Daring hybrid

Aldehyde (4th arr)

RESTAURANTS • Table d'Hôte

Franco-Tunisian chef Youssef Marzouk is pioneering an intriguing new French gastronomic idiom at Aldehyde, opened last August in the Marais. Call this new style Franco-Mahgrebine, the latter word deriving from the name the French use to refer collectively to their former colonies in North Africa — Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. It represents a daring hybrid of culinary cultures never seen in France before.

Aldehyde is the name of the molecule that gives coriander its taste — fittingly, Marzouk trained to be an industrial chemist, but he eventually gave into his love of food and trained to be a chef. He also gave into the family legacy. Born in France to Tunisian parents, his father founded the largest Middle Eastern pastry bakery in the Paris region, and his mother runs a restaurant.

Marzouk began in the kitchens of the Hotel Ritz, then worked with Franco-Cambodian chef Tony Gousset before moving to Le Cheval Blanc, Paris, where he was spellbound by the signature sauces of Arnaud Donckele. “I didn’t want to cook French haute cuisine, though,” says Marzouk. “I wanted to cook my own food.”

And that’s exactly what he’s doing in the open kitchen facing one of Aldehyde’s two dining rooms decorated with Tunisian ceramics (and framed sepia-toned photos of his family, too). His dishes are a clear and edible elision of his identities.

The tasting menus evolve regularly, but recent stand-outs included a tomato salad of burrata with orange-flower water; lamb with an espuma of mechouia, a cooked Tunisian condiment of tomatoes, peppers, onions, and garlic; and a poignant dessert called ‘Grandpere’ (grandfather). “When I’d sit in front of him on his motor bike, he smelled of the cigars and After Eight mints he loved so much,” says Marzouk, explaining the dessert of tobacco, mint, and chocolate. –Alexander Lobrano

→ Aldehyde (4th arr) • 5 Rue du Pont Louis Philippe • Lunch Wed-Sat 12h-13h30, Dinner Tue-Sat 19h30-21h • Book.