La Table, the Resistance's new gastronomic ambition

Les Résistants (formerly known as L'Avant-Poste) is opening La Table des Résistants, with a much more gastronomic vision than their previous restaurants.

Following on from Les Résistants, le Comptoir des Résistants and l'Epicerie des Résistants, the Résistants family welcomes a new sibling: La Table des Résistants. While this new address remains in the pure tradition of the group's long-standing mission to reconcile good food with the protection of the planet and its resources, La Table also testifies to the Resistants' new gastronomic ambitions.

Since its creation by Florent Piard, the Les Résistants family has developed a large network of 150 peasant farms, which it uses to supply its various Parisian tables directly from producers. For the past 8 years, the founder has been traveling the roads of France, discovering more than 1,000 farms, in order to understand agricultural production systems and to enhance - if not magnify - the fruits of peasant harvests and breeding.

The principles of these defenders of good eating are simple, yet still all too rare in French restaurants: promote small-scale structures and extensive livestock farming, work with meats from local and rustic breeds, grassland systems, small-scale fishing, live wines (the group's cellar will make many shudder with pleasure), as well as peasant seeds.

With La Table, Les Résistants have created a restaurant with good produce, exclusively frompeasant farming, but with far more gastronomic aspirations than at the group's previous addresses. Chef Maurizio Madaio - who has worked for David Toutain and Loiseau Rive Gauche - dares to create a gastronomic cuisine that is as lively as it is committed, evolving from day to day according to what's available (and not the other way around!).

This can be discovered through a surprisingly affordable à la carte lunch menu (€28 starter/main course/dessert), or through a carte blanche 'Paysages Paysans' 4-course menu (€45), created daily in secret at the chef's whim. In the evening, there are also two tasting-only menus, one 'Fragments' in 4 courses (49€), the other 'Embruns Paysans' in 6 courses (69€).

Already won over by the Resistants' beautiful mentality and the heart they put into their work, we gladly indulge in the discovery of the 4-part lunch menu, during which marvellous products are paraded around, whose provenance is carefully cited each time they arrive on the table. Under the best of auspices, this tasting menu aims very, very high, with meticulous dressings and striking pairings.

* * *

Bean tartlet
Aguadulce, pickles and cream of pods, Greek thyme by Jonathan Chabert
FèvesAguadulce from Ferme des Gobettes, Saint-Sylvestre-de-Cormeilles (Eure)

Mackerel à la flamme, line-caught on the "L'Avenir du Mousse" boat, Audierne (Finistère)
Textures of beets from Ferme des Gobettes, fermented kalibos cabbage, roasted buckwheat

Pollack fillet caught on the "Skravig" boat, Audierne (Finistère)
Cupidon green beans from Jonathan Chabert, Jardin de la Perrière (Côtes-D'Armor)
Scallion purée, grilled spring onions, lacto-fermented peaches, fish stock

Gigot de Brebis Manech Tête noire from Ferme Biotzeko, La Bastide-Clairence (Pyrénées-Atlantiques)
Nero di toscana kale and fried
Pan-fried white button mushrooms, sourdough bread condiment