Céline NOPRE

Head sommelier : Mademoiselle 10 A pastry chef, sommelier, and the heart and soul of Mademoiselle 10, Céline Nopre runs this family-owned restaurant in the Krutenau neighborhood of Strasbourg with her brother Thibaut. She received the [award] from the Gault&Millau Tour Grand Est.

Presentation

Some callings are passed down without a word. For Céline Nopre, hers became clear from the cradle. “When I say I grew up surrounded by pots and pans, it’s not just a figure of speech. I was three months old when my parents opened La Toque Blanche in Bénestroff. We lived above the restaurant.” Bénestroff? A village of 500 people in the heart of the Lorraine Regional Nature Park, pretty much in the middle of nowhere.

The Engineer Who Wasn’t One

When she started middle school, the young girl dreamed of becoming an engineer. In what field? She hadn’t given it much thought beyond that. At the end of ninth grade, she finally enrolled in the hotel management school in Metz, “much to my mother’s regret, as she didn’t want me to work in the restaurant business.” With a technical high school diploma in hospitality in hand, she went to live with an uncle for a year to perfect her English. She then trained in pastry making, while working part-time every weekend at the family restaurant.

She then settled in for good at La Toque Blanche, working in the pastry kitchen, “because my parents needed some help.” After a stint at 27 Gambetta in Nancy, she wanted to open her own restaurant, with her father’s help. All that remained was to choose the city. *“However, ”* she jokes, “we couldn’t agree on the location. I didn’t like Metz, he didn’t like Nancy, so we finally settled on Strasbourg. Mademoiselle 10 opened in 2017.”

A Family Affair

A baby boy was born in 2022. Her father continued to support her day-to-day in running the restaurant until he fell ill. Since his passing, her brother Thibaut has been running the kitchen alongside her. Mademoiselle 10 remains, more than ever, a family business.

With a specialization in sommelier studies, Céline Nopre has never had to choose between her two passions. “I’m always split between the pastry kitchen and the dining room. I have a passion for Anne Boisson’s wines—I love what she does—and I also enjoy the Pinot Noirs and the Riesling “Cuvée Affinée” from Domaine Siebert in Wolxheim. ” Her selections are reflected in a wine cellar that gives pride of place to Alsatian winemakers.