Manote Tripathi

Terrail of La Tour

How do you keep a four-century-old restaurant at the top of the listings?
MANOTE TRIPATHI
THE NATION
Latour
ANDRE TERRAIL plans to open new overseas branches of the restaurant that’s been in his family for three generations. NATION PHOTO/ANANT CHANTARASOOT
Andre Terrail, owner of La Tour d’Argent in Paris, was in Bangkok again last month sharing pressed duckling at Le Normandie at the Mandarin Oriental.
His restaurant turns 429 years old this year, and it’s the mission of Terrail – the thirdgeneration president – to keep it a family business.
Terrail, 30, is keeping things modern and fresh by enlivening its history. Founded in 1582, La Tour d’Argent has a sixth-floor riverside view of the Latin Quarter
and Notre Dame Cathedral. Its best-known dish is “bloody pressed duck”, served just as it has been since the late 19th century, with an identifying number tag.

Published by Manote Tripathi

Manote (aka Manoj) Tripathi spent two decades as a journalist, editor and feature writer with a multimedia giant in Thailand before switching his career towards media content production. He’s a trained specialist on Britain. As a journalist at The Nation, Thailand’s national English-language daily, which he joined in 1993, he held senior positions on the paper’s writing side, including leading its highly respected “Sunday Focus” features section known for its authoritative coverage of Thailand. His body of work spans the plight of illegal Burmese migrants in Thailand; corruption; forced prostitution; the problems of once-revered elephants; the rising gap between rich and poor during Thailand’s boom years; the book world; and food and drink. His writings introduced influential thinkers: Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, golfer Greg Norman, conductor Zubin Mehta, Egyptologist Zahi Hawass, Nobel laureate VS Naipaul and new age guru Deepak Chopra. His coverage of the book world resulted in an array of interviews with such literary titans as Pico Iyer, Patricia Cornwell, William Dalrymple, Simon Winchester, Justin Wintle, and Vikas Swarup of Slumdog Millionaire fame. He spent two years in Yangon, Myanmar, helping The Nation set up the English section of Myanmar’s Eleven Media Group. In 2005, he won a Chevening Scholarship, a UK government scholarship scheme. Manote holds a Master’s in Modern British History (Victoria to Blair) from Royal Holloway, University of London, and a BA in English Literature (Thammasat University, Bangkok).

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