Le Grand Véfour, 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 resataurant to Jean Boissier.[4] A list of regular customers over the last two centuries includes most of the immortal heavyweights of French culture and politics, along with the 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]
When it lost one of its three Michelin stars[8] under the régime of Guy Martin for the Taittinger Group, it was headline news.[9]