Matteo GIUA

Chef Matteo Giua builds a beautiful bridge between Sardinia and the Basque Country at the helm of the 2-Toques Brenti restaurant in Espelette.

Presentation

Born in Germany, Matteo Giua grew up in Sardinia in a family of restaurateurs. However, when he started out, he didn't particularly see himself evolving in the kitchen. I didn't really know what I wanted to do," he says, "I just wanted to travel. He decided to study marine science, and moved to London at the age of 18. It was there that he developed a passion for the profession. "I worked at Dimonforte. It was my first restaurant, my first shock."

A year passed and, after a detour to Sardinia, Matteo Giua left for new adventures in Bavaria. " I wanted to see where I was born." He stayed for eight years, working in a succession of Italian and French establishments. He worked at the Da Paolo Franzoni osteria in Winzenhohl, where he rose to the position of sous-chef. He then landed his first position as chef at Vivere, in Aschaffenburg, also in Bavaria. "Then I decided to put my hotel experience into practice, so I went back to hotel school and did a sandwich course at the French restaurant Schönbusch, in the Bavarian Nature Park."

New departure in 2018. "I wanted to change my life, I told myself that Paris was a must in a chef's career." A Sardinian friend informed him that his sous-chef, Matteo Testa, had just opened a restaurant in the ^6th arrondissement of Paris, Anima. He stayed for two and a half years, then joined Louis Richard as sous-chef at the Pastel restaurant in Bordeaux. Finally, a year later, he launched Brenti ("belly" in Sardinian), a gourmet restaurant in Espelette (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) with Aurore Martinat. Gault&Millau, which supported the opening via the Dotation Jeunes Talents, awarded them 1, then 2 toques.

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