International
Thibault MARTEL
Chef : 1 restaurant After a number of experiences in France and London, the young 30-year-old opened the Armada tapas bistro in Lyon in 2022 with his friend and partner, Baptiste Rivière.
"Every summer, I used to go to my uncle's restaurant in Le Touquet. The atmosphere, the hustle and bustle, the rush... I thought it was incredible!" However, the CAP would have to wait, as she first had to go through business school. "I'd always wanted to do a CAP in cookery, but my parents talked me out of it. Then one day, I told them: 'Stop, I'm going for it'."
His friend Ludovic Mey introduced him to the Bocuse group's Marguerite restaurant in Lyon. He stayed there for a year, before joining the Christian Têtedoie restaurant. With three colleagues, including his future partner Baptiste Rivière, he left for London. He went to the Frenchie restaurant in Covent Garden as chef de partie, an experience he has fond memories of: "If I had to do it all over again, I'd do it ten times over!" he says.
After a few months in Paris to open the Mumi restaurant, he returned to London and joined The Mandrake Hotel. "After a year, I thought I'd strayed a little from my priority: cooking. It just so happened thatmy former chef at Têtedoie was looking for a second-in-command." Heading for L'Empreinte, in Lille, with Ismail Guerre-Genton. "At Têtedoie, I learned to cook hard; at Frenchie, to season; and at Empreinte, to create," he sums up.
After spending some time as sous-chef at the Le Présentoir natural wine bar in Lille, Thibault Martel felt the urge to open his own establishment. While he was working at the short-lived restaurant La Table Rose, David Tapiero and Rebecca Guyon came to dinner. "They contacted me a few months later and told me they had a project and gave us carte blanche." And so Armada en 2022 was born, a Lyonnais restaurant with no menu or main course, but plenty of suggestions for plates to share. With his partner, Baptiste Rivière, they were selected by Gault&Millau for the 2024 edition of 109 - Le Sang neuf de la gastronomie française. "We've got everything we'd hoped for," enthuses Thibault Martel.
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