Inaki AIZPITARTE

Chef : 1 restaurant

Presentation

"I started late. The world of gastronomy frightened me, especially the hierarchy and authority." Of Basque origin, Inaki Aizpitarte put some water in his wine and launched himself, at the age of 27.

Initially, the young man was predestined to be a landscaper, but a trip to Israel turned his career around. "I needed to work. I started out as a dishwasher, then, just as I was about to leave, the chef offered me a position as a commis. I was hooked," he says, and learned about Mediterranean cuisine with the help of specialized books.

After this seven-month apprenticeship, Inaki Aizpitarte returned to Paris and knocked on doors with a rather unusual CV. " When you arrive in the kitchen at the age of 27, it's because you really want to" In 1999, he took up his first apprenticeship at Le Petit Marguery. " I learned about French bourgeois gastronomy, with a focus on sauces," he says, before moving on to La Fourchette des Anges. "The chef disappeared overnight. I had to replace him, but it was a bit early for me, as my apprenticeship wasn't finished yet."

After a stint at the Ishtar Café, a kosher restaurant, he opened Gilles Choukroun's brand-new restaurant, Le Café des Délices, in 2002, alongside Laurent Chareau. "There, we offered a cuisinevery much inspired by North Africa, around spices, creative and recreational."

In 2004, Inaki Aizpitarte realized his dream and flew to Latin America. When he returned eight months later, he wanted to settle in Barcelona. Disappointed by what he discovered in the kitchen, he set off on another adventure.

In 2005, in Paris, he came across an advertisement for a chef to open La Famille, in Montmartre. "After a year, he joined Laurent Chareau to help launch the restaurant at the Mac Val contemporary art museum in Vitry-sur-Seine (Val-de-Marne). "The plan was for me to stay only six months, as I'd already signed a preliminary sales agreement to take over Le Châteaubriand on avenue Parmentier.After several years' experience as a chef, I thought I could be my own boss.I teamed up with Frédéric Peneau, a trained architect who ran the Café Burq. We were really looking for this type of establishment steeped in history. The previous owner had revealed all its cachet."

Now confident, thanks in no small part to the 2007 Gault&Millau Grand de Demain award, the chef is turning Le Châteaubriand towards gastronomy, and opening Le Dauphin, a few steps away, a more bistronomic address. A native of the Basque country, Inaki Aizpitarte intends to return there. To be continued...

B.G.