When couples start cooking

Together, we're stronger. Together, we go further... It's a well-known adage. And in the restaurant business, the formula has been repeated for generations: Mr. cooks and Mrs. welcomes customers. The organization continues to be a success, as on the Col de la Forclaz, where Sandrine Delay greets customers with a gentle touch at the Auberge de Montmin.

Now, with the (slightly) more visible presence of women chefs, more and more wives and girlfriends are donning the apron, rather than the suit, to share the stoves alongside their husbands or partners. A new family of restaurateurs is reshuffling the cards of what were once unshakeable logistics, all the better supporting the presence of the chefs behind the pass, on the kitchen or pastry side. In order to understand the advantages as well as the limits of this type of four-hands operation, we interviewed five duos who have chosen to turn their restaurant into a real couple's project, in both their professional and personal lives.

In Paris, l'Hémicycle

"When our customers dine with us, it's not to eat at Flavio and Aurora's, but to discover the cuisine of chefs who are a couple," says Aurora Storari. The pastry chef at the Hémicycle restaurant (2 toques) is keen to distinguish between her five-year love affair with chef Flavio Lucarini and her presence on the same brigade. " We don't want to make our story too personal," she insists. However, this boundary between personal and professional life has not always been easy to establish." When we were working on our own, it was more complicated to put cooking aside in our conversations," recalls chef de cuisine Flavio Lucarini, who worked alongside Jérôme Banctel as sous-chef at Le Gabriel, while his partner was in charge of desserts at Le Clarence. We had to prove ourselves! The two began cooking together at the Flaubert bistro, where the recipe worked well thanks to the trust each had in the other: "When you look at each other, you know what the other is thinking", says Flavio Lucarini. And Aurora adds: "I know that if anything goes wrong, Flavio is my palate!

• Where? 5 Rue de Bourgogne 75007 Paris
• www.hemicycle.paris

At Payrin-Augmontel, the Villa Pinewood

Halfway between Toulouse and Béziers, when you sit down at the 12-cover counter of the Villa Pinewood (3 toques), you enter the intimacy not only of a culinary concept, but also of a duo as passionate as they are in love." Anne is my alter ego! We're a fusional couple," admits Thomas Cabrol. The two of them have found a way of living out their love affair on a daily basis by opening a confidential address where they are alone at the helm. At Villa Pinewood, there are no waiters. While Thomas produces 90% of the cuisine, inspired primarily by the aromas of a wine, they both prepare and serve their guests. " Anne takes care of the pairings, and together we test the experience we serve our customers," explains the oenologist-turned-self-taught chef. In Toulouse, when they ran their wine bar, renowned for its 4,000 references and voted best wine bar in the world three times by World of Fine Wine magazine, the roles were reversed: We wanted the two of us together, away from the hustle and bustle of the city and the pressure to push the gastronomic envelope and deliver single-product plates," explains Thomas Cabrol.

• Where? 590 Chemin du Nègre 81660 Payrin-Augmontel
• www.villapinewood.com

In Paris, l'Amalia

"None of our dishes are 100% created by one person or the other," reveals Eugenio Anfuso, chef at Amalia, where menus are written by four hands. We know each other's skills better than anyone else," he adds, " and that helps to tell them that they can take their ideas even further! At the beginning of March, this former chef from L'Ambroisie and L'Astrance opened a gourmet restaurant alongside his fellow pastry chef Cécilia Spurio, an Italian like himself. The pair first tested their connivance behind the stoves at Korus (Paris 11ᵉ). But for this new project, the pastry chef moved to the dining room: "I don't consider myself a dining room manager. But who better than one of the chefs to explain to customers how a dish is made?" suggests the toque trained in top Parisian houses such as those of Guy Savoy and Yannick Alléno." We even thought about Cécilia keeping her chef's jacket," adds her companion. Previously, when they arrived in France and each had to prove themselves in their respective houses, it was impossible to find a time to get together, given the different closing days. The solution: open a restaurant together! " And in any case, as soon as we met in the gourmet restaurant in Tuscany, we knew right away that we'd want to cook and pastry behind the same stoves," continues Eugenio Anfuso. He adds , "Since we work as a couple, we consider the rest of our team as family!

• Where? 32 Rue de la Fontaine au Roi 75011 Paris
• www.amaliarestaurant.com

DR

In Nice, ONICE

She is of Argentinian origin and was the former second in command at Le Mirazur. In Menton, chef Mauro Colagreco gave Florencia Montes the opportunity to climb the ladder for over ten years. He is Italian and trained under the great chef of Alba's Piazza Duomo, Enrico Crippa. The two met in 2020 when Lorenzo arrived at Le Mirazur. "Lorenzo and I quickly had the desire to carry out a professional project together, without being aware of the reality of this initiative. We ended up leaving the Mirazur to open our own restaurant last May," says the young chef. Their strength? The desire to cook together, all the time, without stepping on each other's toes. Each to his own tasks. " While one of them takes care of the cooking, the other takes care of the final preparations before serving," says Lorenzo. While exchanging tender, loving glances, the accomplices tell us how much they share the same vision, that of looking straight ahead to serve a modern cuisine nourished by the Mediterranean terroir and inspired by their childhood spent in Argentina and Italy.

• Where? 5 Rue Antoine Gautier 06300 Nice
• www.restaurantonice.com

In Conques-en-Rouergue, Le Moulin de Cambelong

Ten years ago, at the Hotel Les Airelles in Courchevel. Émilie was in the kitchen, Thomas a member of the brigade at Pierre Gagnaire's restaurant. It was the beginning of a love story that quickly became the beginning of a shared professional project. After a successful experience in Rodez, where they both cooked together for the first time, the Roussey couple took over the Moulin de Cambelong. A year ago, they set up home. "There's no real boundary between the personal and professional spheres. And it's voluntary. We wanted our three children to live with us, so we could organize ourselves whenever we needed to look after them," says Émilie. Even on vacation, cooking continues to feature prominently in conversations, as it does with the couple's recently-opened Heron bistro: "Working together is a strength. We complement each other well when it comes to thinking up the menu. When one composes a recipe, the other knows how to do the rest. Each of us brings his or her own feelings to the table. This allows us to offer a real proposal," explains the chef, confiding that they both agreed that neither of them would have to sacrifice themselves to go into the dining room when they took over Le Moulin de Cambelong.

• Where? 13320 Conques-en-Rouergue
• www.moulindecambelong.com