No one in this photograph has the classic training of a grand Parisian chef – Iñaki Aizpitarte started cooking at 27, Gregory Marchand had never worked in a French kitchen until he opened his own, Giovanni Passerini is self-taught, Stéphane Jego ejects Michelin inspectors and Daniel Rose hails from Chicago – yet, helped by their outsider status, they all are part of a new wave breathing life into the sometimes staid Paris restaurant scene. What they are doing has some affinity with the origins of the gastropub movement in the UK. They are serving restaurant quality and often unconventional food in an informal setting. Exponents of "bistronomy", they offer experimental haute cuisine at affordable prices.

Some worked in Michelin-starred kitchens but became disillusioned with the guide's preoccupation with shiny cutlery and table linen thread counts. As Marchand says: "A star would be great for my ego, but I don't think it would be good for my business. It would bring a type of clientele who might not understand my sensibility."

The movement has a guide of its own, Le Fooding. Founded in 2000 by Alexandre Cammas and Emmanuel Rubin, the title is a conflation of "food" and "feeling". Covering the whole of France, it offers no rating system and includes the odd kebab shop. "We want food to be a series of provocations, not mechanical pleasures," explains Cammas.

Bistronomy is diversifying and scaling up: Spring has moved into larger premises and Aizpitarte has opened a tapas restaurant, Le Dauphin, designed by Rem Koolhaas and Clément Blanchet, a few doors down from Le Chateaubriand, serving treats such as crisp pig's feet with oysters. But as Passerini says the nouvelle vague will remain authentique, "We are just artisans and we work for the pleasure of the people."

Le fooding: who's who

Gregory Marchand, Frenchie

The Nantes-born chef worked at Gramecy Tavern and Fifteen. His cupboard-sized bistro serving cuisine du marche is fully booked for two months ahead.

Iñaki Aizpitarte, Le Chateaubriand

Tried stonemasonry and landscape painting before apprenticing in the kitchens of Paris. Le Chateaubriand's 45 euro five-course fixed menu showcases the Basque chef's self-taught idiosyncratic way with flavour. The restaurant is ranked No 11 in the S Pellegrino world's best restaurant list – the highest for any French restaurant

Daniel Rose, Spring

American who came to Paris to study art history but fell in love with French cuisine. His first one-man eight-table atelier-style restaurant quickly become oversubscribed and he reopened as a 28-seater last year.

Stéphane Jégo, Chez L'Ami Jean

The rugby-playing chef once grabbed a Michelin inspector by the lapels and put him on the street. "They will never welcome at the restaurant, they have too many tick boxes," he says.

Giovanni Passerini, Rino

Another self-taught late-starter, the Italian worked in Germany and Rome, before doing stints in Le Chateaubriand and Gazetta. "I cook in an Italian way with French products," he says of his cuisine.

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