Xavier MATHIEU

Chef : 1 restaurant

Presentation

"When I was 13, my parents opened an inn in Joucas. I was lucky that Denise and Roger Vergé were our neighbors," says Xavier Mathieu. When they met, the chef asked him what he'd like to do for a living. "I told him I wanted to be a chef. He said, 'You can come to the Moulin de Mougins, it's your home'" The teenager thus made his debut at the prestigious Mougins (Alpes-Maritimes) establishment. After completing his apprenticeship at Hiély Lucullus in Avignon, he returned to work for his parents in the summer and at the Moulin in the winter.

"After three or four years, I told Monsieur Vergé that I wanted to go to Paris, to Joël Robuchon's." A position became available at the restaurant bearing the famous chef's name, on avenue Raymond-Poincaré, in the 16th arrondissement. He stayed for ten months: "As a provincial arriving in the capital, the pace, the atmosphere, when you come from the sun... I learned all I could and left."

His return to the South would have to wait, as in 1996 he landed a job with Gérard Vié at Les Trois Marches restaurant, at the Trianon Palace in Versailles. "But I wanted to go home and do my own cooking", he admits. So, a year later, he took over the reins of the family-run hostelry restaurant Le Phébus, in Joucas (Vaucluse), offering his own style of cuisine. His ode to Provence was quickly crowned with 3 "toques belles" and rewarded with the Gault&Millau Innovation Trophy in 2012. "For me, this means making a cuisine that's one step ahead, which is quite flattering", he enthuses.

I. B.