After Tamara's closure, chef Clément Vergeat opens a new restaurant

A new chapter has begun for Clément Vergeat. The chef, who closed his Tamara restaurant in Paris's 1st arrondissement a few months ago, has decided to make a fresh start and has just opened Tracé in its place. "I spend 95% of my life here, so it was important to me that everything should resonate - the menu, the team, the place, the name. [...] Tracé embodies the choices we make to offer our guests responsible gourmet cuisine, but it also refers to my entire career path, from teenage trainee to head chef, via the encounters and people I've met and then united around me to get here. This has left traces that allow me, today, to look back on this path step by step, and project myself towards a future that's all... mapped out", explains the young chef in a press release dedicated to the opening of his restaurant.

As a result, the new restaurant now seats just 22 diners (down from 40) and offers a single menu, served from Tuesday to Saturday, exclusively at dinnertime. There's no question of Clément Vergeat putting only the finest products on his menu to justify his move upmarket. At Tracé, the chef works with "things you've tasted a thousand times but are rediscovering."

A non-alcoholic pairing

To accompany him on this new adventure, Clément Vergeat was joined by Félix Bogniard, Tracé's dining room manager, whom he met while officiating at the Copenhagen restaurant on the Champs-Élysées. "We're looking for unity between the kitchen and the dining room," says the sommelier, who offers few references on the wine list, but remains open to new discoveries and constant evolution.

Another special feature of Tracé is the choice of three food and beverage pairings, one of which is non-alcoholic. The latter is made with in-house creations such as kefir and kombucha.
To be continued: our investigators' opinion of this restaurant.

• Restaurant Tracé, 15 Rue de Richelieu, 75001 Paris
• Tel: 01 71 60 91 30
• www.rest aurant-tracé.com