in the Paris sky, with the white biplane poised for take-off and the Eiffel Tower on the horizon. Michael Kadoorie, owner of the group and a lover of aviation, gave the restaurant the name of Nungesser and Coli’s aircraft when the hotel opened in 2014, and set this replica on the roof in their memory.
The light is low yet brilliant, caught by stainless steel details polished like the skin of a fuselage. It recalls a 1950s film about aviation, a setting that throws the modernity of the plates into sharper relief.
CRUISING ALTITUDE
Once the evening has reached its altitude, the Carnet de Chasse unfolds course after course and calls on every sense. The scent of white truffle reaches the table before the young grouse does. Brought from the Scottish Highlands, the bird is folded into a raviole with hazelnut and chestnut, while a heather cappuccino, toasted and slightly burnt, brings back the moor. The Lièvre à la Royale, made to a world-champion recipe and served in two services, holds the eye with its deep colour and the palate with a rare power.
The sommelier speaks of each bottle the way a navigator speaks of his charts. Champagne Clandestin’s Les Passagers, a name well suited to the house, opens the flight, followed by I Vicini, an orange wine from 2023, a 2022 red from Gallimard Père et Fils, a velvety red made by the sommeliers themselves and a Macvin du Jura by Julien Mareschal at Domaine de la Borde. Around the tables, the service moves with impeccable precision and an easy good humour.
LANDING
As a Château Suduiraut 2010, Premier Cru Classé de Sauternes, was being poured, Frédéric Marquet, executive sous-chef, came to the table and offered to show where the flight is prepared. The descent leads to a kitchen organised on two levels. Upstairs, the service team cooks to order and plates in the final minutes before the pass; downstairs, another team works on stocks and sauces from early morning.
Frédéric Marquet runs the house as a pair with David Bizet, executive chef of The Peninsula Paris, at the head of a brigade of 108 cooks. Precision, rigour, calm and serenity sit side by side down there, together with an evident joy and the pride of belonging to so prestigious a crew. The brigade is always complete, without a single empty post despite a constant turnover.
The chefs also surround themselves with loyal allies, starting with a poultry farmer from the Perche who came to present her birds to David Bizet fifteen years ago and has supplied his kitchens ever since, alongside meat from the same region and vegetables grown by a friend of the chef.
“We have the finest back kitchens, but what really counts is the people and the produce.” Frédéric Marquet, Executive Sous-Chef
