Jacques Faussat – Gascon cooking, one star, rue Cardinet

At 54 rue Cardinet, a short walk from Parc Monceau in Paris's 17th arrondissement, Restaurant Jacques Faussat has traded under its own chef's name since 2015, a decade after the kitchen first won its MICHELIN star. It holds One MICHELIN Star. Jacques Faussat, a Gascon from the Gers, bought the address in 2001 with his wife Elizabeth, arriving after ten years running the kitchen of Le Trou Gascon for Alain Dutournier. Since March 2019 he has cooked alongside chef Geoffrey Rembert, previously of La Tour d'Argent, Le Bristol and Lazare. The room holds around thirty-five covers, with a private salon for up to fifteen tucked away from the main dining room.

01The chef

Faussat's story starts in the countryside around Beaumarchés, where as a boy he foraged mushrooms and snails to sell to local restaurants for pocket money; at fourteen he left home to train, while the Ripa Alta, where he first worked under Maurice Cosculluela, held its own MICHELIN star for more than twenty years. He trained in cookery and pastry at the École hôtelière de Tarbes and won the title of Best Apprentice of the South-West in 1982, completing his pastry CAP under the guidance of Meilleur Ouvrier de France Louis Berger.

After a spell in the Lot learning to cook game and a period of military service, he joined Fouquet's in 1985 under chef Pierre Ducroux — the school of the classics, as he calls it — then moved into Michel Guérard's kitchens at Les Prés d'Eugénie, rising from commis to chef de partie. Paris came in 1991: a single formative month at Le Carré des Feuillants with Alain Dutournier, then ten years running Le Trou Gascon. In 2001 he and Elizabeth bought the rue Cardinet address, then called La Braisière after its previous owner Bernard Vaxelaire, and renamed it after himself in 2015.

02The room and the setting

The dining room was repainted anthracite and stripped back to pale oak flooring and reclaimed brick when Faussat redecorated, a deliberate marriage of rusticity and sophistication behind an unassuming façade. It seats under forty, closed off by heavy céladon velvet curtains that shut the room like a small theatre, with a separate private salon for around fifteen guests.

Insider tip

Closed weekends; seasonal menu €60/€80; Menu Découverte €110 for the table; booking via jacquesfaussat.com.

A wrought-iron capucin hangs on the warm brick beside an ochre-toned photograph, a demijohn of Armagnac stands at the entrance, and a country loaf sits at the centre of the room; paintings by Olivier Dassault hang through the space.

03The cooking

Gault&Millau calls him a devoted disciple of his mentor Alain Dutournier, taking up the torch with flair in dishes such as marinated baby squid or the day's meat with a pot of peas and carrots. Faussat keeps to his own rule of no more than three products on a plate, cooking slowly, confiting and seasoning with care so the kitchen meets the wine list rather than competing with it, folding South-West staples together with spices gathered on his travels through Spain, Italy and Morocco.

04What to order

The seasonal menu runs three courses at lunch or dinner: a chestnut velouté with pheasant and mustard ice cream, or golden chanterelles under a mushroom and shiitake crumble; fish of the day with butternut, or the day's meat with Paimpol coco beans, chorizo and Bouchot mussels; then a blackberry dessert with chocolate-tarragon cream, or fig with fig-leaf cream and sorbet.

On the à la carte, regulars return for the potato and foie gras compression, seasoned with an acidulated poultry jus and an onion, thyme and lemon condiment, and for the pigeon, flambéed at the table on the chef's wrought-iron capucin. There is also a Lièvre à la Royale cooked in the style of Henri Babinski, a house-aged cheese plate of Coulommiers, Bleu d'Auvergne and mascarpone, and a hot banana and coconut soufflé. The Menu Découverte, the chef's own four-course selection for the whole table, costs €110, with a wine pairing at €55.

05Wine and drinks

Faussat is himself a wine enthusiast with a soft spot for Bordeaux, though his list ranges well beyond it, and Gault&Millau singles out a well-stocked cellar running from everyday bottles to grand crus. He likes to pair wine to his cooking as deliberately as he pairs flavours on the plate, matching aromas course by course rather than leaving the choice to chance.

06When to go and booking

The kitchen serves lunch and dinner Monday to Friday, closed at weekends. Reservations run through the restaurant's own website; the nearest stations are Malesherbes and Monceau, a few minutes' walk from Parc Monceau.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.