- Title: FRANCE: Up-market halal restaurants take over from greasy kebab shops in Paris
- Date: 10th December 2009
- Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (DECEMBER 3, 2009) (REUTERS) LES ENFANTS TERRIBLES RESTAURANT VARIOUS OF PEOPLE EATING IN RESTAURANT VARIOUS OF CHEF COOKING IN KITCHEN KAMEL SAIDI, RESTAURANT OWNER CUSTOMERS EATING IN RESTAURANT (SOUNDBITE) (French) KAMEL SAIDI, RESTAURANT OWNER, SAYING: "I was born in France, I grew up in France and I was frustrated because I was not able to enjoy the very good traditional French food. That is how I got the idea. I thought why not to create a concept of Halal French food to answer the need of the French Muslim community." BOTTLES (SOUNDBITE) (French) KAMEL SAIDI, RESTAURANT OWNER, SAYING: "Before, if I wanted halal food I had to go to a Kebab shop, or a Pizzeria. When I was going out to restaurants with my friends, because I wanted halal food, I could not order meat, but only fish, always fish." VARIOUS OF PEOPLE EATING (SOUNDBITE) (French) MOCTAR DIAGNE, A CLIENT, SAYING: "I did not know the concept of this restaurant. A friend told me to come, I am discovering it right now. This is very good because it is not easy to find a place where you can find good halal food." (SOUNDBITE) (French) TABET SOPHIA SAYING: "Before there was just a few of them, but today more and more are opening in Paris." FRENCH BREAD IN BASKET PEOPLE EATING VARIOUS OF WOK RESTAURANT, A HALAL THAI RESTAURANT PEOPLE ENTERING RESTAURANT VARIOUS OF CHEF COOKING (SOUNDBITE) (French) DHIEB LAGNAB, RESTAURANT OWNER, SAYING: "I am a practising Muslim so I can't see myself running a non-halal restaurant. It would contradict my beliefs." PEOPLE EATING (SOUNDBITE) (French) DHIEB LAGNAB, RESTAURANT OWNER, SAYING: "We were born here, we speak the language, we had the same education as the locals. Me as a French citizen rather than trying to compare myself to my parents' generation who migrated here. I compare myself to the French citizens of my generation who are not from immigrant background and are opening Asian restaurants. We are the same." PLATE WITH FOOD (SOUNDBITE) (French) HARROUN MOULAY-ADIL SAYING: "Today we have restaurants that answer the need of a community which has been part of the French society for several generations. The people from this community do not want to eat only the food from their country of origin. Like any other French citizen. A French citizen can go eat Tunisian food, Moroccan food, Egyptian food. A French citizen who is Muslim has the same desires. " VARIOUS OF PEOPLE EATING
- Embargoed: 25th December 2009 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: France
- Country: France
- Topics: Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
- Reuters ID: LVAAKI26EXUBUF281886Q6M7VGF2
- Story Text: The era of halal food being synonymous with low-end eateries serving up greasy kebabs may be drawing to a close as a new breed of up-market eateries that respect Muslim culinary obligations and offer everything from Thai food to Foie Gras are springing up in the French capital.
Catering to sophisticated urban young professionals, many of the new restaurants are dotted around the periphery of the French capital, near to the areas that house immigrant communities.
But more recently, they have also started opening in the very centre of town, aiming to attract the integrated, Muslim middle class who are French but keen to stick to their cultural and religious obligations.
Kamel Saidi opened the restaurant Les Enfant Terribles in April 2007. While the cooking respects Muslim custom, the menu is decidedly French and the prices are anything but downmarket.
Guests can select everything from Foie Gras at 12 euros (about 18 U.S. dollars - USD) to a dozen snails for 13 euros, followed by beef fillet at 18 euros or a duck fillet with caramelised honey, almonds and covered in a blackcurrant sauce for 18 euros.
The atmosphere is plush and would rival any of its traditional upmarket rivals in the neighbourhood.
Owner Kamel Saidi says he opened the restaurant because he wanted to offer the food of his country -- France -- that respected the religious tradition of his parents, who were immigrants.
"I was born in France, I grew up in France and I was frustrated because I was not able to enjoy the very good traditional French food," he told Reuters Television. "That is how I got the idea. I thought why not to create a concept of Halal French food to answer the need of the French Muslim community."
His restaurant, which has 50 places, is fully booked seven days a week and he expects to open a new restaurant in another central Paris district next month.
"Before, if I wanted halal food I had to go to a Kebab shop, or a Pizzeria. When I was going out to restaurants with my friends, because I wanted halal food, I could not order meat, but only fish, always fish," said Saidi.
From outside it is hard to tell that Les Enfants Terribles is not a normal French restaurant like any other. The only clue as to its stronger religious influence is the absence of a wine list.
The restaurant certainly seems to be proving popular with the generation of young professional French people who come from immigrant backgrounds.
"I did not know the concept of this restaurant. A friend told me to come, I am discovering it right now. This is very good because it is not easy to find a place where you can find good halal food," said Moctar Diagne, who eats halal food when he can.
Tabet Sophia, a Muslim woman who started to eat halal one year ago, said: "Before there was just a few of them, but today more and more are opening in Paris."
The Wok restaurant is probably the best proof there is of the quantum leap upwards that halal cuisine has taken.
Located in the very heart of Paris' Latin Quarter, it is cheek-by-jowl with some of the capital's most fashionable establishments in the district where the French go to play at weekends.
Dhieb Lagnab opened the restaurant one year ago. He explains that the first generation of immigrants who came to France after spending their youth in their home country had a hard time when they arrived.
"We were born here, we speak the language, we had the same education as the locals. Me as a French citizen rather than trying to compare myself to my parents' generation who migrated here. I compare myself to the French citizens of my generation who are not from immigrant background and are opening Asian restaurants. We are the same," he said.
Harroun Moulay-Adil is typical of the clientele that frequents the new halal establishments. A marketing analyst in his 30's of North African ascendancy, he was eating there with non-Muslim friends.
"Today we have restaurants that answer the need of a community which has been part of the French society for several generations," he said. "The people from this community do not want to eat only the food from their country of origin. Like any other French citizen. A French citizen can go eat Tunisian food, Moroccan food, Egyptian food. A French citizen who is Muslim has the same desires."
And there certainly is a market for posh halal eating. France has the highest Muslim population in Europe, numbering an estimated six million residents. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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