Florent PIETRAVALLE

Chef : 2 restaurants Florent Pietravalle has been the chef at La Mirande in Avignon since 2016. His career alongside some of the industry’s biggest names, rounded out by an appearance on *Top Chef*, is detailed here.

Presentation

“Ever since I was a little kid, I was drawn to restaurants; I knew I’d be a chef. I’ve always loved being able to express myself through cooking—to let the dishes speak for me,” recalls Florent Pietravalle. He trained at the Montpellier Hotel School and completed an internship with Yves Thuriès in Gordes. “It was a revelation; I knew then that what I wanted was the pursuit of perfection.”

With his vocational high school diploma in hand, he planned to continue on to a BTS program, but his encounter with MOF Raoul Reichrath changed everything. And so, in 2006, he joined Reichrath’s team at Le Grand Pré, in the Vaucluse. “I was only supposed to stay for one summer, but I ended up staying for three years.”

Back to his roots

In 2009, he joined L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon in Saint-Germain-des-Prés for a year. “That’s where I understood what rigor and precision really mean.” A year later, this native of Montpellier began to miss his native South of France. He headed to Arles to work as sous-chef for Jean-Luc Rabanel. “He had a completely different vision of cooking; he was a pioneer in the world of plant-based cuisine.”

After appearing on season 3 of *Top Chef*, he returned to Paris to work at Pierre Gagnaire’s restaurant on Rue Balzac. There, he honed his skills, trying his hand at every station, but four years later, the desire to open his own restaurant began to take hold. While scouting the region, he stopped by La Mirande in Avignon between two visits, where he met Martin Stein, the restaurant’s owner. This friendly and decisive encounter led him to take the helm of the restaurant’s kitchen in 2016. There, he developed an instinctive and vibrant culinary style centered around local ingredients from the Mediterranean region. Awarded the title of “Grand de Demain” in 2022 and honored with a score of 17/20, the chef intends to stay the course and continue to improve his rating.