Miss Lunch

Until the launch of her public cooking station, Miss Lunch was a clandestine cordon bleu cook at her supper club Lunch in the Loft. She still serves her inspired creations privately, but now also cooks in the Première Pression Provence boutique in the heart of the Aligre neighbourhood.

From Belgium and Canada, her Egyptian-South African family made frequent trips to the Italian island Pantelleria, all important creative cooking influences on Miss Lunch. Creativity that has stood her in good stead here, where cooking smells are forbidden by the lease – so it was goodbye oven and stove, hello microwave.

Donning her apron, Miss Lunch took on the challenge, working with the constraints and surprising her guests with inventive and skilful menus. From her open kitchen, she prepared for us a tomato soup spiced up with Cayenne pepper, an oeuf cocotte with broccoli purée, alouette sans tête (beef stuffed with pork) and a cheese plate (brie and Neufchâtel, lamb’s lettuce and endive, excellent chutney and fig confit).

Then the desserts: an authentic apple charlotte and a plum and chocolate cake, all washed down with good wines at reasonable prices (€24 or €26 a bottle, €4 or €5 a glass). The food is great value too (€15 for a set menu of starter and main or main and dessert) – since she came out into the open, Miss Lunch’s cooking hasn’t lost any of its charm. Proof that the best secrets are the ones you let slip.