Andréas MAVROMMATIS

Chef : 2 restaurants

Presentation

A celebrated restaurateur from Cyprus, Andreas Mavrommatis has been a fixture in the 5th arrondissement of Paris for over forty years. Arriving in Paris in 1977, he enrolled at the Jussieu faculty, studying psychology and sociology, and financed his studies by working with his brother in a Greek restaurant on rue Mouffetard. It wasn't great cooking," he says, "but the experience gave me a real feel for the product.

After several stints in similar establishments in the Latin Quarter, the young student realized that he wanted to become a chef, not least to raise the standard of traditional Greek gastronomy in France.

In 1981, still in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, he and his two brothers opened a delicatessen-grocery store, then the bistro Les Délices d'Aphrodite, a tavern like those in Athens or Limassol. At the same time, to perfect his skills and develop his Greek cuisine using French techniques, he took a course at the École des arts culinaires Lenôtre.

Once ready, and still with his family, he founded the Mavrommatis restaurant, which quickly became a benchmark for Hellenic gastronomy in Paris, and was awarded 3 Gault&Millau toques. "One of my brothers takes care of purchasing and administration, and another deals with the wines. So I can devote myself full-time to the kitchen, regularly inviting renowned chefs. Coming from the mountains, we ate a lot of legumes as children", products that are naturally found in his dishes.

Building on this success, Andreas Mavrommatis opened other restaurants, including one at the Four Seasons Cyprus Hotel, in 2006. Today, Maison Mavrommatis has four restaurants in Paris and 10 catering boutiques in Paris, Marseille, Nice and Strasbourg. Keen to share the flavors of Greek cuisine as widely as possible, Andreas Mavrommatis takes part in a number of television programs. He has also published two cookbooks Les Délices d'Aphrodite, in 2007, and De Grèce, avec amour, in 2018. That year, the Cypriot president decorated him with the Benefits to the Nation.

B. G.