This Restaurant Fuses Parisian Cooking With Réunion Island Flavours

Dining

This Michelin-Starred Restaurant Fuses Parisian Cooking With The Island Flavours Of Réunion

“The culinary traditions of France’s overseas territories are part of French cuisine—and people tend to forget that,” says Kelly Rangama, the chef and co-owner of Le Faham, in Paris’s Batignolles neighbourhood. Last year, the restaurant—which she founded with her husband, pâtissier Jérôme Devreese—became the world’s first Michelin-star recipient to celebrate the cooking of Réunion, the Indian Ocean island where Rangama was raised. “My father loved to cook,” she says, “so Réunionnais flavours are very much in my blood.” By Caitlin Raux Gunther

Here’s how Chef Kelly Rangama is bringing both worlds to every bite.

Add Some Island Heat

“Réunion cuisine has Indian and Chinese influences. Because of this, Parisians assume that our food will be too strong or too hot. But we carefully calibrate the spices so they don’t overwhelm the senses,” says Kelly Rangama.

Fuse Flavours

“We’re always incorporating Réunion ingredients. For instance, during mushroom season, we’ll combine porcini with essential oils from the rose geranium plant, which adds a light, aromatic quality.”

Special Ingredients

“We import turmeric and massalé, as well as Bourbon vanilla. And once a year we get a shipment of the extremely rare faham orchid after which our restaurant is named. It adds caramel notes when churned into ice cream or infused in rum-based cocktails.”

lefaham.com; prix fixe from $79.

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