International
Olivier COUVIN
Chef : 1 restaurant
For Olivier Couvin, cooking was not a vocation. "I went to hotel school so I could get away from home and be independent," he confides. He obtained one diploma after another, but his dream was to join the parachute regiment. "Then I had a car accident that prevented me from doing the elite corps I wanted. So I went back to being a cook."
After two years working nights in a factory, he became chef at Col de Malval, in Lyon, at the age of 19. His sister, who works at the Institut Bocuse, gave him an envelope from the group to apply. "We thought, with a bit of luck, it would be at the top of the pile". The head chef, Roger Jaloux, contacted him. "He told me: you'll be starting in Burgundy in a week's time". Having arrived as second chef at Les Ursulines in Autun, he was demoted to chef de partie.
However, the chef rose to the challenge and, two years later, he replaced the head chef for six months. In 2001, he became demi-chef de partie at the Auberge de Collonges. "I discovered a rigor I'd never imagined. I wasn't up to scratch either. I had to work a lot," he reports. "One day, in Monsieur Paul's car, the boss said to me: 'You're a good guy, you're going to stay. I'd been knighted by Monsieur Paul, that was enough." In 2015, after three attempts, he became MOF. "If I hadn't obtained the title, I think I would have changed profession," he admits.
Olivier Couvin and Gilles Reinhardt, whom he joined in 2001, continue Paul Bocuse's legacy in their own way. Their success has been recognized by the Gault&Millau d'Or Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes 2022 award. A collective effort, the two chefs emphasize. "You give us the time to move forward, to see that we've never been so good and that the restaurant has never been so beautiful," thanks Olivier Couvin.
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