DAN YOUNG REFLECTS ON PARIS

Daniel Young moved to Paris years ago from New York to experience the city’s vibrant spirit and personality. His job as a food writer and culinary aficionado has enabled him to develop the relationships with chefs, waiters, restaurateurs and historians that inform his writing with a special understanding of the Paris restaurant scene and its importance to quotidian Parisian life.

He is the former food critic for The New York Daily News and author of THE PARIS CAFÉ COOKBOOK and MADE IN MARSEILLE.

We met over the phone in preparation for his upcoming visit to San Francisco to promote his new book: THE BISTROS, BRASSERIES AND WINE BARS OF PARIS. 

TG: When did you first go to Paris?

DY: I first visited Paris in 1989.  As a kid I was a huge fan of French cinema and, in particular, the Antoine Doinel series of films by Francois Truffaut -- The 400 Blows, Bed & Board, etc.  Looking back I was probably impressed that the skinny loner played by Jean-Pierre Leaud could be popular with women and throw himself into all kinds of urban adventures and romantic intrigues.  I suppose as a teenager I could identify with French male heroes better than I could with American ones.  You could like food, wine, cooking, flea markets, interior design, and opera and still get the girl.

TG: When and why did you come back to stay?

DY: As you can tell I had a very romanticized view of Paris.  But when I finally arrived there, at the relatively late age of 30 -- think of that wasted youth -- I found the reality to be greater than the fantasy.  I could live out those adventures. I could take a chair at any cafe and plug into a Parisian scenario.  Paris is all about possibility.  And I learned something very important: Americans think that French people speaking broken English sound seductive but the same is not true of Americans speaking French.  But this is not true.  They like our foreign accents.  And they loved to be teased in a foreign accent, preferably a New York one.  I returned to Paris year after year and resolved to buy an apartment once I’d saved up enough for a down payment and settle in Paris as soon as possible.  I bought an apartment in 2000 and moved in the next year.

TG: Where do you live (arrondissement) and why?
 
DY: The 11th Bohemia is a moving target.  The Left Bank is demode in this regard. Artists and creative professionals priced out of the St Germain and Montparnasse have slowly migrated in a northeasterly direction -- first to the Marais and the Bastille, then to Oberkampf, Parmentier, and Menilmentont, and most recently to Canal St Martin, various parts of the 20th, and the 18th around Jules Joffrin.  I’m happy with the bourgeois bohemians and the fabulous bistros and cafes only recently left behind in the 11th.

TG: What’s your favorite café?

DY: It’s a difficult question because I have many favorites.  The Cafe de la Mairie, opposite Saint Sulpice, is very special.  The first-floor salle served as the office of the Fabrice Lucchini character in Christian Vincent’s La Discrete. It’s a great and wonderfully homey hideaway.  Out front, the terrace makes prisoners of its occupants. The chairs are chained together -- a forced form of intimacy.  At any moment, someone famous is sure to pass, maybe Chiara Mastroiani en route to her mom’s apartment, Chez Deneuve.

TG: What’s your favorite wine?

DY: I refuse to choose a wine that I can afford once every solar eclipse.  Moreover, I can’t say I have a favorite red grape, much less a favorite wine.  So I will go with my first Champagne choice: I adore all the aromas that explode out of a bottle of JACQUES SELOSSE Brut Blanc de Blancs.

TG: What do you drink when just kicking back at home?

DY: Jean-Paul Brun Beaujolais L’Ancien, Domaine Clavel “Le Mas”, Ostertag Sylvaner, Les Aphillanthes Côtes du Rhône (Cuvée des Trois Cépages or Cuvee des Galets)

TG: What’s your favorite starred restaurant?

DY: Alain Ducasse and Le Meurice.  I won’t expand on this.  Starred restaurants is generally now what I do in Paris.  I’m a Tuesday night kind of expat.  Saturday nights I cook at home.

TG: What’s your favorite bistro du coin?

DY: I can’t pick favorites in this category because there are many bistros in my new book and it would be unfair to their spirit of generosity to single out one.  My favorite bistrot du coin that is not in the book is Chez Ramulaud.

TG: What’s your favorite market?

DY: Marché Popincourt.  It’s the one near my house.  They know me.  More importantly, I know them.

TG: What’s your favorite park or garden?

DY: Luxembourg

TG: What’s your favorite time of the year?

DY: September, at the time of the Grande Rentrée.  There’s energy, anticipation, and everyone is back in town.  There are exhibition openings.  Plus there are no French national holidays that month.  Things get done, sort of, in September and October.

TG: How or do you stay connected to America?

DY: Via the Web and on Skype.

TG: How do you celebrate Thanksgiving?

DY: My friends David Brower and Agnes Lozet host great Thanksgiving dinners in the duplex with fireplace.  David is from LA, but he’s learned lots about hospitality, wine, and great French art of teasing during his years in Paris.  His French guests hate the pumpkin pie.

TG: How has Paris affected your work?

DY: It was my dream to do what I like best and get paid for it.  Paris has allowed me to do that.  I revel in the pleasures of the table and then write about it in books and magazine and newspapers articles.  At the risk of sounding immodest, my work has let me become something of a fascinating figure, albein an odd one, in the bistro and cafe communities.

TG: How has Paris affected your life?

DY: Though I met my wife Vivian in New York, Paris brought us together.  There is nothing better on this planet than being in love and in Paris at the same time.

Meet Dan Young in San Francisco on April 4.