Mickaël BRAURE

Chef : 1 restaurant Mickaël Braure, who became a chef somewhat by chance, now runs two restaurants, an authentic estaminet, Le Witloof, and a gourmet table, Rillons.

Presentation

A physical handicap can often prove decisive in a person's life. Mickaël Braure's color-blindness is invisible in everyday life, but for the teenager who dreamed of being an electromechanic, it was clearly an insurmountable handicap. "When I was at secondary school, they suggested I take up cooking. It was a manual profession, which interested me, so I entered a small hotel school in Hénin-Beaumont, without really knowing what I was going to find there. And I liked it right away," recalls this grandson of miners from Lens.

Solid training at some of Lille's finest restaurants

At the age of 17, the young man obtained his BEP in cookery and joined the kitchens of L'Huîtrière in Lille, one of the finest restaurants in the region. Mickaël Braure joined as a commis and, after four years with chef Philippe Lor, he moved on to Le Sébastopol, one of the other top addresses in the Nord region, alongside Jean-Luc Germond. "A great experience. I finished as second in command before being hired for a few months by Marc Meurin at Château de Beaulieu in Busnes. He then entrusted me with the reins of his new restaurant, Monsieur Jean, in downtown Lille, where I opened as chef."

In 2018, Mickaël Braure opens his first restaurant

In 2014, Mickaël Braure became associate chef at La Royale in Lille, before opening his first restaurant in Ennevelin four years later. "It's an estaminet where I promote terroir and peasant cuisine, in a setting that's typical of the region and that's just like me. "At the Witloof (which means "chicon" in Flemish), the chef is blossoming, forging a loyal clientele and growing in confidence.le and grew in confidence, to the point of opening a second restaurant at the end of 2023, called Rillons, in Templeuve-en-Pévèle. "I offer a more ambitious cuisine than at the Witloof, but always in a spirit of modesty, retaining my appetite for the cuisine of the North, that rustic yet sincere cuisine that is so dear to me, all in a contemporary, uncluttered setting. "Gault&Millau immediately awarded him 2 toques and the Cuisine des Prairies et des Pâturages Hauts-de-France 2024 trophy.