Je suis Adam

It is a problem everybody is faced with in any city, particularly in Paris. That is: the decision of where to eat? I would go as far as suggesting that this extends to those whose sole purpose for visiting a city is not to eat! And so for those who channel-hop, nation-skip and continent-jump for a meal, that problem becomes more acute.

I, somewhat fortuitously and after having worked on the other side of the coin for over a year, fall into the second category. I have come to Paris to eat. It is true that I have come because I love the city, but what I love is the city's devotion to food and the way in which cuisine is so unashamedly prevalent in everything that exists.

Over the past few years there have been murmurs, sounds of discontent. 'Paris is outdated, old-fashioned'. London, New York and Tokyo have all been touted as the new centres of world gastronomy. I, though, am young and I feel it would be precocious not to start in the traditional capital of haute cuisine. I will side with the purists and begin my education here in the home of le restaurant.

I do not aim to be a guide; rather a journal chronicling my experiences for other people to read and enjoy - take from it what you will; I am learning myself. It is entirely personal and therefore intrinsically subjective. More, blogs are by their nature fairly self-indulgent, but I will do my best to avoid sounding simply gluttonous and try to celebrate the food itself as much as my ability to enjoy it. It too shall hopefully record meetings with the people to whom food is their raison d'etre.

Finally, a word on the name of this blog. Over the next couple of months I will be in Paris and thereafter I cannot be sure. Maybe London. However, it is more a play on the title of the wonderful Orwell novel, Down and Out in Paris and London and I thought it sounded good.

Bonjour et Bon Appetit!