Valentina GIACOBBE
Chef : 1 restaurant In Lille, chef Valentina Giacobbe runs Ginko (2 toques), a gourmet restaurant she shares with Julien Ingaud-Jaubert, where cuisine and pastry interact in perfect harmony.
Born in 1992, Valentina Giacobbe has always loved cooking, without really considering it as a profession. "I didn't grow up in a world of professional catering, but it was a shared passion in my family", she recalls. After graduating from high school, she decided to study political science, without much conviction. "I didn't get hooked. I'd always been attracted to manual trades and the plastic arts. "
at the end of her studies, she decided to retrain. Cooking was the obvious choice, "a compromise between the manual and the intellectual". In 2015, she obtained a one-year CAP and quickly entered the professional world. Her work-study placement was with Pierre Gagnaire (5 toques), where she met Julien Ingaud-Jaubert, her future life and work companion. She then went on to work for Christophe Saintagne at Le Papillon.
From Paris to Lille
The couple left Paris for Lille in 2017. Valentina joined the adventure of opening the Rozo restaurant (3 toques) alongside Diego Delbecq. The desire for independence soon became apparent. "Initially, I didn't have any entrepreneurial plans. But as time went by, I felt the need to be stimulated on many subjects, which is what being self-employed offers. "
With Julien, they imagined their own home. Covid delayed the deadline, but enabled them to refine their project. "The advice we received was often to scale back our ambitions. But in the end, we chose to go for it, to have no regrets. "
Ginko, an identity with two voices
In 2023, they opened Ginko (2 toques) in Lille, a gourmet restaurant that quickly received two toques. The project is based on a complementary dynamic: Julien, a pastry chef by training, doesn't confine himself to his field, and Valentina herself is also involved in pastry-making. "We like to know how to do a bit of everything.We want to create a common thread between cooking and pastry-making, to think about both in the same way, so that the identity of the house remains coherent and consistent."His versatilityearned him the Trophée Grand de Demain at the Gault&Millau Tour des Hauts-de-Francein 2025 .
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