by David Zenian
There are certain names which seem to have a unique, indissoluble connection. The Champs-ElysÈes and Ledoyen Pavillion are among these: the fame of the most beautiful avenue in the world is equaled by the reputation of one of the oldest restaurants of Paris.
Built in 1842 in the neo-classical style, Ledoyen is set in its own spacious gardens and an interior decor which is a marvel on its own.
Over the years, seemingly everyone from Robespierre to famous Impressionist painters, from authors like Zola and Cocteau and of late international figures like First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, have passed through the portals of Ledoyen.
“People come to Ledoyen to dream,” says Ms. Ghislaine Arabian, housewife, mother, the talk of Paris and arguably one of the world’s most talented woman chefs.
Singer Charles Aznavour often drops in for a meal and chat with fellow French-Armenian Jean-Paul Arabian, Ledoyen’s General Manager and the husband of France’s only female chef to be included in food guru Gilles Pudlowski’s “La Bande A Loiseau” — something like the Hall of Fame of French cuisine.
“On one occasion he asked for dolma and basturma, and Ghislaine prepared both ... from scratch. My wife can do miracles in the kitchen,” Arabian boasts — and with good reason.
One food critic has recently described Ms. Arabian, who is of Flemish origin, as one of France’s “rising chefs” who has made a name for herself in an otherwise male-dominated world of haute cuisine.
“We met at a restaurant I owned in northern France with my mother. Ghislaine had no cooking experience. And if I may dare speak, she was not a cook,” Arabian said in a recent interview which started in English and switched into Armenian after the first class of champagne.
“We got married, and one day she volunteered to help out in the kitchen of my restaurant. That’s how her career as a cook started. She taught herself and began creating. It’s this northern cuisine that we brought to Ledoyen,” Arabian said.
If Ms. Arabian is a self-taught cook who has neither apprenticed nor trained under famous chefs, her husband Jean-Paul has also done his own climbing without outside help or a formal education.
“I was sent to the Mekhitarian School in Venice to study Armenian for three years,” he says as an aside while talking about his father. The son of an Armenian shoe-maker who settled in France in the 1920’s, Arabian hit the restaurant circuit at the age of 13, as an assistant waiter, and as he grew older, a barman.
By the age of 24, Arabian was already working as a Maitre d’HÙtel at the world-famous Maxims of Paris. An adventurer by nature, Arabian has also worked as an airline steward and traveled across Europe.
“I love working with people. It’s in my nature,” Arabian says.
After losing his father, Arabian joined his Greek mother and together they opened their first restaurant in the northern town of Lille.
“That’s when Ghislaine entered my life. We are a team now. She cooks and I manage,” he said.
And a brilliant team they are.
