Women ask for the Hot Chef from Emily In Paris… He would not exist!

Paris might be heaving with visitors thanks to the Olympics, but there’s one little spot that is always full of tourists. Over the course of a year, more than 15,000 descend on this quiet residential square in the Sorbonne district of the city.

This picturesque spot, with its babbling fountain, leafy surrounds and quaint cobbled streets, is not home to any major French landmarks, nor will you find it in any of the usual guidebooks.

Instead, on the ground floor of a grand stucco-fronted building, sandwiched between a corporate office and a boulangerie, there’s a small, dimly-lit restaurant with a distinctive red awning — distinctive, that is, if you watch the Netflix series Emily in Paris.

Fans will recognise it as Les Deux Comperes, later renamed L’Esprit de Gigi, the restaurant where the love interest of starlet Emily Cooper, played by British/American actress Lily Collins, works. Known by swooning viewers as the Hot Chef, Gabriel (French actor Lucas Bravo), goes on to take over the business — and uses his culinary flair to win Emily’s heart.

In the tongue-in-cheek rom-com — which charts the chic Parisian adventures of a hapless young marketing executive — the restaurant, real name Terra Nera, forms the backdrop to cosy tete-a-tetes, corporate dinners and blossoming romance.

It is here that Emily tries her first steak tartare (and promptly sends it back for being ‘too rare’), here that she seals her first successful French business deal, and here that she and Gabriel share a steamy, long-awaited first kiss.

Off-screen, on a drizzly weekday, no such romance is apparent.

The usually-peaceful square is filled with delivery vans, cyclists and stern-faced commuters. As grey clouds scud overhead, a beeping bin lorry pulls up, blocking the restaurant from view.

Even this doesn’t dissuade the crowds of fans who have been gathering since early morning.

Wielding smartphones and selfie sticks, wearing branded ‘Emily’ T-shirts and candy-pink berets, they pout, pose into their cameras. All are vying to get the perfect picture for their social media and making videos that will be the envy of their friends back home.

They come from all over — Shanghai, Sydney, Stockholm, Sao Paolo — and represent just a fraction of the series’ sprawling global fanbase: Emily in Paris is the most popular show ever on Netflix, with millions of viewers in 93 countries worldwide.

Watching through the window with a benevolent — and by now, somewhat jaded — smile is Valerio Abate, 40, the owner of Terra Nera. A shy Sicilian, with a salt-and-pepper beard who belies his youth, Valerio is used to the scrum outside his restaurant.

‘It has happened every day, from the first moment we appeared in the series,’ he says. ‘They queue up outside for pictures; some of them come inside to eat, or to take a selfie with me.’

He never dreamed his humble establishment — which, much to the chagrin of many fans, specialises in Italian food, not French — would end up becoming so well-known, still less that it would be besieged daily by Emily-ites from around the world.

Valerio has never given a media interview before, preferring to hover behind the scenes, welcoming patrons and ensuring locals, many of whom still visit every lunchtime for a plate of homemade linguine and a glass of wine, are left to eat undisturbed. 

But ahead of the fourth series of Emily in Paris, which premieres on Thursday, he’s agreed to speak exclusively to the Mail, letting me spend a day at the most Instagrammed restaurant in the city.

Inside, with its red walls, retro leather banquettes and wooden tables, Terra Nera looks just like it does on screen.

It was a butcher’s shop, which opened in 1967, before Valerio’s family bought it and turned it into a restaurant in 1978. The date is emblazoned on the awning, along with the words ‘Chef Gabriel’ – a nod to its recent fame.

‘So many women come by asking if he really works here,’ he says. ‘They are disappointed when I tell them no.’

Indeed, when the doors open at midday, young Brazilian fans are already taking photographs outside. One is toting a bag printed with a picture of the Mona Lisa, face obscured by the words ‘Emily in Paris’ — the preferred idol of the Netflix generation.

As customers file inside, several more appear, some snapping pictures from across the road, others venture closer to peruse the menu. Today’s specials include risotto with mushrooms and truffle (£22) and pasta in tomato sauce with aubergine and mozzarella (£15).

Valerio, who grew up in Agrigento has loved this sort of food since he was a boy.

‘I was fascinated by watching my mother and grandmother cooking; I remember the smells from the kitchen and seeing them use simple, delicious products from the south of Italy: good tomatoes, fresh oregano, cheese, olives.

‘My uncle had an Italian restaurant in Paris, and I used to come on holiday here when young.

‘I’d spend the whole time helping in the kitchen. I really admired him, and loved the idea that people came from all over Paris to try his food.’

In 2015, Valerio took over the restaurant and did his best to continue the family tradition of serving freshly-made pasta, authentic Sicilian wine and desserts like his Italian nonna (grandmother) used to make, including ricotta-stuffed pistachio cannoli and creamy tiramisu.

Terra Nera had already had a brush with Hollywood. In 2011, it featured in the Woody Allen film Midnight In Paris. Directors came knocking twice more, for French feature films in 2017 and 2018, before Netflix called in late 2019.

‘The director came to see the restaurant and fell in love with it,’ says Valerio. ‘He came back and brought the French and American production teams. They had a meal here and they loved it.

‘I didn’t know anything about this new series, only that it was created by Darren Star. That part got me excited. I used to watch Beverly Hills 90210 [another series by Star] as a child.’

Filming began in March 2020 —and the same month each year since — and the fairytale began.

For ten days, Netflix closed the restaurant (and the boulangerie next door, which also features), cordoned off the surrounding square, and the stars jetted in. Valerio admits he was ‘paid handsomely’ for the Emily in Paris filming. 

He came to an agreement with the production company, though he won’t say how much, to cover lost takings – and came to watch it unfold every day, along with crowds of screaming fans. Unlike them, however, he got to mingle with the stars. 

Lily Collins he describes as ‘classy and elegant, like an actress from the Sixties’; while Lucas Bravo — whose father Daniel, a retired footballer, used to be a customer — is ‘amazing, a luminous presence’.

He says he’s ‘honoured’ to have been a small part of the series. Seeing his little family restaurant on screen was like ‘first love’, he admits. ‘You never forget it. I am very lucky.’

Despite Terra Nera’s newfound renown, little has changed here in years: not the decor, the menu, or even the prices.

As we speak, it’s filling with customers: some locals, dining solo with their newspapers, but most of them Emily In Paris tourists, who stand out in their jaunty berets and loud slogan T-shirts.

A group from Hong Kong, who tell me they are ‘big fans’, spend more time taking selfies than showing any interest in the food. Another couple stands at the door loudly demanding to know if Valerio serves snails.

I lose count of the number of people who snap a few cursory photos and then leave — without trying the dishes Valerio’s chefs have lovingly-prepared. Does this sort of behaviour frustrate him?

He is surprisingly sanguine. ‘There is no drama here,’ he says. ‘If people don’t want to eat, maybe they will come back. I don’t get annoyed. I am happy to see them.

‘I make sure there is a table for everyone; I want my customers to feel welcome and well-fed.’

Just 15 tables are available at Terra Nera (space for 40 diners) and by the close of lunchtime service at 2.30pm, they’re all full. The evening sitting, which starts at 7pm, is even busier, with a queue at the door before opening.

‘Of course Emily in Paris has helped reservations,’ admits Valerio. ‘I have people who want to book a table three months in advance now.

‘But what has mostly changed is the clientele. This used to be a neighbourhood restaurant; locals only. Now every day I get to meet people from all over the world.’

Most fans, he says, hail from South America and Asia, but he’s met devotees from as far afield as Micronesia, a remote island country over 13,000 kilometres away.

Through Emily In Paris, Valerio even found love: his ex-girlfriend was a fan from Spain, whom he met at the restaurant last year. But she broke his heart, so he dreams of meeting another.

He makes a point of greeting every single customer, of shaking hands and introducing himself to newcomers, many of whom are star-struck by the man behind the restaurant they’ve seen on screen.

Other staff — there are eight in total, three of them chefs — seem far more frazzled by the constant barrage of fans.

Mily, a Chilean waitress who has worked at Terra Nera for five years, is running the dinner service and admits the Netflix onslaught sometimes becomes ‘too much’.

‘There are too many fans, every day there are more,’ she says. ‘They are always outside. For me it is lovely to see people from all over the world, and an encouragement to speak different languages [thanks to Emily in Paris, she now speaks four].

‘But when they sit at a table for a photo and then leave without ordering, I don’t like it.’ Evenings, she adds, are ‘crazy busy’. Indeed, as the sun starts to set, tourists emerge from all sides of the square, smartphones aloft like homing beacons.

The fans, Valerio notes, have become more ‘enthusiastic’ as Emily In Paris mania has grown. He now sees elaborate TikTok dances, lengthy YouTube videos and several outfit changes taking place in front of his restaurant.

Sure enough, by 8pm, with dinner in full swing, the pavement outside is bustling.

One girl, Zena from southern Brazil, has a selfie stick and camera tripod, which she sets up by the front door for a photoshoot.

Another fan has brought a wheelie case full of expensive-looking clothes to don on camera. A grumpy waiter asks her to move; this is no place for a catwalk.

Melodie, wearing a red beret and matching lipstick, is visiting from Turkey with her parents, Ozge and Sadri. They booked a table months ago and, unlike most, are actually eating dinner at Terra Nera. ‘We wanted the full experience,’ they tell me.

A group of Swedish fans inquire about the ‘Emily in Paris’ menu, which Valerio introduced to mark the release of series one, but has since ditched.

Such gimmicks, he says, ‘aren’t needed any more’.

Indeed, the food speaks for itself: perfectly-cooked, fresh and mouth-wateringly delicious. Diners come for the Instagram likes and are surprised to find a seriously good meal in the process. Online, the restaurant garners five-star reviews.

A las, Valerio won’t let me inside the kitchen, concerned an intruder might ‘disturb the synergy’ of his team. If he does employ a ‘Hot Chef’, he is sadly nowhere to be seen.

Instead, he asks me to pose for a selfie for his Terra Nera Instagram account (6,400 followers and counting), where I’ll join an esteemed list of customers, including Eric Cantona, Jean-Claude van Damme and the local mayor.

As well as bringing in starry clientele, Emily In Paris has done wonders for his business.

He points to an empty building across the road, where next year he will open a second restaurant, this one specialising in pizza and Italian gelato.

Tonight, as waitresses scurry past with trays of kir royales and the crowds of Emily devotees continue to swell, Valerio isn’t staying until close. He smiles wearily; he’s seen it all before.

Though a fifth series hasn’t been announced, he’s hoping Terra Nera will be a filming location for Emily In Paris, and perhaps other global blockbusters, for years to come.

‘I love cinema, so why not?’ he says. ‘It’s a huge opportunity for me, for my restaurant, and for Paris, to be on screen like this.’

As for those pesky Instagrammers, all publicity, it seems, is good publicity. ‘I don’t see fans,’ grins Valerio. ‘I see clients.’

We take one final selfie and, with a click, he uploads it on his phone. Seventy-eight likes and counting. If you can’t beat them…

• Emily In Paris season 4 is out this Thursday on Netflix.