Nicolas COUTAND

Chef : 1 restaurant For Gault&Millau, the unlikely meeting with Nicolas Coutand took place in the heart of the beautiful bastide town of Mirepoix, in Ariège.

Presentation

The year is 2010, and the restaurant is called Les Remparts. It's a curious coincidence that a young chef from Vendée, lost in the Pyrenees - after stints at Abadie's and Castel Marie-Louise in La Baule - meets the investigator, who takes a detour to see the beautiful arcades.

From then on, we follow this singular chef as he and his wife Amélie return home. After two seasons in Loire-Atlantique, then at Château de Mirambeau, Nicolas Coutand seized the opportunity offered by the Conseil Général de Vendée to take over a house in Brem-sur-Mer, where the couple were looking to settle: "We had a preference for the coast, and Brem, it's 15 kilometers from Les Sables-d'Olonne and 15 kilometers from Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie, so it was perfect."

As early as 2015, he was awarded the title of Jeune Talent national and, the following year, Grand de Demain for the Grand Ouest region. Amélie and Nicolas Coutand invested in and embellished their home. Their precise, enticing seafood cuisine takes on a whole new meaning, with fish direct from the Atlantic. After a few years, the couple launched a second business, Le Cellier, which they finally decided to part with this year. "We'd rather concentrate on Les Genêts, our gastro flagship that made us famous and grew."

The pandemic and inflation have shaken up the sector. But the chef "holds his head high" and sees the bright side: "In a way, it has strengthened ties with producers and fishermen. Everyone understands that we need solidarity these days." M. E.