Jean-Philippe MERLIN

Chef de service : 1 restaurant With over forty years' experience in the dining room at the Paul Bocuse restaurant, Jean-Philippe Merlin has more than one anecdote to tell.

Presentation

As is often the case when you're the son of a restaurateur, Jean-Philippe Merlin got his start in the family brasserie. His father, a former commis de salle at Marie-Louise Point in Vienne (Isère), sent him there at the age of 16. "I didn't have an exceptional background and my parents had a time-consuming job, so I was left to my own devices. My father sent me there to get me away from my friends in Lyon..." he recalls.

That's how he joined the La Pyramide team in 1977, and at the same time passed his CAP and BEP exams on his own. After completing his apprenticeship, Marie-Louise Point sent him to the Dorchester in London. Problem: there were only French students. " I was never going to be able to speak English! So he got a job in a "brasserie-cantine " in Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare's birthplace. Six months passed, and then Jean-Philippe Merlin left for the Mermaid Inn in Rye, where he learned silver service. Back in France, his long hair caught the eye of his hairdresser, "and here I am, modeling on stage!"

While working in a brasserie in Lyon, Jean-Philippe Merlin noticed an advertisement with no name or address: "Looking for head waiter, English imperative". "I called and was told: "Bonjour, restaurant Paul Bocuse". I couldn't speak!" He was hired by "Mamie Bocuse" at the age of 20, becoming the youngest head waiter in the history of the restaurant. Five years later, he was promoted to maître d'hôtel, before officially becoming restaurant director in 2020.

I. B.