Where star chefs take a casual turn
 

Sundays New York Times Travel section:

http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/01/2...l/22paris.html

I recently saw a write up of Gaya in a French magazine ( I love seafood)

>an astonishingly good cold artichoke "soup" was unexpectedly thick with squid, beet purée and chili.<

Well, that's certainly different.

Did he mean just chili peppers?

((I))

Incidentally if you want resevations at Le Comptoir, you may have to do better than book several months in advance. After reading the Times article, I tried to get a reservation for some time in the five day period when we will be in Paris this summer. Despite a five and a half month lead time, there are no reservations to be had. The reason is that Relais Saint Germain holds all the tables for hotel guests. If you aren't a guest at the hotel, your only chance (according to the woman with whom I spoke) is to call on the day you wish to dine or maybe just show up and hope for a cancellation.

Midnight, it's been closed this month for renovations. I heard the chef was not happy with the kitchen size.

It's closed until June at the moment. It is totally gutted on the interior. We were there last week and spoke with them about it and were told of the long closing. Only construction materials are to be seen inside at the moment.