Fabien LEFEBVRE

Chef : 1 restaurant MOF Fabien Lefebvre reinvents the Béziers scene in a spirit of sharing and conviviality with his restaurant Pica-Pica and his new address, Calice.

Presentation

Born into a generation of fishermen, Fabien Lefebvre remembers dishes like "cuttlefish rouille, stuffed mussels, mackerel with pepper...". Although he initially felt drawn to the profession of history teacher, his vocation was born when he watched his older brother train as a chef. He spent two years studying in the hotel section of the Lycée Jean-Moulin in Béziers, before continuing his studies in Perpignan until 1991. During his studies, he worked in the kitchens of Le Cerf in Marlenheim, Restaurant Brunel in Avignon, and Le Léonce in Florensac.

On his return from military service, he spent a year honing his management skills with the Accor group. In 1993, he was sous-chef to Robert Abraham at Château de Lignan (Hérault). The following year, he worked for Jean-Marc Banzo at Clos de la Violette in Aix-en-Provence. In 1995, he took over the kitchens at the San Pedro in Saint-Raphaël, then joined Christian Morisset at the Hotel Juana in Juan-les-Pins.

While in Paris, he met Michel Del Burgo, who hired him at the Bristol in 1998. He spent seven years there, experimenting with (almost) every position, from saucier to entremetier to fish, and ended up assistant chef in Éric Frechon's brigade. During these Parisian years, he won the Taittinger prize in 2000, as well as the title of Meilleur ouvrier de France in 2004: "There was a real sense of competition. "

In 2005, Fabien Lefebvre returned to Béziers, where he opened his own restaurant: Octopus. Gault&Millau immediately awarded him 3 toques and crowned him Jeune Talent 2006, then Grand de Demain 2009. For almost thirteen years, he flourished there, until Éric Frechon asked him to head up all his consulting activities in France .

He spent a year and a half in Paris, then returned to Béziers, where he created Pica-Pica with a former Octopus client, an industrialist from Béziers. Here, he offers a cuisine of sharing between picas and tapas, quickly winning 2 toques. Always on the move, Fabien Lefebvre is concentrating in parallel on opening and developing his new gastronomic address, Calice, a few blocks from Pica-Pica. A promise of constantly renewed excitement.

T.L.