Dotation Gault&Millau 2019, opening of Choko Ona

4/1/19

Opening of Choko Ona on April 2, 2019. After five seasons spent unearthing Young Talents in French cuisine and helping them with their restaurant creation projects, Gault&Millau and its club of 14 partners are back for a sixth season. The aim remains the same: to help chefs become entrepreneurs more than ever. Meet Flora Le Pape and Clément Guillemot.

Flora Le Pape and Clément Guillemot, the two young partners, describe themselves above all as "crazy about good products". Their backgrounds are very different (Clément began his apprenticeship in the kitchen at the age of 16, before gaining experience at Bocuse, Gordon Ramsay and l'Hostellerie Plaisance).Hostellerie de Plaisance - Flora graduated with a baccalaureate L in music, went on to earn a Bachelor's degree in catering at Ferrandi, then worked at Georges Blanc before meeting Clément at Hostellerie de Plaisance).

He was sous-chef, she was chef de partie, and they joined the Auberge Basque in 2016, where they patiently matured their own project while taming the Basque terroir a little more. In Espelette, the hotel-restaurant Choko-Ona (a small local institution that had been closed for 5 years) was up for sale. It was the ideal place for the two young men to set down roots in the Basque Country they love so much, close to the producers they've already been working with for several years.

The establishment will be completely renovated and should, within 2 years, be able to accommodate guest rooms. The cuisine will play the modern card, in a rather traditional competitive environment, with the cellar focusing mainly on sustainable, organic or biodynamic winegrowers.

Address: opening April 2

Choko Ona - Espelette

149 Xerrendako Karrika, 64250 Espelette