Robin CANNARD

Chef : 1 restaurant A former Burgundian who trained late in life, Robin Cannard followed an international career path before opening a terroir restaurant in the Lot region, inspired by his travels and Ducasse.

Presentation

Raised in Burgundy in a family that loved to cook, Robin Cannard is one of the (many) new generation of chefs who only caught the restaurant bug later in life.

With a Bac Pro Sales diploma to his name, Robin went into exile in Bournemouth, England, to perfect his English. As he had to find food and lodging, he landed a job as a dishwasher in a local pub.

"It was obviously a small establishment, with just two of us in the kitchen, the boss and me. Inevitably, I was soon asked to help him with some of the preparations, and I was immediately interested. "

brought up in the Ducasse galaxy

Back in France, with little cooking experience and a good level of English, Robin Cannard took a short training course through Pôle Emploi before spending a winter season in Courchevel and then Monaco, at Alain Ducasse's Trattoria.

"This experience enabled me to move on to Paris, where I worked at Les Lyonnais and then at Rech, two establishments in the Ducasse galaxy, for a total of five years. It was there that I met Célia Picoulet, my future wife, who was a sommelier at Les Lyonnais " .

The couple spent two years in exile in Southeast Asia and Australia.Célia worked at Heston Blumenthal's restaurant in Melbourne, while Robin joined the kitchens ofAmaru, an excellent local address. "We then left to work in Japan, right in the middle of COVID. We had chosen to stay, and it was exciting because there were so few foreigners left.day to learn the basics of the language, we were very well received in Kyoto and on the island of Hokkaido. It's an unforgettable memory .

Back to our roots in the Lot

Homesickness and the desire to settle down prompted the couple to return to the Lot region, where Célia grew up and where her twin brother works as a butcher. He knew all the good producers in the region, and there was a shop for sale between Rocamadour and the Gouffre de Padirac: that's all it took for the trio to get started.

"We opened Le Voyage d'Ernestine in May 2022. It was an immediate success, and even in the off-season, our 35 covers are usually snapped up. Our cuisine, both rooted in its terroir and full of references to our travels abroad, is clearly very popular. "