Ten covers, one star and Italy to share
In Metz, Timilìa is unlike anything we know. The name itself is a promise: it pays homage to timilìa, an ancestral variety of Sicilian durum wheat that has never been modified by man, from which Olivier Parise makes his fresh pasta and homemade bread. Four tables, ten covers maximum, two people at the helm: Giorgia Tartaglione in the dining room, her partner Olivier Parise in the kitchen. Together, they opened this tiny restaurant in February 2024, after meeting at Ilario Mosconi’s in Luxembourg. The star they were awarded in March 2026, at the ceremony at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco, surprised even them. “We thought that with such a small restaurant and just the two of them, it would be super difficult,” confides Giorgia Tartaglione.
A single menu, blind, in six courses, renewed every two months. No menu, no announcement of the dishes. Just sit back and trust us. The cuisine combines home-made pasta with carefully sourced noble products: caviar, red prawns from Sicily, lobster in summer, ducks from the Meuse in winter, Mediterranean fish delivered by a fisherman who only works with Michelin-starred restaurants. “It’s not really just pasta—it’s a combination, half pasta, half dish that you can find in gourmet restaurants,” says Giorgia Tartaglione. The six-course menu costs €110, a deliberately lower price than many comparable restaurants. The first availabilities since the star was announced? Late July. We’re getting in very early.
Address: 20, rue Vigne Saint-Avold, 57000 Metz, France
The hundred-year-old cedar and the electromechanical composter
Between Metz and the Luxembourg border, in the small village of Malling, La Table d’Alexis Baudin has rebuilt everything according to his convictions. Originally from the north of France, this chef forged his reputation in several Lorraine establishments before opening his first restaurant, Le Pampre, in 2015, under Metz cathedral. For seven years, he built up his culinary identity there before making a radical decision to sell up at the end of 2022 and start again from scratch. He then took over a restaurant in Malling, reversed the layout so that customers could enjoy the view of the garden and its majestic hundred-year-old cedar tree, and opened La Table on 4 April 2024.
The philosophy is radical and consistent: most producers are within a twenty-kilometre radius and seasonality guides absolutely everything. “If the season is difficult, you’ll never see asparagus at Alexis',” says Valentine, who is in charge of the restaurant’s communications. Vegetables from small market gardeners, mushrooms from the Meuse and Wagyu beef reared in Lorraine punctuate the plates from week to week. Kitchen scraps are reworked in an electromechanical composter, and the bread is homemade. In January 2025, three “Ecotable” macaroons; in March 2026, the Michelin star. His cuisine likes to confuse: a completely restructured carrot that looks like a mini-carrot but hides a reconstituted purée, at once familiar and disconcerting. The four-course lunch (Wednesday to Friday) is priced at €55; the evening and Saturday lunch menus rise from €90 to €135.
Address: 11, route Nationale, 57480 Malling, France
Acidity as a signature, pine trees as a horizon
In the Hautes-Vosges, Le M opened in January 2025 and was awarded its Michelin star in March 2026, just 13 months after opening. Benoît Potdevin, who has already been awarded a star for Le K at the Domaine de la Klauss in Montenach, is responsible for the menu here with Maximilian Troebs. The restaurant is a continuation of Domaine de la Klauss: “The idea was to be a little sister to Domaine de la Klauss and, so far, we can say that we’ve succeeded”, says Benoît Potdevin.
The cuisine is defined by three words: local, generous and sincere. When a product enters the plate, it is central to it, not drowned in artifice that distorts it. And everywhere, the chef’s signature: acidity. “Even on a salt-free diet, I use acid instead—to give the impression that it’s seasoned, to add a bit of pep to the dish,” he explains. His most emblematic dish is a “sweet first note”: a lemon and lime sorbet sprinkled with broken Vosges sweets, drizzled with a fir tree liqueur in the dining room. Childhood and terroir in the same spoonful. Le M offers three gourmet menus, including an all-plant “Collection maraîchère”, from €105 (evenings only).
Address: route de Frère Joseph, 88310 Ventron, France
