David CASTAGNET

Chef : La Pyramide As executive chef at La Pyramide in Vienna, David Castagnet knows the restaurant well. Why? He cut his teeth there under Patrick Henriroux.

Presentation

Unsure of his career path, David Castagnet initially wavered between pastry and baking; in the end, he chose the hospitality and restaurant industry. “I started out as a server, but an internship showed me that I enjoyed cooking more than serving.” In 1996, he joined Jean Coussau’s Le Relais de la Poste in Magescq (Landes). “It was that chef who inspired me to pursue cooking. He really put me through my paces to make sure I loved this profession—I’m still grateful to him today.”

A brief stint, then back to La Pyramide

Three years passed, and the young chef felt the need to move on. He was then hired as a section chef under Christian Willer at La Palme d’Or, the fine-dining restaurant at the Martinez Hotel in Cannes. But feeling more at home in family-run businesses, he applied in 2000 to La Pyramide in Vienne (Isère). “After three or four months, I realized I wasn’t up to the level, so I decided to go gain more experience.” He then spent three years in the Basque Country before joining the Arrambide family’s restaurant, Les Pyrénées, in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port (Pyrénées-Atlantiques).

In 2006, after a stint as sous-chef at the Auberge des Templiers in Boismorrand (Loiret), he applied again to La Pyramide and was hired as Christian Née’s sous-chef. He remained there for seven years, during which time he won the Taittinger Culinary Prize.

From 2013 to 2015, he worked under Christophe Roure in Saint-Just-Saint-Rambert and Lyon, at the restaurant Le Neuvième Art. “It was a minimalist style of cooking that I wasn’t familiar with, and I really liked him as a person.” After becoming a father, he joined the Brasserie Midi Minuit group in Lyon as executive chef in search of more stability.

Since 2020, David Castagnet has returned to Fernand Point’s restaurant. As Christian Née’s successor, he offers a plant-based cuisine passed down to him by the restaurant’s owner, Patrick Henriroux. His goal now: to aim for five toques and earn the title of Meilleur Ouvrier de France (MOF)!