Kevin BOUGARD

Chef : 1 restaurant Kévin Bougard, who trained with Joël Robuchon, opened Ancestral in Angers with the help of Dotation Jeunes Talents Gault&Millau.

Presentation

With a passion for music, motorcycling and judo, Kévin Bougard graduated from the Lycée Hôtelier in LaRoche-sur-Yon with a Bac Pro . After a few seasons in Aveyron, working in Gilles Moreau's restaurant,the young chef moved to the Côte d'Azur, where he mainly honed his skills : he entered Château Eza in 2012, then joined Jacques Chibois in Grasse as chef de partie, before moving on to the famous Hôtel Métropole in Monaco, where he would remain for nearly a decade. Monaco, where he spent almost four years working alongside Joël Robuchon and his teams, culminating in the position of third sous-chef.

An international career and the quest for culinary excellence

In 2017, our future winner of the Dotation Jeunes Talents crossed the Atlantic to work alongside Daniel Boulud at the Ritz-Carlton in Montreal. Feeling ready for his first chef's position, Kévin Bougard returned home in 2019 and set up shop in Nantes, at the helm of the Brasserie Les Brassés. But it was in 2022, atOdorico (the table at the Hôtel d'Anjou in Angers) that he earned his first toque for his cuisine blending his two cultures, French and Italian .

The chef then decidedto take the plunge and opened Ancestral in 2025, in the Beaurepaire district. He focuses on French savoir-faire, using his good technique on simple, effective recipes. " When I decided to open my first restaurant, which I inaugurated in January 2025, I wanted to put the spotlight on certain slow-cooked dishes, such as blanquette de veau. s like blanquette de veau, pot-au-feu, or offer a fine terrine like my father used to make, while focusing my cooking on plant-based ingredients and reducing the share of meats, red meats in particular. "