Damian SANCHEZ PEREZ

Chef de service : 1 restaurant In Juan-les-Pins, Damian Sanchez Perez runs La Passagère and has established himself as a benchmark for luxury dining on the Côte d'Azur.

Presentation

"Until I was a teenager, I'd never set foot in a gastronomic restaurant, I didn't know any gastronomic guides, I didn't know that toques or stars were awarded to the finest tables. I was a complete novice in this field.It was thanks to one of his good friendsthat Damian Sanchez Perez took his first steps in the profession. "His parents owned a brewery. To earn his pocket money, he regularly worked as a dishwasher and asked me to join him. That's how the passion was born and how I decided to join the hotel school in Anderlecht , on the outskirts of Brussels. "

at the age of 15, he entered one of Belgium' s top restaurants with his nerve.

During his three years at school, the young man worked every weekend at Le Bon Bon, then one of the finest restaurants in the country (19.5/20 in our Belgian edition). "I got in on the spur of the moment. I called the chef to ask for a job. He said he'd wait for me that evening, in my uniform, at 6pm. I was barely 15 years old, and I stayed there until my twentiethbirthday, not without taking a specialization in sommellerie." As the young man's level of English was close to nil, his chef found him a place at the Gauthier Soho in London."I would eventually stay in the English capital for over thirteen years, until COVID and the Brexit pushed me back across the Channel. But I was lucky enough to work alongside Hélène Darroze at the Connaught for almost six years , as Deputy Restaurant Manager".

The Côte d'Azur, a new stage

On his return to France, Damian Sanchez Perez landed on the Côte d'Azur, the home of his wife, whom he had met in London. After a few months at the Maybourne Riviera, it was his friend Tom Meyer, then at Granite in Paris, who praised the merits of Aurélien Véquaud, chef at La Passagère in Juan les Pins. "It was Tom who introduced me to Belles Rives in April 2022.It's a house of discreet luxury, with a family atmosphere, where I'm blossoming fully alongside a close-knit, motivated team.". And where her natural elegance and ease work wonders with a discerning international clientele .