Marion CIRINO
Head sommelier : 1 restaurant Marion Cirino is head sommelier at Ambroisie, a restaurant awarded 5 Gault&Millau toques in Paris.
Before devoting herself to wine, Marion Cirino had a first career... as a musician. A professional harpist, she was heading for a life of concerts and orchestras, until a decisive meeting with her former husband, chef Bruno Cirino. He opened Hostellerie Jérôme in La Turbie in 2000, before Marion Cirino joined him in 2001 .
It was there that she discovered sommellerie. "I started by welcoming customers, and very quickly I turned my attention to wine," she recalls. She quickly took charge of the dining room, purchasing, the wine list and relations with the winemakers. "I didn't know much about it at first. So I thought about our identity: an authentic village, above the sea, far from the glitz and glamour of Monaco. We couldn't compete with the big palaces, which had impressive cellars full ofBordeaux, so we had to look elsewhere." She then chose to work with small producers, several of whom would later become legendary estates.
A new page at L' Ambroisie
For over twenty years, Marion Cirino honed her approach: building a coherent, sincere and lively cellar, in line with her husband's evolving cuisine. "Whenshe left La Turbie in 2023, she left behind a respected and singular cellar.
A few months later, she took up her post at L'Ambroisie, a Parisian institution with five Gault&Millau toques. The house had just been sold, and Bernard Pacaud was preparing to hand over the reins, but the transition went smoothly. "I had the opportunity to build up a cellar the way I wanted, with real financial resources. We've almost totally rethought the philosophy behind the wines. "
Alongside chef Shintaro Awa, the new head chef since July 2025, she shares the same ambition: "To reach the pinnacle of what we can offer in a restaurant: a complete experience, from comfort at the table to food and wine pairings."She sees herself first and foremost as a hostess, concerned with the well-being of her guests: "When you spend money on a meal at this level, the moment has to be exceptional, and every guest has to feel pampered, from the first moment until they leave."A vision of hospitality and sommellerienourished, perhaps, by her past as a musician: "Music taught me to listen to others. "
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