Jean-Charles BARON

Chef : 1 restaurant Chef Jean-Charles Baron has set up a gourmet counter that has become a must in Nantes.

Presentation

"Cooking is terrible! You can tell very quickly from people's faces what they think of it. With this in mind, Jean-Charles Baron obtained his CAP from the Cholet Chamber of Commerce in 1984, following an apprenticeship at the Hôtel de l'Europe.

In 1985, the young graduate flew to Ajaccio and joined Marc Lamic's team at the Côte d'Azur restaurant, before landing in Monaco at the Beach Plaza. "Chef Guy Bessot introduced me to large-scale operations. Between the Monte-Carlo tournament and the Monaco F1 Grand Prix, we were doing up to 1,000 covers a day."

In 1987, Jean-Charles Baron moved to Paris, where he briefly rubbed shoulders with Michel Rostang, Alain Passard and Gérard Faucher. "But I wasn't attracted by big cities. I returned to the Hôtel de l'Europe to help the owners, while they passed the baton."

Attracted by the South, Jean-Charles Baron found a place in Sainte-Maxime, in the renowned pizzeria La Treille Muscate, just long enough to land a job in a palace. In 1989, he did just that. He was appointed beach chef at Gray d'Albion, under Jacques Chibois. He then joined Jacques Maximin's team at Diamant Rose, in La Colle-sur-Loup (Alpes-Maritimes), then at Casino de Juan-les-Pins, and finally at Casino Le Lyon Vert in La Tour-de-Salvagny, near Lyon. "I wanted to be closer to my partner, who was in Paris. Jacques Maximin found me a position as chef at La Brasserie de l'Alma, in Brussels, before taking the helm at L'Arc Paris." But after three months, Jean-Charles Baron bowed out. "250 covers a day just wasn't for me anymore".

In 1995, the chef decided to open his own establishment: La Toile à Beurre, in Ancenis-Saint-Géréon (Loire-Atlantique). In 2004, he sold it to create La Maison Baron Lefèvre in a former market-garden counter in Nantes. This won him the Gault&Millau d'Or in 2009.

An entrepreneur at heart, Jean-Charles Baron founded La Passagère tearoom in 2013, a catering boutique in 2017, and Le Jardin du Chef, an olive oil farm in Benissanet, south of Barcelona...

B. G.