The 38 Essential Restaurants in Paris

"Chef Mory Sacko has become a star of French gastronomy for the originality of his intriguing African French Japanese cooking in Montparnasse. The son of Malian immigrants to France, he grew up in the suburbs eating his mother’s African dishes and American fast food. After a job at a big Paris luxury hotel, he worked with chef Thierry Marx (who has achieved two Michelin stars), a Japanophile who taught Sacko to love Japanese ingredients and techniques. Expect dishes like lobster in miso sauce with smoked pepper and lacto-fermented tomato, sole seasoned with togarashi shichimi, and lovage cooked inside a banana leaf and served with a side of attieke, a couscous-like preparation of dried fermented cassava pulp. The name of the restaurant derives from the names of the chef and one of his heroes, Yasuke, an emancipated Mozambican slave who became a samurai in 16th-century Kyoto. Located in the 14th arrondissement." - Alexander Lobrano