There is a place I have visited in Paris over 20 years and I have followed when it moved. It enshrines the passion I look for when eating in a restaurant, in fact eating at any point. I took my week old children, both of them two years apart to Chez Vincent to make sure they caught the buzz early and clearly it worked. Vincent Cozzoli owns Chez Vincent he now holds court driving his antipasti bus ensconced in the Buttes Chaumont Park. The food is the best of the best, fresh basil is his perfume, Italy his larder. When you enter the restaurant the Vincent throne is before you.
Here you see the salad station. Not mine but I was drawn to capture it.
It all starts with a PIZELLE. A mini pizza with a matzo crisp base, minute mushroom clippings and fresh buff-moz and finally anointed with a dab of pesto. I loved them so much that I posted two pictures to show you. All my pictures are good resolution so you can click on them to see the close-up goings on. Tonight rather than the steller squid I went light and had the Beef Carpaccio, I would wager it is one of the all time best; made all the better by the time it takes for him to prepare each serving. The Proscuitto platter was so moreish my party hit the plate before I could even take a picture. The pasta, Bolognese is like no other, the meat is veal paillard that is grilled first, then hand chopped into the marinara sauce by order, the Carbonara is punctuated by smoky pancetta as the creams foil. Rounding this meal off is the home made Pistachio ice cream and tiramisu that nestles into the last little stomach crevice I reserved in its honor.
Chez Vincent is my Italian in Paris.
Vincent's hand at the tiller preparing my Carpaccio
The Legendary Pizelle
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