There were four finalists and the chef of the year designated by Gault et Millau is… Yoann Conte. Yoann Conte? But yes, you saw it on TV. At 49, he has joined Philippe Etchebest since the start of the school year, with Juan Arbelaez as coach of the show Top Chef objective on M6.
For true gourmets, it is above all the chef of the restaurant that bears his name in Veyrier-du-Lac, on the shores of Lake Annecy (Haute-Savoie). With two stars in the Michelin Guide and five hats in the Gault et Millau, the former student of Marc Veyrat, from whom he took over the legendary Auberge de l’Eridan in 2010, succeeds Olivier Nasti as chef of the year, and before him to Hugo Rollinger. “The cook feeds the man and the kitchen feeds the soul”, writes on the restaurant website the one whose work is “above all emotion”, but also the definition of “extreme sensitivity” and a “perfectly sharp peasant common sense”.
The best pastry chef is a woman
For the same guide, the pastry chef of the year is a pastry chef, Naraé Kim, who officiates at Pur’the restaurant run by Jean-François Rouquette at the Park Hyatt Paris-Vendôme (Paris 2nd).
Twice awarded a gold medal at the World Global Pastry Chef Challenge WACS in 2015 and 2016, this Korean in love with France strives to enhance the sensations of the nose and palate because “aromas are fundamental in the construction of her desserts”, highlights the Chocolate Salon. Naraé Kim was invited there this year to show her work which, “through its delicacy, makes the standard of modern pastry shine high”.
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The Sommelier of the year for Gault et Millau is Jean-Baptiste Klein at La Table d’Olivier Nasti (Kaysersberg). The room director is Thierry Pruvot at Pré Catelan (Paris 16th). And the Greats of Tomorrow are Ludovic Turac, Une Table au Sud (Marseille), Félix Robert, Arborescence (Croix) Antoine Gras, La Table de l’Ours – Les Barmes de l’Ours (Val d’Isère), Clio Modaffari & Anne Legrand, La Flibuste, (Villeneuve-Loubet), Tristan Weinling, Utopia, (Gueberschwihr) and Mathieu Peru, Le Manoir de la Régate, (Nantes).