Providence

Providence? It’s a tiny bistro (black and white checkerboard tile floors, vintage furniture) where owners Caroline and Antoine Piechaud give carte blanche to their chefs in residency. Last October, succeeding Céline Pham, Tamir Nahmias, Marion May, Thomas Scarpetti and Lina Bou (amongst others), it was chef Adrien Witte (ex-Waxed in Hossegor) who took a turn running the kitchenette, backed up that particular evening by Australian chef James Henry (ex-Au Passage in Paris, currently the owner of the Ferme du Doyenné in Saint-Vrain) for an impressive duet: beautiful Cantabrian anchovies over a charred lemon cream with lavender-fermented carrots and a crisp tartine topped with herbs and pickled flowers – rose petals, marigold, fennel, pine shoots; a very fresh gilt-head bream from Saint-Jean-de-Luz, marinated in Breton kombu, with jellified tomato water and a chili/calamansi condiment; an incredible buckwheat and spelt wheat tart topped with pralines and shaved raw porcini mushrooms; marvelous squash grown on the Ferme du Doyenné, cooked in olive oil and paired with steamed cabbage, sorrel and a seaweed butter; delicious meagre fillet poached in a fish soup with mussels and squid; before the divine finale, set custard with citron preserved in honey from the Ferme du Doyenné. // P.L.

FEELING THIRSTY? Nothing but natural options: a Loire Sauvignon from Sébastien David (€4 a glass), a Jura white from the Château Lafitte (€44 for 50 ml), Barrau, a Spanish red from Vega Aixala (€36 a bottle)….

PRICE: Plates €7-17.