Le Veau Qui Tète, at Rungis Market near Paris, offers excellent, hearty meat dishes in the unique atmosphere of a place dedicated to professionals in the restaurant, food and agriculture industries.
I was recently invited by some restaurateur friends to attend a celebration at Rungis Market. Following the celebration, we decided to go and eat together.
But before going any further, we need to set the scene. Many people have heard of Rungis, but don’t understand just how exceptional and impressive it is.
Rungis International Market, on the outskirts of Paris, is the world’s largest fresh produce market. Inaugurated in 1969, it covers an impressive 234 hectares, equivalent to over 300 soccer pitches. Every day, this economic powerhouse welcomes over 12,000 professionals from a wide range of sectors: restaurateurs, grocers, wholesalers and producers.
Rungis is organized into a number of specialized pavilions, featuring top-quality produce: fruit and vegetables, meat, fish, dairy products, flowers and even organic products.Every year, over 1.7 million tonnes of goods pass through the market, representing sales of over 9 billion euros.The market directly employs around 12,000 people, but its influence is felt far beyond its borders.
It’s a strategic location for supplying food businesses not only in the Paris region, but throughout France and Europe.
Rungis is not just a market, it’s a hub of the food economy, a place where tradition and innovation meet to meet the demands of modern commerceIt’s a strategic location for supplying food retailers not only in the Paris region, but throughout France and Europe. Some 18,000 vehicles use the site every day, a third of which are trucks involved in logistics and product distribution.
Given the market’s operating hours, we left Paris for the market at 3:30 a.m., and my restaurateur friends were finished with their duties by 7:30 a.m.
So it was shortly before 9am that we sat down at Le Veau Qui Tète, in a motley crew of restaurateurs, some of their suppliers and a few friends of the former.
Given the early hour of the wake-up call and the very short night we had, this meal was more than welcome.
The concept
I think the name of the restaurant (litterally the suckling calf) speaks for itself: it’s a meat restaurant, specializing in offal.
And you can’t separate the concept from the clientele. It’s one of the market’s restaurants where the professionals who work there all day go to eat when their shift is over at 7am.
You’ll see people having a beer as an aperitif at 7am, or going to eat at 8am before going home to bed. Just like you and me, but with a dozen hours’ time difference.
So it’s a place where you’ll only come across the professionals of the sector, their restaurateur clients and lucky people like me who have been invited by one of them, because otherwise access to the market is not open to the public as far as I know.
Unsurprisingly, the restaurant buys directly at the market from producers, which means fresh, top-quality meat.
The restaurant also has a reputation for serving the best calf’s head in Paris.
The setting
The restaurant is located in the tripe pavilion.
The first room is more bistro-style, with a bar.
Then, behind the bar, the second part of the room, more like a restaurant.
There are no windows, and at certain times of the year you can go in at dawn and lose track of time, because you won’t see that it’s daylight until you’re out the door.
The menu
The restaurant offers a menu and à la carte dishes. Here are the à la carte dishes.
The meal
We are greeted with a warm welcome and seated at a table. We arrived after the rush and there weren’t many people left, but a new wave of guests would arrive later.
We’re hungry but tired, so we’ll settle for a main course (which will be generously accompanied by a very good Chinon wine).
I chose the Veal Trilogy: calf’s head in ravigotte sauce, sweetbreads with morel mushrooms, calf’s kidney, all served with tagliatelle.
The calf’s head was perfect, not at all gelatinous and very tasty. The kidney is excellent, even if a little overcooked for my taste. The sweetbreads are perfectly textured and cooked.
I didn’t have time to take a photo of a friends plate of calf’s head, but I did take a photo of my seatmate sweetbreads.
We’ll also have andouillettes to share.
Really XXL size but delicious.
Bon appétit !
A real treat, and a superb experience both for the content of the plate and the very special context of the experience.
The service
If the word convivial is to be applied to restaurant staff, the waitresses at Le Veau qui Tète deserve it above all else.
Efficient, sympathetic, smiling, friendly and even joking.
In any case, in such a setting and with such a clientele, to be stuffy would be a tasteless mistake.
Atmosphere
Friendly too, with the odd atmosphere of a place that dines and goes to bed at the same time as the rest of the city gets up and goes to work.
This is my second visit to Rungis Market, and the special atmosphere of the market and the spirit of the people who work there never cease to impress me.
Bottom line
What could be better than a calf’s head and a bottle of wine with friends at 8 o’clock in the morning?
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