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by N. A. Ross
For years I’ve been trying to find exceptional food at reasonable prices in Paris. Yes, you can eat and drink sumptuously and extremely well in this international temple of gastronomy where two-star Michelin restaurants are a dime a dozen, but your pocketbook will definitely suffer.
Or will it? In the last couple years some of the young chefs coming out of two and three star kitchens are starting to “go back to their roots” opening bistros, not fancy upscale eateries with flowers, silk wall-coverings and white tablecloths.
 Yves Camdeborde is one of these pioneers. He came out of de Crillon’s two-star Les Ambassadeurs where he worked under Christian Constant, a chef noted for his modesty as well as his exceptional abilities. Yves found a little café in an obscure part of the 14th arrondissement, set up a no-attitude atmosphere, then offered to his customers exceptionally good three-course meals for about the same price they would pay for an appetizer back at Les Ambassadeurs.
“In France, many chefs have forgotten that to eat well is to eat simply. So I decided to ameliorate this situation with La Régalade,” says Camdeborde “I don’t want to play the chef’s role in a white toque every night. I want to cook!”.
 Within months of La Régalade’s opening, it was impossible to book a table without calling weeks ahead. Camdeborde, by scaling back his ambition, had become a success and a leader to a culinary revolution. He is among the new French chefs that don’t care about their Michelin standing, who meet more frequently with their kitchen staff than with their bankers, who use many of the same suppliers as two- and three-star establishments and are firmly committed to a haute cuisine tradition.
“My cooking is innovative, but it is anchored to the best traditions of the French kitchen; which makes for perfect modern food. Today, places where the chef is still in the kitchen cooking everything from scratch are becoming rarer and rarer. The luxury now is honestly made, high quality food, traditionally cooked but prepared with creative intelligence. I put my money and my reputation on the best produce I can buy and then prepare it the way I would, for me and my friends.” says Yves Camdeborde.
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