Grégory DOUCEY

Chef : 1 restaurant

Presentation

"Catering was something I'd wanted to do since I was a child, but life didn't allow me to get into it straight away," explains Grégory Doucey. It wasn't until the age of 25, after a number of different careers (ambulance driver, fireman, postal worker), that he decided to return to his passion.

This son of a baker and pastry chef got off to a good start: during his CAP (vocational training certificate), he worked with Charles Fontès at La Réserve Rimbaud, with Patrick Guiltat at Le Castel Ronceray, and with Jacques Mazerand. After these three gastronomic experiences in Montpellier, he became chef de partie for five years at Le Sancyr restaurant in La Grande-Motte.It was a big seaside brasserie," he says, "and it taught me how to create volume."

In 2012, he moved to Hostellerie des Clos, in Chablis, where"I refined and polished my CAP basics". From chef de partie to sous-chef in just a few months. But both he and his wife miss the southern sun. So he took up the position of sous-chef at Mas Tourteron, in Gordes. He spent three months there, before joining the brigade at Le Petit Jardin in Montpellier.

In 2013, he joined Le Clos des Oliviers, in Saint-Gély-du-Fesc (Hérault) as sous-chef, then head chef. Three years later, after a detour via Palavas-les-Flots and Sète, Grégory Doucey was appointed to the Meat House restaurant in Frontignan. "It was fries, salad and meat, and it was good," he explains. But the call of gastronomy led him to the Golf de Juvignac as second-in-command. "After six months, I was offered the position of general manager."

Then a new opportunity presented itself in 2018:"A colleague told me 'I'm selling, if you want, you buy it'," he recalls. That's how In-Fine was born, in Frontignan. After just a few months, Gault&Millau awarded him a score of 12.5/20 (1 toque) and included him in the 2020 edition of 109 - Le Sang neuf de la gastronomie française. The 2nd toque followed shortly afterwards, as did the Terroir d'Exception Occitanie 2022 trophy.

I.B.