Lorraine GESTER

Head waiter : 1 restaurant

Presentation

Is it possible to be shy and still be a professional and present member of a top restaurant's front-of-house team? This is not the subject of an upcoming hotel competition, but rather the expression of the paradox that seems to exist in Lorraine Gester.

At 25, the young woman considers herself shy and unsure of herself, which is most likely a sign of intelligence. My parents aren't restaurateurs, but my maternal grandfather, whom I never knew, was a chef," she says. My mother always encouraged me to go down this path, but I nevertheless followed the classical route and obtained a Baccalauréat ES before joining the Lycée Hôtelier Saint-Anne in Saint-Nazaire. I hesitated between pastry-making and the dining room when I first started out."

In 2020, the young woman left France for Bora-Bora, "with my hands in my pockets, or almost, even though I knew the chef at the Four Seasons, Éric Desbordes. I arrived in the middle of Covid, recruitment was frozen, but he needed a pizza maker for the restaurant. I accept and learn on the job. I also took advantage of the opportunity to improve my English, even though my level was very poor at the time."

She then joined Jean-Georges Vongerichten's St. Regis Hotel and Lagoon Restaurant as head waitress, before leaving this little paradise in 2022. Back in mainland France, heading for La Croix-Valmer, at Lily of the Valley. "I was lucky enough to work there with great professionals from whom I learned a lot. I gained in confidence and then wanted to put myself at risk by doing seasons at the Kinugawa in Saint-Tropez and Courchevel. It gave me a taste of another world and enabled me to make progress on the alcohol offerings, even if the requirements aren't the same as in a big house."

Hired at Le Chabichou at the end of 2023 as head waitress to Stéphane Buron and his teams, the young woman is already looking to the future. "Once the season is over, I'm going back to the Côte d'Azur. I've already got a few leads, always in top-of-the-range establishments." Having banished her shyness? Gault&Millau awards her the Jeune Talent en Salle Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes 2024 trophy.

F. T.