Paris has a new address for serious fine dining — or rather, a familiar one with a fresh face. The Hôtel Plaza Athénée on Avenue Montaigne has launched La Grande Table du Plaza Athénée, a reworking of its celebrated restaurant built around a three-chef team: Jocelyn Herland, Anthony Di Prospero and pastry chef Angelo Musa.
The concept is exactly what the name suggests. At the centre of the dining room sits a nearly two-metre (6'5") marble table, anchoring a room designed by Rémi Tessier with crystal and gilded detailing. Behind the scenes, continuity matters: roughly 30% of the kitchen and front-of-house brigade has been at the hotel for more than a decade, from chefs to sommeliers to maîtres d'hôtel.
The six-course menu is a love letter to Paris and French terroir, with each course drawing on a different era of French gastronomic history. It name-checks the giants of 19th-century cuisine — Antonin Carême, Jules Gouffé and Auguste Escoffier — and every meal opens with the Escoffier soup before the menu shifts with the seasons. Wine pairings come courtesy of master sommelier Laurent Roucayrol, who mixes famous producers with off-the-radar finds.
Front-of-house is treated as theatre, but with restraint. Under restaurant director Denis Courtiade and deputy director Anna Crupano, guests can expect tableside carving, flambé service and garnishes served as sharing platters — a philosophy the team sums up as being spectacular without becoming a spectacle. General manager and Dorchester Collection COO François Delahaye frames the relaunch as both renewal and preservation: honouring the restaurant's heritage while giving it a modern voice. Bookings are now open.
For travellers, this is one of the few dinners in Paris where the food, the service ritual and the room itself are all part of the show. If you're planning a splurge meal in the Golden Triangle — perhaps paired with the couture houses steps from the hotel's door — La Grande Table now belongs on the shortlist alongside the city's other big-name tables. Expect classic technique, seasonal French produce and a level of service choreography you rarely see anymore.
