Jérôme BADONNEL

After more than fifteen years at the helm of the kitchens at Les Bas-Rupts, Gérardmer, Jérôme Badonnel has opened Les Ménestrels, at Haut du Tôt.

Presentation

No grandmother was a chef, no family of restaurateurs... For Jérôme Badonnel, entering the restaurant business was first and foremost a choice of direction. "I didn't know what else to do. On my wish list, I had put cooking first, pastry second and car mechanics third", he confides.

While he was studying, he trained at the Auberge de Martimprey, in Gerbépal (Vosges). With his professional bac in hand, he joined the Grand Hôtel de Gérardmer for a year. He then joined the Beau Rivage team in Gérardmer. "I stayed for two years: one in the brasserie and one in the gastronomic restaurant.

When summer arrived, the young chef posted his CV and was contacted by the owner of a posh brasserie in Calvi, La Table de Sabine, to come and work the season. "We were on the port in Calvi, receiving fish fresh from the sea. I discovered a whole panoply of beautiful products."

In 2004, he was hired at Château d'Adomenil in Lunéville (Meurthe-et-Moselle). Two years later, he returned to Gérardmer, this time to join Les Bas-Rupts restaurant as chef de partie. "Gault&Millau awarded him a fine 14/20 (2 toques) .

After seventeen years at Les Bas-Rupts, Jérôme Badonnel decided in 2023 to open his own restaurant: Les Ménestrels at Haut du Tôt, in the commune of Sapois (Vosges). The man who promised himself he'd have his own restaurant by the age of 45 has succeeded in his challenge! " It's a real achievement," he concludes.

I. B.