Romain MAHI

Chef : 1 restaurant

Presentation

"I've always loved to eat, but as there were 6 of us and my mother was single, we didn't have the opportunity to eat very well, so it was mostly frozen food," explains Romain Mahi. After completing a work-study program at the Maison de l'Amérique latine in Paris, he left to do some extra work, notably at the Yuaca Pucllana gourmet restaurant in Lima, Peru. During his vocational baccalaureate, he completed a work-study program at the Grand Louvre. "They did everything in-house, and there was a big banquet side to it, since they were in charge of the Louvre's services. We worked on very fine products for 1000-1500 people", he recalls.

After other extras in Mexico, the chef was offered the position of head chef at the Parisian brasserie Le Rendez-Vous... at the age of 19. "It was a great opportunity, I didn't want to miss out", he remarks. A year and a half later, he left to become demi-chef de partie at Maison Blanche. "I found that I lacked the training to be a chef, so I started from scratch."

In 2011, he joined Thierry Marx at the Mandarin Oriental. "It was very complicated at first, I didn't find myself in Chef Marx's kitchen at all.Technically, it was very interesting, you don't see that anywhere else. Personally, I like the gourmet side of things, so I preferred to leave after three years."

In 2014, Romain Mahi joined La Truffière as chef de partie, where he became second in command. Two years later, he joined his chef Jean-Christophe Rizet at Accents Table Bourse, in Paris 2e, then became chef in his turn. In recognition of his work, Gault&Millau awarded him the Jeune Talent trophy in the 2019 edition of the France guide, and crowned him with 3 toques in 2023.

I. B.