Automne, Paris – Nobuyuki Akishige's quiet one-star bistro

Automne sits on a quiet stretch of rue Richard-Lenoir in Paris's 11th arrondissement, in a narrow room that until 2017 traded as the Argentinian grill La Pulperia. Nobuyuki Akishige, a chef born in Fukuoka, took over the address in September 2017 and named it after the first syllables of his own name, Aki, which mean autumn in Japanese. Pale-green walls, a run of close-set wooden tables and an open kitchen at the back give the room the unassuming air of a neighbourhood bistro, which is exactly how its regulars prefer it. The Michelin inspectors noticed quickly: the restaurant was awarded one star in January 2019 and has kept the distinction every year since. It holds one MICHELIN Star, a rare case of a chef's own surname becoming both the sign above the door and the season his cooking follows most closely.

01The room and the setting

The dining room runs long and narrow, with the open kitchen at the far end so that diners can watch Akishige and his small brigade of three at work through the pass. The decor keeps to neutral tones, off-white walls against brown wood, a calm backdrop built for concentrating on the plate rather than the surroundings.

Seating stays close and informal rather than grand, and service in the room is run by Akishige's wife, Saeko, who also looks after the wine list.

02The chef

Nobuyuki Akishige trained as a chef of French cuisine in his native Fukuoka before leaving Japan to discover France itself, arriving in 2006 with the idea of one day opening his own table. His apprenticeship ran from Lyon, his starting point, on to Vienne to cook for Patrick Henriroux at La Pyramide, by way of Saint-Tropez at La Vague d'Or and the Hôtel de la Pinède, and finished in Alsace.

Insider tip

Closed Monday and Tuesday; the room is small, so book ahead.

From 2013 he spent two years in Colmar at l'Atelier du Peintre, then a one-star kitchen. He settled in Paris in 2015, running the stoves at Biondi in the 11th arrondissement for a year, before striking out on his own in the summer of 2017 and taking over the old La Pulperia on rue Richard-Lenoir.

03The cooking

Akishige builds his plates the traditional French way: one central ingredient, a garnish or two, a sauce, with nothing added purely for effect. The French discipline he picked up in Lyon, Saint-Tropez and Vienne sits underneath a Japanese instinct for restraint, so a vegetable or a cut of fish is worked just enough to show what it can do rather than dressed up to disguise it.

04What to order

The carte runs to two tasting formats. Dégustation d'Automne, the chef's signature menu, is built around seasonal produce and the flavours of the season it is named for, moving through an amuse-bouche, two starters, a fish course, a meat course, dessert and mignardises, at €155. L'Essentiel is a shorter four-course carte blanche inspired by the longer menu, at €125, its composition left entirely to the chef and not revealed in advance.

At lunch, a three-course menu is served on Thursdays and Fridays at €75, while a weekend lunch of starter, main, dessert and mignardise runs at €95 on Saturdays and Sundays.

05Wine and drinks

The list leans toward natural wine, a choice that runs through the glass as deliberately as the seasonal thinking runs through the plates, and it is Saeko Akishige who guides diners through it from the floor.

06When to go and booking

Automne serves dinner from Wednesday to Sunday and lunch from Thursday to Sunday; the room is small, so booking ahead matters more here than the quiet shopfront suggests.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.