Brice MONCUIT

Chef : 1 restaurant

Presentation

Mussel scraper at his uncle's, pizza maker, salesman, fisherman... Brice Moncuit had several lives before cooking. While working in a pizzeria in Carteret, he met neighbors Laurent Cesne and Pierre Marion, owners of La Marine restaurant. "They invited me to have a drink with the team. That's whenI saw what a real kitchen was, I was impressed."

Before making a career of it, he did a series of odd jobs and travelled around France and Spain. In Granada, he took a job in a restaurant. "I realized that when it's done well, it's really good. I told myself it was time to stop going round in circles and get on with it."

Brice Moncuit returned to his home town, Cherbourg, and spent six months preparing for the CAP as an independent candidate. He took the opportunity to train with Stéphane Carbone, in Caen, and La Marine, in Carteret. "Then I went to Paname with a bag. I arrived at the Plaza with a lousy CV, two little cover letters and the desire to learn and do things well." That's how he joined the Plaza Athénée for two years, moving in turn to room service, the gourmet restaurant and banqueting.

In 2013, he joined Le Diane, the restaurant at Fouquet's, working alongside Jean-Yves Leuranguer and Christophe Schmitt. "There was an incredible brigade, they'd all come from better houses. We worked like donkeys," he recalls. But he missed his home region, and Brice Moncuit decided to return to the Cotentin. He landed a job at La Marine, then Les Fuchsias in Saint-Vaast-La-Hougue, Café du Théâtre in Cherbourg and, finally, Le Goéland in Saint-Vaast.

With the help of the Dotation Jeunes Talents Gault&Millau, he launched himself in 2018 and opened Carabot, in Cherbourg. "We've been open for five years, and we've been fully booked for five years!" The Guide Jaune immediately awarded him the handsome mark of 14/20 and consecrated him Jeune Talent 2020.

I. B.