Here, all tastes and all expenses are allowed. At Alléno Paris, a three-star restaurant in the Pavillon Ledoyen on the Champs-Elysées, the customer is not simply a king but a demigod. Do you like turbot? Here it is on a bed of garlic, with an Italian sauce reminiscent of your trip to Florence. With porcini mushrooms? We'll handpick them for you in the Fôret de Fontainebleau and serve them in front of a bouquet of yellow orchids, which we know you're crazy about. Your favorite wine, a 1961 Chambertin at €3,500 a bottle, will have been opened the day before to allow it to breathe.

Chef Yannick Alléno, with 17 restaurants and 15 Michelin stars scattered around the globe, insists that customers should be left with a "memorable impression" when they stand up from the table. Not just an "experience," a word overused by competitors, but "an emotional, heartfelt trace, akin to that of a live show."

Each meal is tailor-made according to the "table conciergerie," a liturgy he invented and theorized in Tout doit changer! Quel service pour le grand restaurant ("Everything must change! What service for the great restaurant"), which he published in 2021 at his own expense. With this concept, which reverses the law of supply and demand, Alléno announced nothing less than a revolution.

"As soon as a table is booked, I call people and have a very emotional conversation with them," explained Fanny Perrot, the front-of-house manager at Alléno. "Who are they? Is it a business lunch, a romantic meal, a family meal? What do they like in particular? Do they have a favorite flower? Then we compose the menu accordingly, without revealing it in advance. It's very popular. People think they're unique, they're delighted. And for us, both in the kitchen and the service staff, everything becomes simple because it is all planned in advance."

No more waste, unsold turbot, or dishes sent back to the kitchen. No more dinner rushes at 9 pm, when the brigades are already tired. No more angry comments that demotivate the team. On the TripAdvisor website, customers rave about the dishes' original tastes. The Pavillon Ledoyen, with three restaurants (Alléno Paris, L'Abysse, a sushi restaurant, and Pavyllon, a "gastronomic bar") and five Michelin stars, is the stronghold of 54-year-old Alléno. With thick hair, a chiseled jaw and piercing dark eyes, he is the nucleus of one ambition: To salvage and rejuvenate French gastronomy.

Converting to luxury

Alléno is always in full swing, "10 years ahead of everyone else," said Gérard Barbin, his executive chef for the past 15 years. "He's constantly inventing, he's my spiritual guide." Innovation, progress and investment: "Without this, French gastronomy will disappear," warned Alléno, who employs more than a thousand people worldwide under his star-studded banner. He looked dashing in his embroidered chef's jacket, straight out of "Top Chef," the television show where he has had a spot reserved since 2011.

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