Le Taillevent – eighty years of French ceremony behind two Stars

Le Taillevent occupies a sumptuous nineteenth-century mansion built for the Duke of Morny, a few steps from the Champs-Élysées, and carries the name of the medieval court cook Guillaume Tirel, known as Taillevent, author of the Viandier. André Vrinat opened the restaurant in 1946 on rue Saint-Georges before moving the house into its present address in 1952. It holds two MICHELIN Stars, the latest line in a run of distinctions that began with a first star in 1948 and a third in 1973. Three generations of the Vrinat family built the legend before selling it to brothers Thierry, Stéphane and Laurent Gardinier in 2011, and in September 2026 the Franco-Greek chef Philip Chronopoulos, trained by Alain Passard and Joël Robuchon, took command of the kitchen, inheriting a house built on formal French service, a storied cellar and dining rooms still carved from oak and cut stone.

01The room and the setting

The restaurant occupies the former private mansion of the Duke of Morny, split across a ground floor with two dining rooms and an upper floor whose private salons are listed on the supplementary inventory of historical monuments. The grand staircase links the mineral Trianon room, whose alcoves look onto the courtyard garden, with the Lamennais room, the historic main dining room whose oak woodwork wraps around some forty covers.

Cut stone, pilasters, pediments, capitals and friezes have all been preserved, down to the oak panelling of the Trianon, Lamennais, Guimet and Saturne rooms, giving the dining rooms their weight and formality. It is in this setting that the duck pie, a dish with devoted regulars, has become something of a house cult object.

02The chef

Philip Chronopoulos took the reins of Le Taillevent from early September 2026, succeeding Giuliano Sperandio at one of the most closely watched addresses in French gastronomy. Born in Athens, he trained alongside Joël Robuchon at the Atelier in London and with Alain Passard at L'Arpège in Paris, before three and a half years as a commis at the Laboratoire Robuchon.

Insider tip

Lunch Tue–Fri, dinner Mon–Fri; jacket recommended for men; closed weekends.

A spell as chef on a yacht and plans to open his own restaurant in Athens were interrupted when Éric Bouchenoire called him back to Paris to run L'Atelier Étoile, where he became head chef in 2015 at the age of twenty-nine, building the reputation that eventually led him to Taillevent's historic kitchen.

03The cooking and what to order

The à la carte repertoire mixes seasonal composition with long-standing house classics. Crêpes Suzette, flambéed Grand Marnier at the table, remain a fixture of the dessert trolley, alongside the duck pie and the kind of chocolate dessert and citrus sablé that have anchored the sweet course here for years.

04Wine and the cellar

The identity of Le Taillevent is inseparable from its cellar, one of the most remarkable in Paris, holding close to 40,000 bottles behind a cellar book of more than 3,800 references. The house traces this obsession back to its founder: André Vrinat broke with the dominance of Bordeaux early on and championed Burgundy, building relationships with producers that the cellar still honours.

Today chef sommelier Thomas Millet carries that legacy forward with an instinctive, personal style of pairing, seeking accords that extend a dish's flavour rather than simply accompanying it.

05When to go and booking

Le Taillevent serves lunch Tuesday to Friday from midday to 1.30pm, and dinner Monday to Friday from 7.15pm to 9pm, which in practice means the dining rooms stay dark over the weekend. A jacket is recommended for men, in keeping with the formality of the Lamennais and Trianon rooms.

The address sits in the heart of Paris's Golden Triangle, within easy walking distance of the Avenue des Champs-Élysées and the Arc de Triomphe, making it as suited to a long business lunch as to an evening that runs well past the last Métro.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.