In the Mood for Love and Dim Sum at Paris’ Bleu Bao
When restaurateur Céline Chung opened her first restaurant in 2019, she wanted to break the clichés surrounding Chinese cuisine but also create a space where she would feel at home with her multicultural identity.
“Food is what best reflects a culture, and what we cook and eat says a lot. Being French, born and educated here, with parents still steeped in traditional Chinese culture, I spent the first 25 years of my life trying to figure out who I was,” says Chung, who cofounded the Bao Family restaurants with business partner Billy Pham.
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Bleu Bao, her fifth venture and third restaurant, which opened last week, owes its name and color palette to the tones used for traditional porcelain and marks a departure from the cool cantine vibe of her previous addresses.
With its neo-nostalgic decor imagined by Paris-based studio Atelieramo, the 2,700-square-foot, two-level “bao, dim sum and cocktail bar” located in buzzy South Pigalle nods to Wong Kar Wai’s romantic drama “In the Mood for Love,” especially upstairs where diners can settle next to a bookcase filled with curio items or lounge on velvet days beds.
Courtesy of Bao Family
Amandine Sepulcre-Huang, an alum of trendy Parisian eateries Gisou and Marie-Céleste, heads the kitchen, focusing on dim sum and popular home cooking recipes like a vegetable clay pot, as well as must-try items from its sister restaurants like hong shao eggplant and broth-filled Shanghainese xiao long bao dumplings.
The bar, open every day until 1 a.m., serves cocktails developed with mixologist Nicolas Goradeski, each starring an ingredient connected to a specific Chinese region, from classic choices like litchi and ginger to more unusual ones including osmanthus flowers or black garlic.
Bleu Bao
8 Rue Saint-Lazare, 75009
Open Monday-Friday noon to 3 p.m, 7 to 11p.m.; Saturday-Sunday noon to 11 p.m.
Bar open daily from 11 p.m. to 1a.m.
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