Vartivar JARKEZIAN

Chef : 1 restaurant For Vartivar Jarkezian, cooking means telling a story. Today, at the helm of Parisian restaurant Campelli, he tells us his own.

Presentation

"I fell in love with cooking at the age of 6, I wanted to become a chef and I succeeded!" enthuses Vartivar Jarkezian. Born in Beirut (Lebanon), the young man grew up in Saudi Arabia, where he trained to become a chef.

In 2015, he decided to come to France, to Paris to be precise. "As we all know, France is the country of gastronomy; technically, it's unbeatable." He first took a technological baccalaureate, then a BTS at the École de Paris des métiers de la table. At the same time, he worked with chef Damien Boudier at the Bissac restaurant in the^2nd arrondissement, where he learned the basics of French cuisine.

After completing his apprenticeship, he stayed at Bissac for a further nine months. "One evening, one of the chef's customers asked me about my origins and said: 'I've got the perfect restaurant for you!'" That's how Vartivar Jarkezian came to work at Shabour, an Israeli-parisian restaurant. "I ended up as sous-chef after a year."

Four years later, the desire to go further titillated him. "I didn't get into this profession just to cook. So, in 2023, Vartivar Jarkezian took command of the kitchens at Campelli, an establishment located in the 1st arrondissement.I have carte blanche here," he says, "I don't have to answer to anyone for the dishes I propose." In recognition of his achievements, Gault&Millau awarded him a handsome 13/20 rating and included him in book 109 - Le Sang neuf de la gastronomie française (The New Blood of French Gastronomy).

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