Piracy x Gastronomy
on the most beautiful rooftop in Paris
In collaboration with Moma Group, Chef Julien Sebbag (Chez Oim, Créatures, Je Cuisine chez toi) installs his experiential and gastronomic table on the rooftop terrace of Galeries Lafayette Paris Haussmann, opposite his Créatures ephemeral restaurant. Accompanied by the signatures of Franklin Azzi (architect and artistic director of the pavilion and roof terrace) and Pierre Marie (ornamentalist/artist), Tortuga opened its kitchen-counter on September 1, 2020.
HISTORY AND CONCEPT
The birth of Tortuga – in reference to the West Indian island that was a pirate stronghold in the 17th century – is the fruit of a collaboration between three personalities with a passion for their art: Julien Sebbag for the cuisine, Franklin Azzi for the architecture and Pierre Marie for the decor.
Tortuga is above all a blend of genres: from the gourmet restaurant based around a star product – fish – to the human warmth and boundless energy of chef Julien Sebbag, complemented by an exceptional setting overlooking the whole of Paris. Architect Franklin Azzi and ornamentalist Pierre Marie have combined the force of their writing in a contemporary pavilion, whose minimal steel structure serves as the backdrop for a phantasmagorical décor, for an unprecedented dialogue between art and architecture.
A 360° EXPERIENCE
At the table, Tortuga promises a fine mix of genres around a flagship product – fish. As part of an eco-responsible approach, fish will always be in season – depending on reproduction periods – but also local and wild. It will be fished directly from the sea and river, never from battery farms. An ethic that is close to chef Julien Sebbag’s heart, as he seeks to limit over-consumption by carefully selecting all his products.
Julien Sebbag has built his culinary identity around an observation he holds dear: the experience of cooking begins long before the plate.
Tortuga has been designed as a space where cooking becomes a spectacle. The experience begins as soon as you enter the restaurant, with a central kitchen open to the customer’s view.
All the senses are called upon, and the experience is conceived as an immersion inside the kitchen, a privileged moment between the chef and his customers.
For each dish, the chef was keen to pass on his memories of the world, brought back from Peru, China and Japan, among other places.
On Tortuga, you can order one or more recipes.
Here, the order of orders is determined by our choices. There isn’t really a starter or a main course, but plates to be discovered in an order orchestrated by the chef himself, to make the experience as optimal as possible. From raw to cooked, from hot to cold, it’s up to you to choose or let yourself be transported by this immersive experience.
JULIEN SEBBAG, the Tortuga signature
At 28, Julien Sebbag is an established self-taught chef who already heads up 3 restaurants in Paris. Talented, sensitive and passionate, this young chef amazes as much as he intrigues. For almost two years now, he has been selling out every Tuesday evening on the upper floor of the Bus Palladium: to reserve Chez Oim, you now have to book several months in advance. For the second season running, Créatures – his restaurant facing Tortuga on the Galeries Lafayette Haussmann rooftop terrace – is sold out.
A rising star among a young generation of committed chefs, Julien Sebbag designs his cuisine and restaurants with a strong sense of eco-responsibility – from short circuits to seasonal, local produce – to anti-waste and the well-being of his teams.
In imagining Tortuga as his first experiential, gastronomic restaurant, the young chef en vogeue is taking on a new challenge. When he talks about this newborn restaurant, he takes a more mature approach, more in keeping with his own image. A desire for refinement, to « settle down and take your time, with a jazz background ». Working with and respecting fish, understanding them, learning about their reproductive seasons and conservation, in a place that lends itself to it, with particular attention paid to the architecture and artistic direction, on one of the most beautiful rooftops in Paris.
@THE SOCIAL FOOD
ARCHITECTURE BY FRANKLIN AZZI
In summer 2020, Franklin Azzi will deliver a pavilion on the forecourt of the historic Galeries Lafayette Paris Haussmann building. This project follows on from the re-qualification of the department store’s roof terrace, to be carried out by agence Franklin Azzi in 2019. For this 360° location overlooking the Parisian landscape, the architect designed an ultra-light steel structure that can be dismantled and removed according to need and season.
This houses the Tortuga restaurant, the name chosen by chef Julien Sebbag in reference to a Caribbean island. A feat of engineering, the pavilion’s novel construction, conceived as an abstraction, fades into the background to frame the urban panorama on one side, and the interior décor on the other.
@AMBROISE TEZENAS
PIERRE MARIE, ARTISTIC INTERVENTION
Together with Guillaume Houzé – Director of Image and Communication for Galeries Lafayette – architect Franklin Azzi invited ornamentation artist Pierre Marie to create a global artistic intervention in direct dialogue with the space.
This collaboration is in keeping with the great tradition of the decorative arts, and revives the spirit of innovation of the department stores born of my meeting of engineers, architects and artists of their time. The architectural minimalism of Franklin Azzi’s pavilion contrasts with the two monumental hangings by Pierre Marie. The artist’s opulent décor is inspired by the richness of underwater flora. The seaweed and coral in his textile frescoes are motifs, colors and materials that blend with the building’s pure lines, playing with opacity and transparency.
TORTUGA
On the Galeries Lafayette Haussmann roof terrace
25, rue de la Chaussée d’Antin – 75009 Paris
Open 7/7, from 11h00 to 1h00
11h30-14h30 et 19h30-00h30 with possibility of reservation
Carte continu de 14h30 à 19h30 (offre sucrée et boissons)
50 couverts en intérieur
60 couverts en extérieur
01 84 251 009
www.tortuga-Paris.com
Chef: Julien Sebbag
Architect and artistic director of the pavilion and roof terrace: Franklin Azzi
Ornamentalist & guest artist: Pierre-Marie