José CABADO

Chef : 1 restaurant

Presentation

"When I was growing up, I was always very greedy and loved to cook. When the others were in the living room, I stayed in the kitchen", recalls José Cabado. So, after passing his CAP in one year as an independent candidate, he left to train at the Hôtel Lutetia, as second commis with Jacky Fréon.

After a year at the Bistrot Parisien on rue Marbeuf, he joined the Brasserie Vagenende as demi-chef de partie. "I was theyoungest. All the chefs de partie were 30, but I was barely 21," he says. In 1995, José Cabado became chef de partie at a gastronomic restaurant in the Basque Country, before moving to Spain two years later to work at Santiso. Eight months later, he returned to Paris and applied for a position at the Pavillon des Princes. He stayed there for two years as Patrick Lenôtre's second-in-command. "That was the most formative moment in my career," he says.

Although he liked the house, an opportunity arose for him: to take up his first chef's post at L'Excuse, a restaurant in the 4th arrondissement of Paris. "The boss gave me carte blanche, so I was able to recruit the team I wanted, and it went really well," he recalls. Three years later, the establishment was sold. José Cabado left to work in a brasserie, Le Petit Saint-Benoît, to learn how to improve his speed of execution. After this experience, he returned to Galicia in Spain to open his own restaurant, Le Français. He didn't return to the capital until seven years later to inaugurate his own restaurant, La Bonne Excuse, which quickly earned him 2 Gault&Millau toques.

I.B.