Le Grand Véfour (French: [lə ɡʁɑ̃ vefuʁ]), the first grand restaurant in Paris, [1] France, was opened in the arcades of the Palais-Royal in 1784 by Antoine Aubertot, as the Café de Chartres, [2] and was purchased in 1820 by Jean Véfour, [3] who was able to retire within three years, selling the restaurant to Jean Boissier. [4] A list of regular customers over the last two centuries includes most of the heavyweights of French culture and politics, along with le tout-Paris. [5] Sauce Mornay was one of the preparations introduced at the Grand Véfour. Closed from 1905 to 1947, a revived Grand Véfour opened with the celebrated chef Raymond Oliver in charge in the autumn of 1948. Jean Cocteau designed his menu. [6] The restaurant, with its early nineteenth-century neoclassical décor of large mirrors in gilded frames and painted supraportes, continues its tradition of gastronomy at the same location, "a history-infused citadel of classic French cuisine." [7]
In 1983, the restaurant was destroyed in a bomb attack. It was then bought by Jean Taittinger who restored and reopened the place. [8]
When it lost one of its three Michelin stars in 2008 [9] under the régime of Guy Martin for the Taittinger Group, it was headline news. [10]