Philippe Etchebest Opens Restaurant in Bordeaux Opera House

Le Quatrieme Mur
Photo courtesy of Le Quatrième Mur

The restaurant scene in Bordeaux is red-hot with a slew of exciting new openings. As we’ve previously reported, Joel Robuchon is delighting gastronomes at La Grande Maison Bordeaux and Gordon Ramsay’s in the kitchen at Grand Hôtel de Bordeaux & Spa. But that’s not all. Another star chef has opened a restaurant called “Le quatrième mur” inside the Bordeaux Opera House, a world-famous monument. Philippe Etchebest—a popular TV celebrity who previously scored two Michelin stars at the Hostellerie de Plaisance in Saint-Emilion (2008)--- is now Gordon Ramsay’s neighbor.

For Etchebest’s new dining concept, the name ("the fourth wall") alludes to a concept imagined by philosopher and playwright Denis Diderot, where a “wall” separates the actors on a stage from the audience. At the restaurant, the fourth wall separates the actors—Etchebest and his culinary brigade—from the spectator-diners.

In other big Bordeaux news, the Grand Hotel will be converted into an InterContinental by the end of the year, becoming the sixth establishment for the group in France.