“The food is so disgusting that you’d be better off getting sodomized than eating here,” was the sign-off to the first Instagram restaurant review posted by @Yann_Vous_Cuisine, a 44-year-old Paris food critic who conceals his identity behind the handle.
Sixteen months after his savage takedown of L’Avenue, the fashion-world canteen on swanky Avenue Montaigne, Yann has become a major thorn in the side of Paris chefs and restaurant owners. When he dines out, his verdicts are unvarnished and occasionally incendiary. At Brasserie Lipp, in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, he pronounced its lauded veal chop “burned and ruined,” adding, “Rats have been running around inside this place. Just awful!” Star pâtissier Pierre Hermé’s galette des rois, the traditional frangipane-filled Epiphany cake, fared little better: “A total disaster! I’m giving it a 2/20, because I like you a lot.”