Loris de Vaucelles, Annaïg Ferrand and Jade Frommer are the founders of the Ephemera company, specializing in the opening of ephemeral restaurants with enchanting universes. – Ephemera Restaurant
- Some 1,300 reservations in five hours … The Athera restaurant, which invites the gourmet to travel to a wild planet, is already shaping up to be one of the big boxes of summer in Lyon.
- Behind this concept of ephemeral restaurants hides the company Ephemera.
- Originally: three former students of the Institut Paul Bocuse.
They made themselves known last summer in Lyon, by launching an ephemeral restaurant inspired by Charlie and the chocolate factory. The first attempt was followed by a master stroke. The announcement of the opening of Athera, a restaurant that immerses the guest in the taste and visual universe of a wild planet, has thrown counters into a panic. Some 1,300 reservations recorded in five hours and 4,000 in a week. Madness between Rhône and Saône. Without a doubt, the company Ephemera had a hollow nose.
At the origin of the concept, Jade Frommer, Annaïg Ferrand and Loris de Vaucelles, three young people, aged 22 and 23, graduated from the Paul Bocuse Institute in Lyon. “We didn’t necessarily know each other at the start because we weren’t in the same industry. We met for a student office project and it immediately matched between us, ”says Loris.
At the time, around ten students from the establishment took on the challenge of setting up an ephemeral restaurant for a weekend to surprise their loved ones. The very intimate experience is conclusive. “We decided to start over a second time. At that time, there were only two volunteers left in the room, Loris and Annaïg, ”Jade recalls, smiling. The team has already found each other.
An inspiring school project
At the same time, everyone is required to work on a collective project as part of their course. The “Avant-scene” project, which consists of managing an ephemeral catering concept in its entirety, from pupil to pupil. “We had four months to achieve this, four walls, a roof and a budget equal to 0”, recalls Annaïg. A sort of dress rehearsal that puts their foot in the stirrup. “It inspired us,” Jade admits. We immediately had the idea to do it for real by launching our company ”.
“When we got here, we found ourselves facing a concrete block. Everything had to be done, ”laughs Annaïg. Contacted by the Part-Dieu teams, the young people start a race against time. Just six weeks to launch Athera. With for each a well-defined role. Loris, the “creative” becomes the executive chef. It is he who is responsible for developing the menus, imagining the dishes, combining flavors and turning the kitchens. Annaïg ensures “that everything is functional”, manages human resources and the administrative part. Jade, she takes care of development, fundraising.
“Very different but very complementary”
“The three of us are very different but very complementary. We will be partners all our life, laughs the young woman who assumes her role. In the team, I am the one who pushes the most, the most outgoing too. The one who talks too much and who always has the last word ”. “Jade is the most tenacious,” confirms his accomplice, laughing. But she sees all that is missing. She has an eye and she goes to the end of things ”. And to continue always joking: “I am perhaps calmer and more organized, I have undoubtedly more feet on the ground but we form a great pair”.
Annaïg is full of praise for Loris either. “He has a very calm temper and is very good at everything he does. He is too humble to say it, but he did all his school internships in starred establishments, especially in Sylvestre Wahid’s restaurant ”. The young man’s response: “I may have imagination, but without them, we would never have succeeded. Without funding, we cannot open. Without suppliers, nothing can be done. Each has contributed enormously to this project ”.