(28 Dec 2023)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Paris, France – 13 December 2023
1. Restaurant interior
HEADLINE: Famed 400-year-old Paris restaurant ready to serve
2. Various of chef preparing duck
ANNOTATION: The famed 400-year-old Tour d’Argent restaurant in Paris is open for business after an 18-month renovation.
ANNOTATION: It’s also serving up front row seats to the reconstruction of Notre Dame, ravaged by fire in 2019, and to the 2024 Summer Olympic Games opening ceremony.
3. Lunch being served to guests
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Andre Terrail, owner & CEO, La Tour d’Argent: ++PARTIALLY OVERLAID WITH SHOT 5++
“We have a front row seat on the opening ceremony of the Olympics. It’s a great privilege. It starts just there, and we have this turn just by Notre Dame, so it will probably be the greatest viewpoint of the opening ceremony that evening.”
5. Pan across the Seine River following expected movement of boats during Paris Summer Olympic Games opening ceremony, shot stops on Notre Dame
6. Stephane Trapier greeting guests
7. SOUNDBITE (French) Stephane Trapier, executive restaurant manager, La Tour d’Argent:
“So, the energy is new, but on the other hand, the philosophy is the same, this special ambiance of a family home, because we are a family home. This incredibly warm ambiance is the same.”
7. Various of duck being prepared for serving
STORYLINE:
From its newly renovated, 171 square-meter dining room on the sixth floor, the Notre Dame’s remarkable reconstruction unfolds before your eyes.
The mounting of the cathedral’s new spire, cross and a replica of the famous golden rooster on top are all recent and significant steps in the cathedral’s recovery.
Notre Dame’s renaissance is underway just across the river from silver tower’s panoramic view.
But dining at what claims to be the oldest restaurant in Paris, 400 years of tradition, a jaw dropping view, a Michelin star and not to mention the inspiration for the classic 2007 movie “Ratatouille,” clearly comes with a glitzy price, affordable to very few.
A prix fixe lunch menu is the Tour’s least expensive option, and costs 150 euros per-person.
Dinner set menus cost as much as 440 euros a person, depending on the number of courses.
And this year’s New Year’s menu will cost 780 euros per-person – without sampling the restaurant’s fine wines.
The 50 seat restaurant still has one of the most celebrated wine caves in the world with some 320,000 bottles.
The wine list for customers is an eight-kilo book they call “The Bible” which lists 14,000 French wines.
The Tour d’Argent’s signature dish remains its pressed duck, cooked in its own blood, in a recipe popularized by former owner, Frederic Delair, back in 1890.
Delair also started the tradition of giving customers certificates with the number of duck that have been served since 1890.
They’re now well past the one million mark.
Lunch cooked in this 150 square meter open kitchen is a bustle of energy contained by an experienced staff with décor and flourish.
For many customers they’re splashing out for a very special occasion.
Executive Chef Yannick Franques shows off his seductive “mystery egg” starter in truffle sauce.
“You have to cook the egg white, but not the yolk,” he explains.
“People, when they come to eat, are quite surprised when they don’t know the mystery and often come to me asking how I manage to get the raw yolk inside and the white part cooked. Unfortunately, I can’t say, I just can’t say,’ he adds.
Forty-three-year-old Andre Terrail now runs the family business.
Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/
You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/b1489c7404a145ddaad295d57eedd1a8
Spee we have a front row seat on the opening ceremony of the Olympics it’s it’s it’s a great privilege it starts just there and we have the turn just by notredam so it it will probably be the greatest Viewpoint of the opening ceremony that evening ch