The subject will make you salivate. What do famous people eat when they go to a restaurant? Attention… Not just any restaurant. Chic, trendy addresses with strong temperaments.
Exquisite showcases for VIPs looking for unique sensory experiences. Like La Petite Maison, rue Saint-François-de-Paule, where for years Nicole Rubi and, more recently, her daughter Anne-Laure have been offering their southern delicacies to the international gratin.
Or something like Nespo, boulevard Victor-Hugo, the newcomer to the galaxy of trendy restaurants (two years old).
Here, Sébastien Nespolo and his staff want above all to offer a unique moment to their increasingly well-known clientele.
This involves the welcome, the atmosphere, the personality of the owners, but also the menu. We cooked the managers of these two emblematic establishments in Nice. Selected pieces…
Shrimp salad and stuffed vegetables from Nice, two of La Petite Maison’s signature appetizers, presented by Anne-Laure Rubi. Photo Dylan Meiffret.
Farandole of starters
Under the emblematic sign of rue Saint-François-de-Paule, the farandole of starters that makes people’s taste buds dance. Photo Dylan Meiffret.
At La Petite Maison, some have their habits, their eating habits. Singer Isabelle Boulay is crazy about veal escalopine with lemon, Prince Albert drops his tie to eat pan-bagnat with both hands, Christian Estrosi, he feasts on carpaccio of tuna, salmon, prawns…
Otherwise? Nicole sits down to eat: “Before offering meat, fish or pasta, we generally serve a farandole of starters. Petits farcis niçois, courgette flower fritters, sliced artichokes, grilled peppers in olive oil, shrimp salad, pissaladière of course, brouillade of truffles… In season, there is poutine in an omelette, donuts or raw, mushrooms.” This mosaic-flavored avalanche recently captivated the palates of model Naomi Campbell and actor-director Yvan Attal.
And when Nicole prepares her truffle sandwich with “baguette not overcooked, crumb removed, 3 millimeters of butter sprinkled with grains of salt, thinly sliced raw truffle”stylist-photographer Hedi Slimane faints.
Photo Dylan Meiffret.
The pasta is falling apart
At Nespo, we kept the emblematic dishes from the start. Like pasta with lobster, spaghetti that chef Victorien Duchesne, trained at the Negresco with the star chef Jean-Denis Rieubland, prepares masterfully “by combining all the carcasses in order to extract the juice and make a bisque”. And that is the cute sin of singer Zucchero as well as actor Tarek Boudali…
While other flagship recipes of the house continue to triumph: fillet of beef with pepper for the writer Marc Levy, flower fritters and Milanese veal chop for the actor José Garcia or the singer Kendji Girac.
The Sarkozy couple at La Petite Maison and at dessert time, white chocolate mousse version and tasty strawberries. Photo Bruno Bébert/Bestimag.
Pay attention to the line…
Sole meunière is also a mainstay of the original menu, but comedian Gad Elmaleh prefers it grilled: “He is careful what he eats.”
The comedian is not the only one to watch his line. At La Petite Maison, tomatoes in a salad or with some pasta do not weigh on Carla Bruni’s slender figure. Lovely, graceful, beguiling… and who keeps an eye on the plate of her husband, Nicolas Sarkozy. “He’s crazy about lobsters and prawns anyway”, loose Nicole. But also pasta with truffles and, for dessert, “white chocolate mousse, strawberries, grandmother’s flan”. And always the fresh squeezed orange. Never alcohol for the ex-president.
When Sharon Stone landed with a dozen people at Sébastien Nespolo, the incendiary blonde planted her ice pick in the calories: “She ordered broccolini, small Italian broccoli that is browned in olive oil. She also tasted the artichoke and watermelon-feta salads.”
The famous cookie, soft and runny, melted the singer Her at Nespo.Photo SN.
… or even a cookie!
Would you like some dessert? At Nespo, the Sexy sundae gives chills: “A vanilla ice cream that stays cool in a liquid state and turbinated at the last minute to give the best of its texture.”
And then, the cookie. A delicacy presented in a skillet, served hot, half-cooked with a heart of melting chocolate, accompanied by a scoop of vanilla ice cream with micrograins from the pod.
“American singer Her hallucinated on it, confides Sébastien Nespolo. She came in the evening, after the Nice jazz festival with other friends. They were six. Excessively warm. Asking lots of questions. Her had a fillet of beef with peppercorns and then the cookie. Exceptionally, I prepared brunch for them the next morning before they left. After the omelette, the avocado, the salads… Her asked for a cookie again!”
