Amélie DARVAS
Initially, Amélie Darvas was predestined to join the army... But her parents didn't think so, so she turned to cookery, believing she would find the same rigor there. She enrolled at the prestigious Ferrandi school in Paris, and opted for a fast-track course: a CAP in eight months.I wasn't school-minded," she says, "I wanted to get my hands dirty as soon as possible."So the young apprentice did her internship at the Park Hyatt Paris-Vendôme with Jean-François Rouquette, and got her first taste of Hélène Darroze.
At 18, Amélie Darvas joined Éric Frechon's brigade at Le Bristol. "Thanks to him, I realized that I hadn't taken the wrong path. At his side,the commis developed her palate and found her culinary bearings. Two years later, she moved up a rank at Le Meurice, working alongside Yannick Alléno, who offered her a position as chef de partie, before returning to Éric Frechon for the opening of Le Mini Palais. "I knew what life was like in a palace, but I wanted to discover what it was like in a brasserie with 200 covers. A change of direction, Amélie Darvas ended up joining Stéphane Jégo at L'Ami Jean, in Paris, before taking up her first position as chef at the tripe restaurant Le Ribouldingue.
"I didn't see myself as a chef in a famous palace, I saw myself more in my little restaurant." In 2014, the young woman achieved her goal: she opened Haï Kaï, on the banks of the Canal Saint-Martin. "Atfirst, I was inspired by Stéphane Jégo's madness and culinary spontaneity. The restaurant was a laboratory for me. I could just as easily cook a whole suckling pig as prepare very refined small plates."
In 2017, with her partner, sommelier Gabriela Benicio, Amélie Darvas set off to meet winemakers in the Hérault region. "We had lunch at a restaurant in Vailhan. We quickly realized it was for sale. Farewell to the capital, direction Hérault. They took over the establishment in 2018. After major renovations, the restaurant became Äponem, a plant-based inn. "At the time, I thought animal protein was essential for the customer. I quickly realized that it wasn't. In this sense, my cuisine has evolved a great deal to become essentially plant-based." Gault&Millau immediately awarded her 3 toques and crowned her Grande de Demain 2019.
B. G.
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