Japanese chefs win over Parisians

Paris

THE pithiviers de canard at Clown Bar, a historic restaurant in Paris with circus-themed glazed tiles from the 1920s, is an exquisite rendering of a classic dish. Duck breast surrounded by minced duck meat, topped with duck foie gras and baked inside a pastry shell the colour of varnished teak, it is a flaky, tender, succulent argument for why we still worship traditional French cuisine.

The pithiviers may be as French as the four-week vacation, but the one at Clown Bar is the creation of the chef Sota Atsumi, who is from Tokyo.

Atsumi, 30, is part of a new generation of Japanese chefs who set out to master French cooking and who now run some of the most acclaimed French restaurants in Paris - notable in a city known for its snob…