Arpège Turns the Tables as Paris’ Three-Star Icon Embraces a Plant-Based Future

Scott Mathias
Jul 28
2 min read

Source: Arpege - French Chef, Alain Passard

In a move rewriting the rules of haute cuisine, French Chef, Alain Passard’s legendary three-Michelin-star restaurant, Arpège, has dropped nearly all animal products from its menu. Out go the foie gras, lobster, and langoustines. In their place? Tomatoes, cabbages, carrots, and a philosophy that’s anything but humble.

Alain Passard at 68, is no stranger to radical reinvention. Back in 2001, he stunned the culinary world by removing red meat from his menu. Now, more than two decades later, he’s taking things a step further, eliminating almost all animal ingredients except for honey sourced from Arpège’s own beehives. “Everything I was able to do with the animal will remain a wonderful memory,” he told Reuters, adding that his current approach to food feels closer to “painting or sewing” than traditional cooking.

The new Arpège menu is pure edible poetry. Think tomato mosaics, flame-charred eggplant with melon confit, and harmonies of carrot, shallot, and cabbage, all choreographed with the kind of precision usually reserved for haute couture. Sourced largely from the chef’s own biodynamic gardens, the vegetables are no longer garnishes, they’re centre stage. With Passard’s knife, a beet becomes a brushstroke, and a courgette becomes a conversation.

Arpège is now the first three-star Michelin restaurant in France to go fully plant-based, joining the ranks of New York’s Eleven Madison Park, which made a similar shift under Chef Daniel Humm in 2021. It’s an historic moment in the country which has long regarded butter and beef as sacred.

Source: Arpege - A selection of Alain Passards plated plant-based dishes.

The fine-dining world is taking notes. Arpège’s complete PB move doesn’t just hint at a culinary trend, it shouts it from the rooftops of Paris. High-end restaurants are rethinking their menus in response to changing weather, evolving customer values, and a growing appetite for food both exquisite and ethical. Even the Paris Olympics made headlines for cutting back on meat in athlete and spectator meals this year.

Of course, revolution comes at a cost. A vegetable-focused lunch at Arpège starts at €260. The full dinner experience? €420. But Passard isn’t just selling a meal, he’s offering an aesthetic, an emotion, a masterclass in restraint and reinvention.

From cabbage to caviar (plant-based, of course), Passard’s Arpège is no longer just a restaurant. It’s a statement. A provocation. A reminder that in the world’s most tradition-bound kitchens, even the most sacred rules are meant to be broken.

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