Michel CUDRAZ

Chef : 1 restaurant

Presentation

"I've always wanted to be a chef," says Michel Cudraz, who grew up with a mother and grandmother who passed on to him this taste for the art of good food. Naturally, he began training at the Château-Chinon hotel school.

In 1986, with his CAP in hand, he spent a year in Paris, in the kitchens of the restaurant Aux Îles Marquises, in the Montparnasse district. Michel Cudraz then joined the Chiquito, in Méry-sur-Oise, run by the Mihura couple. He returned a year and a half later, after his military service. From 1992 to 1996, he was hired as chef at the Fouquet's private club at CNIT La Défense, before the idea of opening his own restaurant, which he had "always wanted ", took over.

In 1996, he and his wife (who now looks after the wines and the dining room) took over a steakhouse in Loiré, a small village in the Maine-et-Loire region. "Week after week, the couple transformed this former 18th-century coaching inn and opened the Auberge de la Diligence. Today, the menu is influenced by world cuisines, always linked to the chef's vegetable and citrus garden. A fine auberge that has been awarded 2 Gault&Millau toques for many years.

T. L.

Biography & Awards

1969 Naissance à Clichy

1983 Formation à l’école hôtelière de Château-Chinon

1986 Aux Îles Marquises, à Paris

1987 Le Chiquito, à Méry-sur-Oise

1992 Chef du club privé du Fouquet’s au CNIT La Défense

1996 Ouverture de l’Auberge de la Diligence, à Loiré