Épicure at Le Bristol has held three Michelin stars since 2009. Éric Frechon ran the kitchen from 1999 to 2024 — 25 years — making it one of the longest single-chef tenures at a three-star Paris restaurant. In April 2024, Arnaud Faye arrived from Courchevel: MOF 2019, Bocuse d'Or competitor, Auvergne-born, with deep roots in France's producer network. The courtyard garden still blooms. The macaroni still arrives. The new chapter is beginning.
The History & Transition
Éric Frechon. 1999 to 2024. Then Arnaud Faye arrives and calls it a thrilling challenge.
When Le Bristol Paris decided to build a world-class kitchen in the late 1990s, it recruited Éric Frechon — a young chef who had trained with Joël Robuchon and Alain Ducasse — to lead it. Frechon joined in 1999 and stayed for a quarter century. The three Michelin stars arrived in 2009, and for fifteen consecutive years the kitchen maintained them through political upheaval, pandemic, and the full churn of Paris's restaurant scene. The signature macaroni filled with artichoke, duck foie gras, and black truffle became one of the most cited dishes in French fine dining history. The kitchen's commitment to the palace tradition — the domed service, the synchronized lifting of cloches, the extraordinary bread, the precision of a brigade divided into forty cooks across two shifts — defined a standard for what a Parisian palace restaurant could be.
Frechon stepped back in 2024 after twenty-five years. His successor was chosen with care: Arnaud Faye, born in Auvergne, crowned Meilleur Ouvrier de France in 2019 (the fourth attempt, which he describes as a school of discipline and precision), previously executive chef at Le Kilimanjaro in Courchevel and before that at Espadon at the Ritz and La Chèvre d'Or in Èze. Faye describes his arrival at Épicure as "the most thrilling challenge" of his career — continuing a legendary tradition while introducing his own contemporary classic vision, which foregrounds plant-based and seasonal ingredients sourced from small producers with whom he has been building relationships for years. He speaks of his grandfather's vegetable garden in Auvergne as the root of his approach.
The kitchen at Épicure is exceptionally large: forty cooks divided into two brigades, one for lunch and one for dinner, organised with rigorous hierarchy and the geographical logic of a small city. Franck Leroy — who has been at Le Bristol even longer than Frechon was — remains as a guardian of the kitchen's traditions. The new chapter is explicitly respectful of what came before while charting its own course: Faye calls his vision "contemporary classic" and describes it as cuisine that reframes classical codes for the contemporary era.
The Setting
A garden dining room. Botticino marble. Natural light. The most beautiful lunch room in Paris.
The dining room at Épicure was designed by architect Pierre-Yves Rochon in collaboration with Maja Oetker, matriarch of the hotel's owning family. What was once Le Bristol's summer outdoor restaurant became, under Rochon's transformation, a year-round enclosed garden room — Italian Botticino marble with green onyx cabochons on the floor, natural light cascading through the glass ceiling and garden-facing windows during the lunch service, and the specific quiet grandeur of a room designed for a certain kind of exceptional occasion.
The hotel's courtyard garden — visible through the dining room windows — is one of the great private gardens in Paris: formally laid out, immaculately maintained, with the specific serenity that only a hotel with the resources of the Oetker Collection can maintain in the centre of the 8th arrondissement. During summer service, the garden is extended for aperitif use. During lunch, it provides the backdrop for a meal that is bathed in natural light in a way that very few Paris dining rooms achieve.
I am proud to be joining one of the most prestigious Palaces in the world and to become the torchbearer of its legendary French gastronomic tradition. Continuing the work of Chef Eric Frechon is an immense honour, and bringing my own style to Le Bristol's kitchens is the most thrilling challenge.
ARNAUD FAYE, ON JOINING ÉPICURE AS EXECUTIVE CHEF, APRIL 2024
The Signatures
The macaroni. The dome-service. The garden light at lunch. And now Faye's contemporary classic.
Macaroni Filled with Artichoke, Duck Foie Gras & Black Truffle
The dish that made Épicure internationally famous during the Frechon era: large tubular pasta (candele) filled with a mixture of artichoke, duck foie gras, and black truffle, napped with black truffle jus. The preparation is technically demanding and unmistakably luxurious — it is simultaneously a celebration of Italian pasta craft and French haute cuisine ingredient logic. Whether retained in Faye's era as a signature or evolving remains to be confirmed, but its place in the Épicure identity is permanent.
The Doomed Cloche Service
One of the last restaurants in Paris to maintain the full ritual of synchronized cloche presentation: two servers arriving simultaneously, placing domed covers over each plate, then lifting them in unison on a count. A theatrical service tradition that belongs to the palace hotel world rather than the contemporary restaurant world — and one that makes sense at Le Bristol precisely because the room and the cooking are both operating in that tradition.
Faye's Contemporary Classic Vision
The new chef's declared approach: contemporary classic cuisine that reframes the classical codes of French haute gastronomy for the present era, with plant-based and seasonally harvested ingredients at the core of each creation. Faye selects his produce personally and maintains relationships with small-scale producers some of whom he has worked with for years. His Auvergne roots — the vegetable garden of a grandfather who was a miner — run through the kitchen's new sourcing philosophy.
The Courtyard Garden Lunch
Épicure at lunch — with the garden visible through the glass ceiling and the Botticino marble floor catching the natural light — is one of Paris's most beautiful dining experiences. The lunch service is less formal than dinner, and the relatively accessible set menus make a three-star afternoon at Le Bristol one of the most worthwhile investments in Paris's fine dining calendar. Reserve a garden-facing table. Arrive for aperitifs in the courtyard if the season allows.
The Brigade of Forty
Forty cooks divided into two brigades — one for lunch, one for dinner — organised with the full hierarchy of a French palace kitchen: first sous-chef, second, third, chefs de partie supervising individual stations. The structure is geographic as well as hierarchical: Faye describes the kitchen's layout as designed to encourage mutual support and fluidity between stations and with the front of house. The scale of the operation is itself a distinguishing feature — very few restaurants outside palace hotels can field forty kitchen staff.
The Bread & The Butter
Repeatedly cited by guests as one of the highlights of the Épicure experience in the Frechon era: house-baked sourdough served alongside a focaccia, with exceptional Breton butter. The bread programme at a Paris palace hotel is a separate creative undertaking — bakers dedicated to a specific standard, multiple daily bakes, the specific logic of what a great bread basket means to a meal's opening register. Épicure's bread has been one of the great opening experiences in Paris fine dining for many years.
Before You Go
Everything practical, plainly told
- Address: Hôtel Le Bristol Paris, 112 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, 75008 Paris, France (between Avenue Matignon and Avenue d'Iéna)
- Phone: +33 1 53 43 43 40
- Website: oetkercollection.com/hotels/le-bristol-paris/restaurants-bars/epicure
- Getting There: 8th arrondissement, the Faubourg Saint-Honoré. Nearest Metro: Miromesnil (Lines 9 and 13), approximately 5 minutes on foot. Also accessible from Saint-Philippe-du-Roule (Line 9). The hotel entrance is on Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, one of Paris's most prestigious shopping streets. The neighbourhood is also home to the Élysée Palace and the British Embassy.
- Bookings: Via the Le Bristol Paris website or by phone. As a palace hotel restaurant with significant ongoing demand, book at least 4–8 weeks ahead. Lunch reservations are more accessible than dinner. The garden-facing lunch at Épicure is particularly coveted during spring and summer. The transition to Faye's kitchen may have shifted demand dynamics slightly — check current wait times at the time of booking.
- Price: Set lunch menus from approximately €180–€220 per person. Full dinner tasting menu approximately €380–€420 per person. Wine pairing additional. The lunch menu represents the most accessible three-star experience at Le Bristol and is widely considered one of Paris's great value propositions at this level. Confirm current pricing at the time of booking.
- Hours: Open Monday through Friday for lunch and dinner. Closed Saturday and Sunday. This is significant: Épicure does not serve weekend dinner — a deliberate decision that concentrates the kitchen team on weekday service. Plan your visit accordingly. The Saturday and Sunday hotel restaurant service continues at Café Antonia, the hotel's more casual offering.
Épicure isn’t a meal—it’s a coronation. A place where Parisian splendor meets culinary genius, where each bite is a love letter to France, and where Chef Fréchon proves that true luxury lies in the marriage of tradition and daring. For those who believe dining should be both an art and a celebration, this Faubourg Saint-Honoré jewel is where Paris wears its three stars with unmatched élan.