Yannick ALLÉNO

Chef : 5 restaurants

Presentation

Yannick Alléno makes no secret of the fact that he is neither a choirboy nor a quiet one. The man who, from elementary school, dreamed of being Paul Bocuse and not Michel Platini, had to make a place for himself at an early age in brigades where his subordinates were sometimes much older than he was. He was born in the Paris suburbs, but grew up with a grandmother who ran the only village shop in Lozère.

But it was in Paris that he learned to cook, gaining experience with several MOF chefs at the Lutétia, the Royal Monceau and the Meurice. Yannick Alléno seems to have a particular attraction for fine hotels, and it was at Le Scribe that he made his name in the early 2000s. At the helm of Les Muses, the restaurant set up in the basement, his cuisine was seductive, but sometimes indulged in too much academicism, as if he had to please an international clientele first and foremost.

Fortunately, his move to Le Meurice in 2003 gave his career a new twist. In 2005, he joined our top tables, with a 17/20 award for a lightly smoked Balik salmon back with potato crust and leek cream with Aquitaine caviar. He will remain there until 2014 and his departure for Ledoyen, in the meantime creating a cooking magazine, YAM, taking over the reins at Cheval Blanc in Courchevel, piloting several restaurants abroad, always on the cutting edge, always 100 miles an hour.

His arrival at the Pavillon Ledoyen catapulted him into the ranks of the very best, earning him 5 toques and our title of Chef of the Year in our 2015 issue. Once again, the chef has reinvented himself, the titi has become a prince, an encyclopedist capable of telling the story of French cuisine in a single dish, right down to science fiction. Yannick Alléno is not yet 55, and he has the whole future ahead of him. Let's rejoice!