Hervé PARMENTIER

Chef de service : 1 restaurant

Presentation

Hervé Parmentier's initial ambition was to become a chef, but when he arrived at La Côte Saint-Jacques in 1983, he had no choice but to work in the dining room. But when he arrived at La Côte Saint-Jacques in 1983, the apprentice had no choice but to work in the dining room. That's when it all clicked. "In mysecond year, I was asked to go into the kitchen, but in the end I refused," he recalls. He stayed on for four years, training to become a maître d' with his mentors, Michel Bachelet and Jean-Claude Altmayer. After a detour to Ireland, he joined Alain Rabier's team at Château d'Artigny in Montbazon. He started out as demi-chef de rang and became maître d'hôtel, aged just 23. "Customers took us for youngsters, so it was complicated at first," he recalls.

In 1998, after a spell in Méribel, he joined Restaurant Pierre Gagnaire in Paris. From chef de rang he went on to become maître d'hôtel, then room manager. "When I went for my job interview, the chef said, 'You know, if you join us, it's a minimum of two or three years. Today, it's 25! Although the years go by, they are never the same, and Hervé Parmentier never loses his enthusiasm. " I'm always delighted to come to work," he confides.

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