Paris Is the Best Place to Be a Young Chef

Au Passage seems to tick all the classic Parisian bistro boxes: vintage formica bar, shabby-chic decor and a discreet laneway address, not to mention killer market-based cuisine. But customers popping their heads through the pass to say merci after their meal are sometimes surprised when the chefs reply in English. The produce used here might come from France, but the team and menu are defiantly international.

Since opening in 2010, the 11th arrondissement restaurant has been an incubator for some of the city's best young, foreign chefs, helping to challenge the parochial prejudice sometimes found in Paris. The youthful energy of the kitchen sets the tone of Au Passage. Arrive during the busy dinner service and as you pass the open kitchen you're more likely to hear Outkast than Edith Piaf, a high-octane soundtrack to match the focus of the three chefs producing the vibrant, sensitive food that keeps their dining room booked out night after night.

With their original chef, Australian James Henry, now heading up Bones, and successor and compatriot Shaun Kelly at Yard, the current team has pushed the menu in a new, lighter direction. With a Brit—Edward Delling-Williams—as head chef, alongside Australian Peter Orr and Filipino pastry chef Quina Lon, their origins are as diverse as their backgrounds.

All three earned their stripes in London, and their collective resume reads like a best-restaurant guide for the city: St John, The Hand in Flowers, and Dinner at Heston feature, among others. But here at Au Passage they have the chance to do things their way, and are relishing every minute. "We don't see ourselves as cooking modern French," Delling-Williams says. "We're market-driven. There are aspects of food from all over the world in our cuisine."

Orr, too, is excited by the prospect of doing things differently. "It's cool that you can have chickpeas and hummus on the same menu as a lemon tart," he says.

Au Passage has always had character in spades. The ambiance is so relaxed that it's sometimes difficult to distinguish between staff and guests. Audrey Jarry, who co-manages and co-owns Au Passage with partner Jean-Charles Buffet, explains that when she bought the building with a group of friends, they wanted to "create a dining space that felt like eating at a friend's house." The idea was inspired by Jarry's experience at American chef Daniel Rose's (of Spring) first restaurant, an intimate 16-seater that showed her it was possible to bridge the distance that French chefs can often put between themselves and customers.

One of the first venues to herald the arrival of the bistronomy movement that dragged la capitale kicking and screaming out of gastronomic atrophy a few years ago, Au Passage has managed to sustain the hype of its early days. This enduring success and the praise heaped on Jarry and Buffet by the staff (who, without hesitation, describe them as "two of the fucking coolest people we know") attests that they have created something special, although Jarry confesses this can make it difficult to find staff who share their singular vision.

For now, things have fallen perfectly into place in the kitchen and no one wants to mess with the lineup. Roughly the same age and clearly on the same wavelength, the three chefs banter like siblings. They are quick to admit they probably spend too much time together but are equally quick to sing each other's praises.

"Ed and I are like the yin and yang. I'm slightly cleaner and maybe I've got a slightly more technical background" says Orr. "Ed's got that cheffy, creative touch. And together, it works. Quina is the perfect finishing touch to the trio."

Delling-Williams nods. "The desserts are now equal to the savouries, and sometimes they even supersede them."

Their group dynamic is underscored by a shared—and infectiously nerdy—passion for their craft. It's hard not to smile as Orr and Delling-Williams animatedly discuss experimenting with turning an old fridge into a smoker and butchering their own meat.

Being a chef in Paris has its benefits. Aside from the refreshingly liberal attitude to workplace health and safety, Orr muses, "I think it would be pretty rare in London to find a hip, cool, restaurant that's doing really well with three chefs under the age of 28," reasoning that the lower start-up costs in Paris make it a more accessible market for adventurous young operators like Jarry and Buffet.

The ready access to high-quality ingredients is also a selling point. Whereas in a city like London they would be ordering from a large, wholesale market, here they go to Joel Thiebault's market stall four times a week and choose the produce themselves. The advantages of focusing on vegetables are numerous: It's professionally challenging, the food is healthier, and with the price of meat already high (and set to increase), it costs less for the restaurant and ultimately the customers.

"When you cook seasonal stuff, you have to be creative," Delling-Williams smiles. "It's a bit like Ready, Steady, Cook." Sometimes that means knowing when to let the ingredients speak for themselves. A recent dish of carrots roasted in butter showed that less can be more. "Three customers came up and said they were the best carrots they'd ever, ever had," Lon testifies. It can work both ways, though. As Orr says, "Some of our dishes look really simple but there's a lot of work behind them."

When service is over, the trio emerge looking like they've just run a marathon. With an off-shoot wine bar, Martin, recently opened around the corner, and plans for a bakery upstairs that will also give Lon a chance to flex her patisserie muscles, there's no sign that things will be slowing down at Au Passage. The end game is to produce everything in-house, with only raw ingredients brought in. Already dabbling in charcuterie, the chefs will add bread, condiments, and dairy to the mix.

They look exhausted, but also satisfied. Jarry and Buffet are credited with instilling the "work hard, play hard" ethos – thanks to their ready appreciation, the whole team feels invested in the restaurant's success, which affects the whole restaurant experience. "Customers love it when they go outside for a cigarette and hear us singing," says Orr, grinning. "When the kitchen is happy, everyone is happy. The energy transfers."