Hugues MBENDA

Chef : 1 restaurant In his restaurant Kin, in the heart of Marseille, chef Hugues Mbenda offers a blend of Congolese and French cuisine.

Presentation

"My mother ran a street restaurant in Kinshasa. I used to stand behind her, watching her cook", says Hugues Mbenda. The young man, who joined his father in France at the age of 9, trained at the Lycée Auguste-Escoffier in the Paris region. With his diploma in hand, he was 20 years old when he was hired at Le Taillevent, Laurent Poitevin's Parisian restaurant, where he had completed his last internship.

At the end of 2010, he felt the need to explore new horizons. He worked for a year in London, at the Renaissance Hotel's Pearl gourmet restaurant, with chef Jun Tanaka. On his return to Paris, he continued his career with Jean-Pierre Vigato at Apicius, then at the Burgundy. It was then that chef Nicolas Masse called him to welcome him to the Grand'Vigne des Sources de Caudalie, near Bordeaux. In 2015, he returned to Paris to work at Christian Constant's Violon d'Ingres.

In 2017, Hugues Mbenda landed his first chef position at the Westminster Hotel's gourmet restaurant, Céladon. A pivotal moment in his career, new projects could be put in place: "I always wanted to have my own restaurant. I had reached maturity. "

After six months of consulting, during which he took time to think about his future restaurant, Hugues Mbenda arrived in Marseille in 2019. Already recognized on the Parisian scene, he sensed that something was happening: "Arriving in Marseille unleashed my creative energies." He opened L'Orphéon with his brother Éric. The establishment was soon spotted by Gault&Millau, who included it in the 2021 edition of 109 - Le Sang neuf de la gastronomie française. After the confinement of 2020 and various problems with the premises, the chef took up residence at the Hôtel Montgrand. At the same time, he opens a lunchtime canteen, Libala ("marriage", in Lingala), with his partner Mathilde Godart. In 2023, the couple inaugurated a space large enough to accommodate two restaurants: Kin (short for "Kinshasa"), more gastronomic and open in the evening, and Libala. The chef continues to "blend French cuisine and Mediterranean products with African touches" like no other.

T.L.