Romain CREUTZMEYER

Chef : 1 restaurant With his renowned restaurant Le Colbert, chef Romain Creutzmeyer is raising the profile of Strasbourg's Cronenbourg district.

Presentation

"I was an unruly child, but thanks to cooking, I turned my life around," confides Romain Creutzmeyer. At the insistence of his parents, he began working as a waiter in a pizzeria at the age of 14. This first experience motivated him to enroll at the Lycée Hôtelier in Illkirch-Graffenstaden, where he obtained his CAP. I did my entire apprenticeship in a pizzeria," he says, "but I wanted to go into gastronomy, which systematically slammed the door in my face.

Armed with courage, Romain Creutzmeyer signed up with a temp agency that placed him at the European Parliament, which later enabled him to enter the Château de l'Île, a renowned hotel-restaurant in Strasbourg Ostwald. He started out as a clerk and was promoted to second in 2007. This impressive rise convinced Éric Westermann to take him on as a member of the Buerehiesel brigade. After two years of loyal service, the 24-year-old took over management of the Illkirch-Graffenstaden Golf Club with his wife Stéphanie Lebrato. "We used to work 7 days a week. After having our daughter, we decided to strike out on our own."

In 2014, after several months of searching, the couple set their sights on a restaurant that had accumulated four court-ordered liquidations. An audacious gamble! Romain Creutzmeyer renamed it Le Colbert, his middle name inherited from his grandfather. "What's more, my wife's grandfather had been a skirmisher on the Colbert, a former French Navy cruiser.

Gault&Millau immediately awarded him 2 toques and the Jeune Talent 2016 trophy. "And yet, to this day, I still don't know how to define my cuisine. Certainly classic, but, as Bocuse said: "It doesn't matter what you cook as long as it's good!""

B. G.