Alessandra Montagne Is What’s Fresh About Paris

Recently I had the chance to interview Brazilian chef Alessandra Montagne at her Paris bistro Tempero for Taste. To often-gray Paris, Montagne’s brings her sunny, optimistic temperament. But it was exactly in the unaccustomed froid of a Paris autumn, nearly 20 years ago, that Montagne first discovered her passion for both the city of Paris and for cooking.

“I arrived on November 21, 1999. It was sunny; the sky was blue, blue, blue, blue,” she says in her lilting French. “And it was strange to have this blue sky and feel the cold at the same time, because it was something I had never experienced before.” Read about her voyage of discovery here.

And to visit her restaurant:

Tempero, 5 rue Clisson, 75013 Paris, +33 (0)9 54 17 48 88