Family run L’Assiette Champenoise is the most essential reservation in Champagne. You will of course have an amazing selection of champagnes on the carte – around 600 different labels – which probably is the most extensive champagne list in the world. All the wonderful selections of wines are thankfully paired with the delicious cooking of Chef Patron Arnaud Lallement.

The gastronomic story of the Lallement family starts in 1975 when Jean-Pierre and his wife Colette opened a restaurant in a village outside Reims named Châlons-sur-Vesle. The restaurant soon became a recognised name among gourmets and the business took off. The family moved their restaurant to Tinqueux, which is closer to Reims, in 1986. They moved into a mansion and turned it into a hotel restaurant. L’Assiette Champenoise has just become better and better over the years and in 2009 and 2010 the whole property was renovated and turned into a stylish contemporary state of the art venue. Today’s style is a perfect match to Chef Lallement’s modern haute cuisine cooking with several touches of Japan as well.

Chef Patron Arnaud Lallement runs his property today together with his wife Magali. Arnaud’s father Jean-Pierre has of course been a great source of inspiration and training, but in addition Arnaud has also been trained and worked for several of the great French cuisine chefs like Roger Vergé, Michel Guérard and Alain Chapel. Chef Arnaud moved back to Reims and joined forces with his father in 1997 and worked closely with him until he passed away in 2002. Since then Chef Patron Arnaud Lallement has developed and evolved his cuisine further and he just gets better and better.

Arnaud Lallement’s honest and creative cooking style includes inspirations from far outside France, but most of the ingredients are regional. Only the very best top produce, all served with a close attention to their natural and purest flavours. The dishes have different themes, like the “garden” theme dish with green asparagus, black truffles and vin jaune or the “earth” theme dish with veal sweetbread and fennel.

The Lallement family has worked closely with Olivier Krug for several years and they are the official ambassadors of the Krug champagne. You can of course expect some of the very finest vintages of the exclusive champagne house and from all the other labels as well. There are many wines to choose in addition to the amazing champagne list, but why not try for a complete menu with only champagne pairings which Lallement’s cuisine is a perfect match for?

Written by Andy