Cédric Tovar
Chef of the Peacok Alley restaurant, jewel of the Waldorf-Astoria.
Moved to New York in 2000 for the opening of Geoffrey Zakarian’s Town Restaurant. Has been there ever since but comes back to Paris once a year.
- Paris
- Tips
Cédric Tovar’s
Parisian gastronome in New York
What makes you a real paryorker? Having spent half my career in Paris and being in the process of spending the other half in New York! Also the fact that I am a real “city guide” to Paris for New Yorkers.
How did you become one? Meeting the New York chef Geoffrey Zacharian during a journey dedicated to truffles in the south of France. Less than six months after our meeting, I moved to New York and we opened the Town Restaurant together.
Do you know any other paryorkers? Christopher Poron, who imports French truffles to New York and the rest of the United States.
How do these two cities contribute to balancing your personal and/or your professional life? From Paris I retain my culinary education and my apprenticeship in high professional standards (passed on from establishments where I worked) which made me the person I am today. In New York, I am developing my gastronomic creativity with the benefit of the open-mindedness of the New York clientele.
What images do these two cities bring to mind? Paris is a classical music concert and New York a rock ‘n’ roll concert.
What’s your fondest memory of Paris? It is the route I took to go to the Tour d’Argent when I worked there. I went past the Place des Vosges and the Hôtel de Sully, took the Rue de Fourcy (where the Maison Européenne de la Photographie is), went over the Pont Marie to the Ile Saint Louis then the Pont de la Tournelle to arrive at the Tour d’Argent.
What’s the first thing you do when you set foot in Paris? I’ll drink a draft beer with friends in a typically Parisian café… Rue Saint Dominique (75007) for example.
The second one? I take my nephew and niece to a café, Le Flore en l’Ile. There they have the best sorbets in Paris made by Berthillon and the view of Notre-Dame is absolutely enchanting.
And the last one, when you leave? I drop into the Librairie Gourmande bookshop.
What is the ideal time of day for you in Paris? Sun rise. Having got into the habit of getting up very early for my work, I have ended up loving this time when all the smells are most emphasized… especially those from the bakery.
Do you have a ritual that’s intimately related to the city? I walk around the 12th arrondissement, in the parts which have been redeveloped like the Coulée Verte park and the Cours Saint Emilion mall.
What excites you about Paris? The markets, how many of them there are, their diversity, the quality of products you find and the producers you meet there. I think I have something of a weakness for the Bastille market.
What annoys you? The traffic jams. At the same time, it’s good, as it makes you walk and leave your car in the parking lot.
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