Quotes of the Day

Chicago-born chef Daniel Rose, 33, made a lot of hungry jaws drop in August 2009 when he decided to close his Paris restaurant, Spring. Le Figaro had only just declared the 16-seat eatery to be the hardest-to-reserve table in the capital (it was taking bookings five months ahead). And yet Rose was creatively stifled. "I just knew that I was sort of stuck there," he recalls. Today, thankfully, he has recharged and is back in business with a new and bigger Spring at 6 Rue Bailleul, around the corner from the Louvre.

Rose arrived in France in 1998 to study art history but slowly became enamored with the country's culinary scene and after two years enrolled in Paul Bocuse's cooking school in Lyon. There followed formative apprenticeships (including a year at l'Auberge des Abers in Brittany with technical master Jean-Luc L'Hourre), instilling a passion for classic French cuisine enhanced with subtle touches.

Rose's nightly six-course tasting menu (about $83) is an essay in delicacy. The dab of lemon jam added to the cabbage atop a spicy bouillon with pan-seared scallop and celeriac tips the dish into another realm of deliciousness. He tops a warm crème of cauliflower and black truffles at the last second with a tiny dollop of salted butter, "just to punish them a bit more," he laughs. Warmth is his cooking's other quality. "We all want a place where we can go and feel like we're well taken care of, that somebody's thought about us," he says. For many Parisian diners, Spring is that place.

Reservations can be made by dialing (33-1) 4596 0572.

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• Jeffrey T. Iverson
• Daniel Rose is back in business with a new and bigger restaurant around the corner from the Louvre