International
Sébastien SANJOU
Chef : 2 restaurants
Born into a Bigorre family with five generations of experience in the culinary trades, Sébastien Sanjou started out in the restaurant business at the age of 14. " It was a big surprise for my mother and father, but it was in my blood. "At the time, his parents owned Le Choucas in the Pyrenean ski resort of La Mongie. " Ever since I was a child, I'd seen the restaurant business as a very difficult environment. "
At the hotel school in Biarritz, the teenager became friends with Xabi Ibarboure, son of Philippe, founder with his brother Martin of the renowned gastronomic restaurant Les Frères Ibarboure, in Bidart. "One Saturday night, before going out clubbing, we passed through the restaurant's kitchen. His father and uncle told us about their approach to the business. I fell in admiration. I knew right away that I wanted to get to that level of thinking."
Then came the time to tour the big houses, but his father wanted to hand in his apron. "At 60, he felt he'd done enough. "Sébastien Sanjou joined his parents, but did not want to take over the fish restaurant they now run in the Var. The memory of the Ibarboure brothers lingered in his mind. So he suggested to his parents that they open a gourmet restaurant. Not without difficulty, and after numerous rejections from banks, he bought Le Relais des Moines, in Les Arcs-sur-Argens, aged just 19. " I made a lot of mistakes, but what I didn't learn from others, I learned from myself. "
Today, Sébastien Sanjou also orchestrates the two Maison Villeroy restaurants in Paris, Trente-Trois and La Résidence, where each month he welcomes a renowned chef to showcase the gastronomy of a French region. He also works at La Voile d'Or, in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. These adventures will soon take him beyond our borders, as far as America.
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