🇫🇷 Datil, Paris, France : such delicate vegetal clarity and care by Cheffe Manon Fleury and her team
Here’s a meal I still think about. Weeks later. Food is not just a plate. And I’ve rarely come across a place like Datil, or a cheffe like Manon Fleury, who seems to care as much about the plate as the ecosystem around it. And @bill_addison (Los Angeles Times food critic) loved it so much he wished she moved to California to put a spotlight on vegetables and fruits as she does in Paris.
And there’s maybe a movie to be made.
The heroine. A Burgundy-raised, a junior national fencing champion. Manon Fleury then changed path and trained between New York and Paris under Pascal Barbot at l’Astrance and Dan Barber at Blue Hill at Stone Barns, made her name running the kitchen at Le Mermoz, and in September 2023 with Laurène Barjhoux, opened her own home : Datil. The name of a plum so rare it had almost vanished, rescued by a regional conservatory.
The plot. She makes vegetables sing. Everything was subtle, precise, sometimes unexpected in the best way, like the union of a black olive sorbet and a strawberry cake that had no business working, and it did. She’s a cinephile too, and it shows. The very first bite she sent out was born from a scene in a Kore-eda film.
The set. This place is not just there to feed you. It is quietly political, and delicate in its manners. The radical part is in how it is built. No brigade, no shouting. She co-founded Bondir.e, the collective fighting violence in professional kitchens, and you feel that in the room. A calm, almost entirely female team she put together on purpose. Weekends closed so no one burns out. And more battles. Against food waste. Obsessed with ingredients and farmers. Everyone is named, the whole team on the menu, the growers and artisans in a little booklet beside it. Movie credits rolling down. I have only seen that kind of full credit a handful of times. Somni in Los Angeles was one of them. It is too rare.
It takes a village to have delicious food. And by supporting places like Datil, you also vote with your stomach for people who want a better village. Thank you, Manon Fleury, and her team.
