Alain LLORCA

Chef : 1 restaurant

Presentation

"Ever since I was little, I wanted to do this job. But why? I don't know why. I'd open the Nice Matin newspaper, and I'd see this chef Maximin, and that interested me. At theage of 8, I said I'd do it and nothing else," recalls Alain Llorca. After completing his CAP, he got his first job as a"commis aux épluchures" at the Auberge du Jarrier in Biot (Alpes-Maritimes). He then spent a season at the Hotel Juana, Juan-les-Pins - Cap d'Antibes.

In 1988, the Holy Grail arrived: he landed a position at Le Chantecler restaurant in the Hôtel Negresco, Nice, where Jacques Maximin was the chef. His dream realized, a new goal took shape: to work at the Louis XV in Monaco, alongside Alain Ducasse. Ducasse accepted, but on one condition: he had to complete his training at the Résidence de La Pinède in Saint-Tropez. "When I arrived, I realized that he'd told all the guys the same thing, except that there were only two places. You had to be a wolf."This challenge was met, as he took up the position of chef at the Louis XV in 1991.

A year later, aged just 23, he took over Le Restaurant des Peintres in Haut-de-Cagnes. He stayed for three years, winning the Grand de Demain trophy in the 1997 edition of the Guide Jaune. He was then offered a position as chef at the Le Negresco hotel in Nice. "Can you imagine? I was dreaming of Maximin when I was a kid, and I was offered the position, so I went for it!"

His next step came in 2004, when he bought the Moulin de Mougins from Roger Vergé. "It was a bit crazy to do it, to take over behind such a master," he confides. But with his brother and pastry chef Jean-Michel Llorca, he took up the challenge. In 2009, Alain Llorca opened his eponymous restaurant in La Colle-sur-Loup (Alpes-Maritimes), near Nice.

I. B.