Resilience: chefs who start from scratch
The life of a chef or restaurateur is not a long, quiet river. Sometimes, in addition to the immense sacrifices made, pitfalls destroy a lifetime's work.
Building a career as a chef is a demanding path, often marked by effort and sacrifice. The acquisition of a restaurant becomes the culmination of this process, a place where the chef can express his talent. Unfortunately, weather events or accidents can turn everything upside down. Many chefs have had to face the loss of their establishment, the fruit of their hard work. However, these adversities have not dampened their passion. With resilience, they picked themselves up, reinvented their cuisine and started again.
Matan Zaken, chef at Nhome in Paris, chose to open an ephemeral table in parallel with work immobilizing his restaurant due to water damage at the end of August 2024. "I had to close because it was no longer possible to provide good quality service and cuisine". Combative, he sees this difficulty as "a challenge to entertain in a house (Home by Nhome), rehabilitated as a restaurant." For the chef and his teams, it's a step"out ofthe comfort zone, while maintaining 100% of the level they would expect from our restaurant". This new address at 15 avenue Hoche in Paris is open until September 30, 2024. The Parisian chef is not the only one to have faced trials and tribulations, stories of men who make their table start from scratch.
Rodolphe Regnauld's Auberge du Pont, Pont-du-Château
Almost 20 years ago, Rodolphe Regnauld and his partner Christelle took over the Auberge du Pont, an Auvergne institution. Located 15 km east of Clermont-Ferrand, the chef, winner of a Jeune Talent trophy in 2009, creates a cuisine d'auteur. In 2021, as the restaurant world painfully recovers from the COVID-19 epidemic, the path could have turned into a nightmare. Just eight days after resuming service, on June 19, 2021, the back of his restaurant caught fire. The reason? "An extension cord in the barn", says the chef. The very dry wood in the extension turned the inn into an inferno, and the entire establishment was ravaged. Despite the intervention of "six fire departments, equipped with 4 to 5 fire hoses", his life's work went up in smoke.
With unshakeable determination, the Auvergne native and lover of his region refused to give up. The inn is an institution that is almost two centuries old," he insists, "and it was absolutely out of the question to let it fall into disrepair. At H+1, the chef's work had already begun: "I was lucky enough to be able to count on a contractor who had already worked with us. The same day, I sent him a photo saying: 'You're going to have a lot of work to do! As for me, I didn't sleep for a few days, I was already drawing up plans for how to rebuild everything."
After 13 months of work, with the help of his wife's brother, a carpenter, among others, the restaurant reopened. The room quickly filled up with regular customers. "They came back very quickly, which is a huge source of satisfaction for us," says a delighted Rodolphe Regnauld, "The house is starting up again, coming back to life, which helps us get over the tragedy.
Alexandre Gauthier's La Grenouillère, in La Madeleine-sous-Montreuil
Alexandre Gauthier took La Grenouillère from his father Roland when he was not yet 25. Having been brought up in the world of cooking, he learned fast, very fast, and in 2007 earned the title of Grand de Demain. The climb continued, with one chef's hat after another, until the grail was reached: the title of Chef of the Year in 2016. Unfortunately, the path is not always idyllic, and nature sometimes takes its toll. Such was the case in November 2023, when La Canche, a river close to the restaurant, overflowed its banks following record-breaking bad weather. The 5-toque showcase and 20 years of work were buried by the waves. In April 2024, determined, the chef and his teams returned to service in an ephemeral establishment in the heart of the capital. For a few days, Alexandre Gauthier revived the Grenouillère spirit, while awaiting the reopening of his restaurant in La Madeleine-sous-Montreuil (date not yet known).
Mickaël Landaud's Beauvoir, Bourges
The festive season doesn't always rhyme with magic... In 2021, just ten days before Christmas, chef Mickaël Landaud's restaurant also suffered a fire. It had been 30 years since Le Beauvoir (2 toques) was transformed into a restaurant by Laurence and Didier Guyot. Within hours, the iconic restaurant was in ruins. Yet its founder and the chef, who took over the reins in 2018, were determined to rise to the challenge. Thanks to their immense self-sacrifice, they are striving to put this culinary jewel back on its feet. Their commitment has paid off: the restaurant was awarded the Trophée Tradition d'Aujourd'hui at the Gault&Millau Tour Centre Val de Loire 2024, testifying to their success and resilience in the face of adversity.
