Adam BLONDEAU

Chef : 1 restaurant

Presentation

Why Châteauroux? The Indre prefecture hasn't had much of a reputation - apart from a fortnight around 1980, thanks to Jean Bardet - for being a beacon of gastronomy. And for the past forty years, the landscape has been rather flat, like the surrounding fields and air base... And yet, just last year, a Jeune Talent title was awarded to Tony Laurent-Perrot for his Plūm, which really shakes up the Berrichon coconut tree. But what prompted Adam Blondeau to settle here, after visiting numerous regions, was quite simply that he was born here and that the desire to build something in the country was there.

"Cooking was a bit of a coincidence at first. I'd trained as a pastry chef, and I wanted to see a bit of the country, so I spent a few months in Hong Kong, doing a bit of everything."On his return to France, he worked in a series of prestigious establishments with top chefs: Marc Veyrat (5 toques d'or) at La Maison des Bois in Manigod, Christopher Coutanceau in La Rochelle (4 toques) where he learned about fishing and the ocean, a shortin Slovenia with national star Ana Ros, before moving on to Provence, to Jean-André Charial's L'Oustau de Baumanière and its 5-toque chef Glenn Viel. A true champion's journey, mountains, sea, South, West... Missing the Grand Est region, it will be Moselle and Toya, with Loïc Villemin (3 toques): "That's where I made the most progress in what interested me: fermentation, respect for the product and all the different ways of working it. I still don't have a cooking diploma, but I learned a lot. "

"Châteauroux is complicated, but I wanted to plant my flag here, to create my own business. I'd only known a boutique patisserie here, so I wanted to see what I was capable of. "And of course, nothing was easy. "Bankers were trying to discourage me by promising that it would never work. In the end, I found one who put his trust in me. "There must have been a need, since his Orbys, launched last October, is off to an excellent start and has the backing of Gault&Millau.gault&Millau, who will now follow and support him, with this first Jeune Talent trophy for the Gault&Millau Tour Centre-Val de Loire & Pays de la Loire. This award is accompanied by 2 "toques" and a 14/20 rating, while the paint is still fresh in this small room with 22 seats and a small team.

"There are only three of us. A second, whom I brought over from Toya, and a single waiter, Félix, who was a childhood friend, and not at all in the trade, after studying at the Beaux-Arts. But he has a good sense of contact, and his naturalness goes down very well with the clientele. For a long time, sourcing was a problem, and I had to do a lot of research to find what I wanted. Today, everything's going well, I've hooked up with a local market gardener and I'm starting to get good meat from nearby breeders. "And what about fish? "I don't do it, I don't want to overconsume, with products that don't come from here and that I don't control. I'm waiting to find a good local fish farm, or freshwater fishing..."