The Best Restaurants Run by Young Chefs in France
Across France, a new generation of chefs is shaking things up with committed, thoughtful cooking. Discover our selection of restaurants where the next generation is already making its mark.
They didn’t wait to make their voices heard: whether self-taught or trained at top restaurants, the young chefs whose restaurants we’ve selected champion a style of cooking that reflects who they are: free, precise, and creative. From Vieux-Lille to the Doubs, via central Paris and the Atlantic coast, here are 10 restaurants run by young chefs to watch closely, with carefully sourced menus and influences from near and far.
Oktobre, Paris
After joining Kitchen Galerie Bis as executive chef at age 22, Martin Maumet, now 33, took over the restaurant from William Ledeuil in 2023. A change of identity and artistic direction later, Oktobre was born, its “K” a subtle nod to the venue’s past. Deeply inspired by his former partner’s Southeast Asian-influenced fusion cuisine, Martin Maumet offers a market-driven menu with clean seasonings built on chili peppers, citrus fruits, and more. His four-course menu, inspired by the Italian art of living, is a perfect example: after a trio of hors d’oeuvres built around vegetables, ravioli in sauce, and raw preparations, linguine with lobster coral, Thai broth, and arugula condiment precedes a pearly line-caught hake, served with Paimpol coco beans, piperade, and bouillabaisse jus lifted by a lemon and harissa condiment. For dessert, the rice pudding, served with cocoa nib ice cream, miso milk jam, and hazelnut praline, is perfectly balanced. Over ten years, the starter-main-dessert menu of the former KGB has gone from 36 to 39 euros today. “It’s important to me to remain affordable, especially at lunch,” the chef explains. A real masterstroke!
▶ I want to go to Oktobre (2 toques)
Pulpe, Lille
It was in Paris, more specifically at L’Astrance (4 toques), that their paths crossed, before each went on to work with leading chefs. Clémence Taillandier and Philippe Platel then met again in Marcq-en-Barœul, as part of the team at Rozó (4 toques). Now, behind the olive-green façade of Pulpe, in the heart of Vieux-Lille, she’s in the kitchen and he’s front of house. Since May 2024, they’ve been serving a bistro-style menu with Asian accents, paired with bottles that are mostly organic and biodynamic: white tuna sashimi with samphire and chili oil as an amuse-bouche, flame-seared horse mackerel with daikon, plum, and shiso as a starter… The main courses include a classic turbot meunière alongside meagre with shiso, pak choi, and green crab sauce. Attention is paid to the smallest details, such as the bread, baked in-house every day from sourdough starter and local flours.
▶ I want to go to Pulpe (2 toques)
Vertfeuille, Arc-et-Senans
Named “Young Talents” in 2024, Léa Senot and Clément Bourdiaux, both in their thirties, cut their teeth working under leading chefs. Together, they opened this welcoming restaurant in a village in the Doubs known for its Saline royale, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Their menu pays homage to the classics of French cuisine, with numerous references to the Franche-Comté terroir: the marinated organic tomatoes are dressed with tomme du Jura, the leg of lamb is seasoned with a lamb jus freshened with Trousseau wine, while a Jura faisselle ice cream lifts a plate of beets.
▶ I want to go to Vertfeuille (2 toques)
Lueurs, Bouchemaine
Romain Zarazaga, named “Grand de Demain 2025” at the Gault&Millau Tour Centre-Val de Loire - Pays de la Loire, had opened his restaurant only a few weeks earlier in the warm setting of the Château du Petit Serrant, above the Loire. In this intimate restaurant seating about thirty guests, there’s only one choice to make: the length of the menu (5, 6, or 9 courses). Of Basque origin, the thirty-something chef first trained under Franck Derouet at Laurent Petit’s Clos des Sens (4 toques) in Annecy, his hometown, before joining Éric Frechon in London and then returning to a more natural setting with Emmanuel Renaut. His last position before striking out on his own? Maison Troisgros (4 toques) in Ouches. An impressive career path and an equally promising future.
▶ I want to go to Lueurs (3 toques)
Germaine, Bayonne
Originally from Brittany, Maxime Chentouf traveled down the Atlantic coast and landed in Bayonne after stints at the Saint-James in Bouliac, the Hôtel du Palais in Biarritz, the Hermitage in La Baule, and the Château de Brindos in Anglet. At his place, or rather at Germaine, he offers a single five-course menu that evolves from amuse-bouche to dessert with the seasons. The common thread? Charcoal cooking. Facing his guests from behind the counter, he prepares panisse with a creamy pepper sauce, peperoni cruschi, and chickpeas; lamb paired with melon, shiso, and basil; and, for dessert, butternut squash combined with apple, cocoa nibs, and verbena. Winner of the Dotation Gault&Millau in 2024, the year his restaurant opened, Maxime Chentouf continues to make waves in his adopted region.
▶ I want to go to Germaine (2 toques)
Melba, Quissac
Named “Young Talent Occitanie 2026,” the 25-year-old self-taught chef Elouan Tréhin has been in the kitchen for just two years. With his partner Léa, who runs the dining room and the wine list, he opened his restaurant in May 2024 in a former village hardware store, whose iconic red color they preserved. In Quissac, at the gateway to the Cévennes, the couple showcases the local terroir in their 14-seat restaurant. The “Menu Piémont” features Sète mussels, squab from the Baeza brothers, and wild-caught Mediterranean fish.
▶ I want to go to Melba (1 toque)
Symbiose, Cabourg
Since October 2023, the cuisine of Norman chef Charles-Antoine Jouxtel has been a perfect match for the cellar that Charlotte Schwab, a sommelier originally from Provence, has built through her encounters with winemakers. At Symbiose, the space is divided into two distinct experiences: small sharing plates built around vegetables, sea, and land at the tasting bar; and the gastronomic offering, with two menus in 5 and 7 acts, in the second dining room. While the tasting bar takes us here and elsewhere, mainly toward Asia, with its crispy chicken thighs glazed with gochujang, its Camembert spring rolls with mint, and its tuna tataki with sesame and shiitake vinaigrette, the “Initiation” and “Dégustation” menus are more firmly rooted in the local terroir. Examples include the chef’s poule à la crème or the tatin-style pressed apples, puffed with calvados.
▶ I want to go to Symbiose (2 toques)
Coup de Main, Lille
Awarded two toques in its very first year, Victor Berthe, born into a family that is half Breton, half Picard, met his future partner and sommelier Clément Delecluse while the latter was manager at L’Empreinte, in Lambersart. It was his second experience in the Nord, following his time in the kitchen brigade at Rozó (4 toques) in Marcq-en-Barœul, where he spent four years alongside Diego Delbecq and pastry chef Camille Pailleau. His cuisine, he says, is inspired by the recipes of Auguste Escoffier, which he brings up to date by adding a fermentation here and there, for example. In the heart of Vieux-Lille, this restaurant and wine cellar also received the “Terroir d’exception” trophy in 2026 for its selection of local products.
▶ I want to go to Coup de Main (2 toques)
Les Singuliers, Saint-Astier
After working at the Paris-region restaurants of chef Jacky Ribault, among others (L’Ours (2 toques) in Vincennes and Qui Plume la Lune (2 toques) in Paris), young chef Louis Festa moved to the Dordogne in 2020 and, in 2022, opened his own restaurant in the heart of the Périgord blanc, when he was just 24 years old. In a pared-back setting that showcases natural, regional materials such as lime, wood, and stone, he highlights local producers in his 3-, 4-, 5-, or 7-course menus, with a few influences from elsewhere. This summer, Beauronne trout with yuzu kosho, daikon, garden sorrel, and collagen vinaigrette was served sushi-style with Yumepirika rice, while rhubarb was poached in its own juice and served with an ice cream and a peanut-powder biscuit, matcha green tea, and a rhubarb extraction.
▶ I want to go to Les Singuliers (2 toques)
La Table de Florent, Rochechouart
A self-taught chef, Florent Linard received the Young Talent Trophy for the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in June 2026. After a first venture in Toulouse (the wine bar Les Passionnés, opened with David Torelli and Mickael Sauvage), he launched a second address in 2019 with the same team. Six years later, it was in Rochechouart, in Haute-Vienne, that he opened a restaurant bearing his name, which received its first two toques a year after opening. Guided by the seasons and exceptional local produce, the chef describes his cuisine as “rather raw, instinctive, and without frills.” Discover it through his three menus, including a very fair lunch offer (starter, main course, and dessert for 36 euros)!
▶ I want to go to La Table de Florent (2 toques)
