PARIS — Jonathan Anderson is not the only new artistic director at Dior.

Ahead of the designer’s womenswear debut during Paris Fashion Week, the French fashion house has unveiled an all-new menu at its historic flagship in Paris, courtesy of Yannick Alléno.

The Michelin-starred French chef, who runs prestigious restaurants including the Pavillon Ledoyen in Paris, has taken the helm of the Monsieur Dior restaurant at 30 Avenue Montaigne.

He also oversees the eatery housed in the store’s atrium space, now renamed Le Jardin, as well as the Café Dior at La Galerie Dior, the exhibition space adjoining the sprawling boutique.

Founder Christian Dior was a consummate gourmet, and Alléno found a copy of “La Cuisine Cousu-Main,” the cookbook published by the house in 1972, at a flea market years ago. He doubled down on his research with a visit to the Dior archive. 

“What you learn from it is that Dior loved to eat, which everybody knows,” Alleno said during a preview tasting with WWD. “But above all, the garden and the table were his moments of peace — a way to rest his mind and recharge his creativity.”

Boasting illustrations for each category of recipes by René Gruau, the metal-covered tome was filled with the kind of classic French fare Dior liked to order at his favorite Parisian restaurants: think steak with coarse sea salt, leg of lamb or ham shank. 

Haute Cuisine

But rather than try to replicate the dishes that Dior would have eaten in his day, Alléno tried to image the kind of food the couturier would enjoy today. 

Innovation is something of a passion for the chef, who launched his Modern Cuisine culinary movement in 2013, based on two key pillars: sauces and fermentation. Both are based on cooking food at the right temperature to bring flavors to the fore, while his patented extraction technique uses vacuum and cryo-extraction instead of heat.

In a nod to Dior’s love for the cooked ham known as “jambon de Paris,” Alléno has produced an extraction of ham that he’s paired with poached egg, cream and caviar for his revisited version of Oeuf Christian Dior. 

“All the advanced culinary techniques I’ve developed, I’ve put into this dish,” he said. “To this day, I still haven’t managed to make a gelée that tops this one.”

He leans into Dior’s love of nature and gardens with light fare like his vegetable triptychs, which will change according to seasonal availability, mirroring the cycle of fashion collections. 

Marking the end of summer, the menu that debuts Tuesday includes a salad of peach and zucchini spaghetti with flower petals; a violet artichoke tart with parmesan ice cream, and a beetroot jelly sprinkled with celery and green anise seeds. 

“Close your eyes — you’re in Monsieur Dior’s garden. For me, this captures what I found in the archives: what he loved to eat, what he loved to see, what he loved to pick,” Alléno said. “It’s a style of cuisine that’s incredibly clear, direct and intense.”

The chef has also plucked inspiration from the forms and textures of the couture universe, with dishes like his Couture Lasagna with artichoke pleats, or his New Look cocktails. The Japon, named after a dress from fall 1957, blends sake with Belvedere vodka, cucumber, mizuna and yuzu.

The Full Experience

The appointment comes as leading houses venture ever further into experiential luxury amid a global slowdown in spending on luxury goods. 

“The lines between different worlds are starting to blur. That’s a good thing, as experiences have become essential to satisfying today’s curiosity. People are always chasing after the next thing — it’s wild,” Alléno mused. 

“Social media definitely plays a part in that, but more and more, people are craving something new, something they can live and feel. Owning things isn’t really the priority anymore,” he added.

The chef, who heads an empire of 19 restaurants worldwide with a combined 17 Michelin stars among them, claimed credit for being the first to marry haute cuisine and haute couture. 

His relationship with LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the luxury group that owns Dior, stretches back to 2008, when he opened his restaurant 1947 at the Cheval Blanc hotel in the French ski resort of Courchevel. 

He pitched LVMH chairman and chief executive officer Bernard Arnault the idea for opening the Dior des Lices restaurant after finding himself loitering at the Dior store in Saint-Tropez while his wife tried on dresses. “There was nowhere to sit and wait with a newspaper,” recalled Alléno, who ended up helming the summer pop-up from 2011 to 2017. 

“We were the first to really bring dining into the heart of the store,” he continued. “I love the energy of a store — it’s alive, there’s something happening. And being right in the middle of that feels really exciting to me.”

Since then he’s developed food concepts for other LVMH brands like Louis Vuitton and Champagne maker Moët & Chandon. 

The Dior project came about after a chance encounter with Arnault’s wife, Hélène Mercier-Arnault, as he was buying an outfit for his granddaughter at the neighboring Baby Dior boutique a year ago. 

Jean Imbert, the previous chef, was nearing the end of his contract. (Imbert announced last month he was taking a step back from his restaurants after prosecutors said they were investigating a domestic violence complaint from his former partner. He has denied the allegations.) 

“I learned about luxury from LVMH,” said Alléno. “When you design a menu, they have an entire building dedicated to paper and materials. I’d never seen anything like it.” It’s that attention to detail he hopes to mirror with his food creations.

“That’s where it gets really interesting, because I think both worlds — the fashion world and the culinary world — have pushed each other forward. They are both facets of French craftsmanship.”