In Photos: Paris’ Coolest Food Festival

By Amy McKeever

June 17, 2015

Credit: Gemma and Andrew Ingalls

Fifteen years ago, Le Fooding emerged in Paris as an antidote of sorts to a delicious but staid culture filled with high-minded gastronomic temples. Both a restaurant guide as well as a festival-and-events coordinator, Le Fooding has promoted what it describes as “the most original and freethinking initiatives” among chefs in France and across the world.

This month, the organization celebrated its 15th year with (what else) but a three-day food festival full of parties, brunch, a collaborative dinner, and a grand tasting night market with DJs and musicians. True to Le Fooding’s origins, the festival featured chefs who are operating out of cool but—until recent years—more maligned dining quarters such as Brooklyn, East and North Paris, and London’s Shoreditch neighborhood. These chefs included Paris’s own Iñaki Aizpitarte and Tatiana Levha, Americans Danny Bowien and Ludo LeFebvre, and Londoners James Lowe and Isaac McHale.

These photographs showcase the true hipness of today’s Parisian dining scene.

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Credit: Gemma and Andrew Ingalls

This month, the organization celebrated its 15th year with what else but a three-day food festival full of parties, brunch, a collaborative dinner, and a grand tasting night market with DJs and musicians.

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Credit: Gemma and Andrew Ingalls

At left: fried fish and peas with mint and lemon by chefs Michael Greenwold and James Whelan from Paris' The Sunken Ship. At right: Raviolis d’art from Chef Katsuaki Okiyama from Abri in Paris.

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Credit: Gemma and Andrew Ingalls

At left: patrons enjoying street fare on, well, the street. At right: Chef Nicolas Schist from Brussells' La Buvette plates poached spinach with ricotta and black sesame.

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Credit: Gemma and Andrew Ingalls

Chef Mathieu Rostaing-Tayard (of Lyon's Cafe Sillon) served grilled sardine with asparagus, rhubarb, and coriander.

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Credit: Gemma and Andrew Ingalls

Participating chefs included Paris’s own Iñaki Aizpitarte and Tatiana Levha, Americans Danny Bowien and Ludo LeFebvre, and Londoners James Lowe and Isaac McHale. Pictured at right: one of the cooks working with Chef Bertrand Grebaut of Paris' Septime and Clamato.

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Credit: Gemma and Andrew Ingalls

Both a restaurant guide, as well as a festival-and-events coordinator, Le Fooding has promoted what it describes as “the most original and freethinking initiatives” among chefs both in France and across the world.