Baptiste DENIEUL

Chef : 1 restaurant

Presentation

"My brothers were engineers and I was struggling at school. I needed recognition. This job gave it to me", says Baptiste Denieul, who had a revelation the day he entered the kitchen. "My parents ran a crêperie in Brittany. They asked me to help out on weekends. When they saw that I liked it, they asked me to join the team of chef Gérard Le Guennec, a friend and owner of the restaurant La Tradition."

At the age of 14, Baptiste Denieul decided to make a career of it. The day he entered the Louis Guilloux hotel school, his life changed. He graduated as Best Apprentice of Brittany. At the age of 19, he moved to Paris, applying to Alain Ducasse and landing at Lasserre restaurant alongside Christophe Moret, before moving on to Le Bristol, alongside Éric Frechon.

His parents decided to sell their crêperie in 2010, but Baptiste Denieul was reluctant to take over the business. At a luncheon, it clicked. "With my tips, I used to treat myself to a very good restaurant. I went to Bernard Loiseau. At the end of the meal, I bought his book, in which he said that he had set up his own restaurant at the age of 22, and that it had enabled him to develop his style. At 4 a.m., I texted my parents to tell them I was taking over the crêperie", initially as an employee.

With his wife Marion, he bought it in 2015 to turn it into a gourmet restaurant, Maison Tiegezh ("family" in Breton). "The name was particularly important to me. My childhood home is now a hotel, and my room is number 3 in the establishment. I wanted to preserve this family spirit."Gault&Millau immediately awarded him 2 toques and the Jeune Talent Bretagne trophy. The 3rd toque came a few years later, along with the Grand de Demain trophy. A fine consecration for this chef attached to tradition. And it shows in his dishes:"I wanted to answer the question: how do you eat in Brocéliande?"Baptiste Denieul's cuisine is generous, simple and easy to understand, which he describes as"haute couture country cooking".

B. G.