Septime-Charonne, the temple of sustainable food in Paris – Luxiders Magazine

When you want to run a business in harmony with nature, time spent on sourcing is extremely important, and can be extremely long. Bertrand Grébaut has taken the concept “bistronomie” to the next level. With the experience of working at Alain Passard’s Arpège, the former graffiti artist has built a temple of sustainable food in Paris: Septime Restaurant. We interview him to know why.

Placed as number 52 from the World’s 50 Best, Septime’s menu reflects chef Grébaut’s delicate and dynamic cooking style developed from his time under the wings of Alain Passard (1 Michelin Star) and travels through Asia. Since its opening, Septime has been the talk of the town. Creative, progressive and seasonal, the menu changes every day depending on the fresh ingredients available. 

Motivated to create a sustainable way of working, simply, in reaction to bad food, Bertrand Grébaut teamed his idea with an increasing concern about global warming and pollution, which really informed his cuisine. “What led me to sustainable cuisine is the necessity to fight against any form of junk food as well an increasing awareness about global warming and pollution” – he says.

Heavily distressed wood tables and disorder walls -all intentional- welcome us to a nice dinner. The refreshing view of an open kitchen make it a whole lot better. What is the sustainable value provided by your restaurant? – we ask him: “We want to make food that is produced locally, and our focus is vegetables. We care deeply about the tracebility of our products and we try to put a face to the 90% of our ingredients by meeting our suppliers. We try to value and respect everybody, starting with our employees. This also goes for working conditions and the parity between men and women” – he answers.

To Bertrand Grébaut, it is very important in order to understand that we need to modify the way we feed ourselves, and that we can do that in stimulating and interesting ways. He gives us some examples: “The restaurants chef Christian Puglisi are a great example of what it means to work while practicing the values of sustainable cuisine. Also our suppliers `Terroirs d’avenir´ and `Poiscaille´ are doing a great job, working alongside, and out of respect for nature, as well as local farmers/fishermen”.