Stephen Downes, one of Australia's most celebrated food critics, returns to Paris, the city of lights and restaurants, for twelve days to see if French cuisine is rightly so famous. What did he learn and rediscover? This is what his “gastronomic diary” is about.

Thirty years ago, an impressionable young man from Australia had to be taught in a Parisian bistro how to properly prepare salad dressing. It was then that the thought first occurred to him that he “maybe be able to develop an interest in cooking.” Stephen Downes, the author of one of the most read columns in the Australian press, a “star” of journalism, comes to Paris again. He tries to assess whether the French capital remains home to the "great cathedrals" of the restaurant business - or are they just fossils, miraculously surviving after the era of fine dining came to an end? Thanks to deep knowledge, dry humor and a craving for good food, an Australian gastronomic diary becomes into a story about what the Parisian lifestyle is.

Cover photo by Evgeny Elchev