Grégoire ANTOINE

Chef : 1 restaurant

Presentation

Born in Reims in 1996, in the heyday of Gérard Boyer, Grégoire Antoine is in fact a pure product of the Troisgros school. In any case, the young chef from Central has never really lived in Champagne, but grew up in Brioude, with a restaurateur father. I was firmly convinced that I too would be a chef, but my father didn't see it that way," he recounts. He insisted that I take a scientific baccalaureate. With that in hand, I enrolled at the Lycée Hôtelier in Chamalières to study for a BTS after a refresher course."

During his years in Chamalières, this true culinary enthusiast completed a six-month internship at Troisgros. At the time, the establishment was still located opposite the Roanne train station. Grégoire Antoine learned how to lift fish fillets, as well as being in charge of aperitifs... "At the end of my BTS, in the summer of summer 2017, all I wanted to do was return to Troisgros, but this time to Ouches, where they had moved a few months earlier. I joined as a commis, then half-chef de partie, before the birth of my first child, in 2019, encouraged me to give up."

At the time, Grégoire Antoine didn't feel able to juggle the demands of a top restaurant with his recent fatherhood. He joined Le Central, the Troisgros annex still located opposite Roanne station, as sous-chef to Mickaël Fayolle. Since the end of 2022, after a one-year interlude as chef at Restaurant de la Loire, in Pouilly-sous-Charlieu, the family man is now at the helm of Le Central. "We work closely with the Troisgros family. I have real creative freedom, but of course I have to stay within the spirit of the house, and every new dish has to be approved by chefs Michel and César Troisgros. I'm also lucky enough to be able to draw on the family's huge vegetable garden and benefit from the same supply channels. It's a great opportunity." Proof of a successful transmission, Gault&Millau awarded him the Tradition d'Aujourd'hui Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes 2024 trophy.

F. T.