Astrance

Astrance is a restaurant with a Michelin star on Rue de Longchamp in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, in the former home of Joël Robuchon's Jamin. Chef Pascal Barbot runs it with his partner Christophe Rohat.

Barbot began at the Buron de Chaudefour, cooked for the Pacific admiral during his naval service in New Caledonia and worked at Joël Antunes' Saveurs in London. He then spent several years with Alain Passard at L'Arpège, where he met Rohat. The two opened Astrance early in 2000 in a tiny room on Rue Beethoven with about ten tables, naming it after the astrantia, a mountain flower Rohat had first seen in the Auvergne. The small restaurant held three Michelin stars for more than a decade and rose high on the World's 50 Best list.

Barbot and Rohat closed the Rue Beethoven room and reopened at the end of 2022 in the old Jamin, after about two years of works. A year later the new Astrance won its first star at the new address. A room called the Salon Joël pays tribute to Robuchon, and a glass wine cellar holds the bottles Rohat selects. Moving into the space of a chef from an earlier generation places the restaurant within a long Paris tradition of fine dining.

The cooking is contemporary French, attentive to produce and open to Asian flavors. A galette of foie gras with mushrooms is among the dishes linked to the house. Barbot has trained many cooks who went on to run their own kitchens, among them Magnus Nilsson, Jacob Holmström and Adeline Grattard. That list of former cooks shows how widely his way of cooking has traveled.