Oktobre – Martin Maumet writes his own season on Grands Augustins

On the Rue des Grands Augustins, a short walk from Place Saint-Michel, Oktobre occupies a dining room with its own history. William Ledeuil opened his second restaurant, Kitchen Galerie Bis, at this address in September 2009, in place of Jacques Cagna's L'Espadon Bleu, and ran it as a nursery for young talent. One of those talents, Martin Maumet, joined Ledeuil's kitchens in 2013 and was given the KGB stoves at just twenty-two. In 2023 the pupil bought the room from his mentor, closed it for the summer and reopened it on 1 September as Oktobre, a name that nods to the change of season and, with its capital K, to the restaurant that made him. It is selected in the MICHELIN Guide, its cooking filed under Creative, a classical French base animated by condiments gathered from well beyond France.

01The room and the setting

Martin Maumet called in studio Bateaumagne to rebuild the space from scratch, and the KGB gallery-white of old has given way to something warmer. The dining room for fifty-two covers is broken into compartments seating two to six, plus a private dining room, all tied together by mirrors that catch daylight filtered through linen veils by day and a more confidential lighting scheme after dark.

The palette runs through the tones of an Indian summer: oak tables and banquettes, enamelled wall lights in matching shades, and botanical paper panels patterned like wildflowers cover the walls. The banquette upholstery, striped in warm colours from the house of Dedar, sets the convivial note that carries through the room.

A separate press account describes the finished effect as autumnal, almost Van Gogh-like, moving through beige, brown and bordeaux – a deliberate departure from the gallery aesthetic of the address's previous life.

02The chef

Martin Maumet is from Poitou, and trained first at the Byblos in Saint-Tropez and then for two years at the Jules Verne under the Ducasse group before William Ledeuil took him on in 2013 at Ze Kitchen Galerie. He rose fast, running the Kitchen Galerie Bis kitchen as associate chef from the age of twenty-two.

Insider tip

Open Tuesday to Saturday; lunch menu weekdays only; valet parking except Saturday lunch.

Ten years after joining Ledeuil, Maumet became owner of the same address, taking over the keys in July 2023 and reopening in September under his own name – a circle closed at the same stoves where he was first given a chance.

He calls himself, without much modesty, a "psychopathe des sauces" – a sauce obsessive – and that self-description is the clearest way into his cooking: a classical French repertoire woken up by a patient, almost compulsive attention to jus, condiments and seasoning.

03The cooking

Years spent beside Ledeuil left Maumet fluent in a pantry most French kitchens rarely open: yuzu kosho, harissa, 'nduja, gochujang, miso and mostarda all turn up as condiments sharpening resolutely French plates. Gault&Millau files the result as "cuisine d'auteur", and Le Monde built a profile around his sauce-led signature.

The style keeps the hors-d'œuvre format that made KGB's reputation – a run of small, vivid opening plates – before the menu settles into a more classical sequence of starter, fish and meat course.

04What to order

At lunch, the carte reads like a tour of Maumet's condiment shelf: linguine in a Thai-spiced bouillon with a rocket condiment (a lobster supplement is offered), and a grilled pig's head with oyster mushrooms, anchovy and peanut. Among the mains, pollock comes with potato, pointed cabbage, a sorrel sauce and shellfish, while mackerel is paired with coco de Paimpol beans and a tomato-and-shellfish jus sharpened with sorrel.

The cheese course arrives with a mostarda di Cremona and an Espelette pepper-and-plum condiment. For dessert, a rice pudding is built around cocoa nib ice cream, a miso dulce de leche, pecan crumble and hazelnut praline; a fig dessert pairs a mild chilli sorbet with olive oil cream, financier and Greek yoghurt; and a ricotta panna cotta is finished with blackcurrant leaf, quetsche plum and fig-leaf ice cream.

In the evening, the six-course Menu Découverte runs through hors-d'œuvres, a starter, fish, meat, a pre-dessert and dessert – the fullest view of where Maumet is taking the kitchen now that it is entirely his own.

05Wine and drinks

The cellar is the work of sommelier Elliot Pariente, who doubles as director of the dining room and cuts the list between serious domaines with allocations and smaller, more confidential finds. At dinner, the Menu Découverte can be paired with a five-glass wine flight, a route through the list built specifically around Maumet's sauces and condiments rather than against them.

06When to go and booking

Oktobre serves lunch and dinner Tuesday to Saturday, with lunch from 12.15pm to 1.45pm and dinner from 7.15pm to 9.45pm. The room is air-conditioned, and valet parking is available every day except Saturday lunchtime – useful on a street with little room to park near Place Saint-Michel.

The address sits on the border of Saint-Germain-des-Prés and the Quartier Latin, close to the Odéon and Saint-Michel métro stations, a few steps from Ze Kitchen Galerie, the restaurant where Maumet first met William Ledeuil in 2013.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.