Alexis VOISENET

Chef : 1 restaurant In Issy-les-Moulineaux, chef Alexis Voisenet reveals his committed, plant-based cuisine at Maison Avoise, a restaurant that celebrates authentic taste and local produce.

Presentation

With a well-shaped head and dexterous hands, Alexis Voisenet has designed his career as a champion's path to be, at the age of 32, exactly where he wants to be - at home .

Aware of the difficulty of the job, but also of the extraordinary prospects it offers, Alexis has put all the right cards in his hand over the years. After a scientific education, the young man headed for a hotel school with one objective: to tick all the right boxes, to forge the best foundations for becoming the master of his own story .

From Guy Savoy's kitchens to his own restaurant

And his choices paid off, as he carefully selected the chefs he admired and with whom he knew he could learn the most: Jean-François Piège, at the Grand Restaurant, where he stayed for two years in 2016 and 2017, then MOF Christophe Raoux at the Peninsula, before joining Guy Savoy at the Monnaie de Paris, where he spent five fine years as assistant chef.

A personal project is taking shape: Alexis has had aspirations since the beginning, but he won't make them a reality until 2023. "There was a rather difficult period, and I wanted to stay by the chef's side to support him and continue to learn" .

The location, the former casemates of the Issy-les-Moulineauxfort, is highly symbolic. "In a way, at the gateway to Paris, it's my turn to defend an idea of French cuisine". For the chef's cultural heritage also runs in the family:"Both my grandmothers were great cooks, and I loved to smell the broths they made for our family meals.At the age of seven or eight, I was alreadytrying to help my father with the peeling, learning about vegetables and how to prepare them. at Maison-Avoise, I put my love of plants into practice, with a vegetable garden on the roof and strong links with local farmers. In the fort, which is transformed into a veritable botanical promenade, there are over 500 plant species. This inspires and motivates all our teams.

Plants at the heart of the plate and the kitchen garden

Maison-Avoiseis first and foremost a personal project and a complete investment:"I've put my whole life into it. I'm a chef-owner and I financed the whole project 100% out of my own pocket. Paris already seemed a little saturated, and prices were high, butI really liked the idea of doing something in the Hauts-de-Seine department,which I know well. These casemates are a place to live, and a model of what I want in my cooking: to protect the real, the local, the natural, by putting the product at the center of the plate. If you work with a shrimp, it has to be prepared in different ways, with different textures, to get all its facets and flavors. I work with conscientious producers, committed fishmongers, a cheese dairy in Issy and bread from a local baker. What I'm looking for is the truth of taste, original rather than original flavors". M. E.