Award-Winning Chef Opens New Paris Eatery
James Beard Award-winning chef Mashama Bailey has opened a new restaurant, L’Arrêt by the Grey, in Paris's 7th Arrondissement. The eatery brings Southern U.S. flavors to the French capital. The opening is part of a broader trend in Paris where acclaimed chefs are launching more casual, globally-inspired dining concepts.
- Chef Bailey, who won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Chef in 2022, was formally trained in French culinary techniques before focusing on Southern food. She is also the chairwoman of the Edna Lewis Foundation, which works to preserve the history of African-American cookery. - Her flagship restaurant, The Grey, is located in a painstakingly restored 1938 Greyhound bus terminal in Savannah, Georgia, that was once segregated. The restaurant's name and history are a direct acknowledgment of the building's past. - The name of the new Paris restaurant, "L'Arrêt," is French for "The Stop," a direct reference to the original Savannah location's history as a bus depot. - Bailey's business partner is Johno Morisano, a media entrepreneur with whom she co-owns The Grey and a more casual offshoot, The Grey Market. The two co-authored a book about their partnership and navigating race and class in the South called "Black, White, and The Grey." - The Paris menu blends Southern U.S. staples with French bistro classics, offering dishes like shrimp and grits and pecan pie alongside croque-monsieur. To appeal to locals, the restaurant offers affordable prix-fixe lunch menus known as "formules." - Bailey was the first African American chef to be featured on the Netflix series "Chef's Table."
