Guide_LGTDM ©Thirty Dirty Fingers
2019 GUIDE: The new Faces of Les Grandes Tables du Monde with German „L’Atelier“ Munich. The organisation Les Grandes Tables Du Monde gathered in Paris on January 21st to celebrate the launch of its 2019 guide, which coincides with the 65th birthday of this prestigious circle. President David Sinapian reiterated the association’s on-going commitments and unveiled the new members – 13 this year – who will complement our great contemporary gastronomic community.
AN ASSOCIATION BASED ON BELIEFS
Les Grandes Tables du Monde have started off the year surrounded with members restaurateurs to celebrate 65 years of excellence, vision and ever-renewed commitments. “Our association is 65 years old, but in just a few years, it has made giant leaps forward. Carried by our members’ enthusiasm, aware of our heritage and the unique position we occupy in the world’s culinary landscape, we are now more visible, more influent, and more in sync with the sector’s on-going developments”, explains David Sinapian.
This is why the association is gathering today around the most essential matter, which conveys a message of positive evolution in our profession: the recognition of women in the gastronomy industry. Owners, chefs, managers and sommeliers, they’re all involved, along with their male counterparts, in defining what makes a Grande Table. According to Nicolas Chatenier, the organisation’s General Delegate: “The goal isn’t to set women
against men, but to allow women to grow in their rightful place and to empower them”. The association aims to promote and achieve – in the short term – gender equality in its member establishments, and more broadly the entire sector. Its first initiative to this end occurred in October 2018 with the completion of a global survey1 to highlight the challenges and goals of a more inclusive gastronomy. While the survey indicated a change of attitudes to some extent, it however underlined issues to be addressed and steps to be taken to boost the insertion of women in our sector. As announced during its Annual Conference in Marrakech, Les Grandes Tables du Monde has delivered its promises. The names of women owners are now featured in its new 2019 guide.
In 2019, the association will also inaugurate a new program which aims to highlight 12 women, identified within its members’ teams, and who attest to their successful careers in this profession. In the framework of this “Prominent Women” program, each of the selected professionals will be highlighted on Les Grandes Tables du Monde’s website, social media and mainstream media. According to Claire Sonnet, its 2019 Ambassador and new restaurant manager at the restaurant Louis XV at the Hotel de Paris : “In our hospitality industry, there is a place for each man, but also and in particular, there is a veritable place for each woman. I have no doubt this initiative will contribute to highlight their success.”
This association’s ambition is clear: the more these women are identified, known, and promoted, the more likely other women will follow these inspiring role models and join these professions. These women will all gather during the next Annual Conference in October 2019.
13 NEW MEMBERS
Nouveaux entrants ©Krys Maccotta
Another addition to our 2019 guide, and not the least, 13 new members are joining the international circle this year: 8 1⁄2 Otto e Mezzo Bombana, Atelier Crenn, Bord du lac, La Grenouillère, La Marine, Nuance, Caprice, Restaurant L’Atelier, Daní Maison, Kei, Quadri, Ristorante Duomo, and Villa René Lalique.
These worthy additions reinstate the association’s ambitions: champion a rich, festive, and most importantly generous contemporary gastronomy. Indeed, the common thread between these 13 addresses located all around the globe is indeed their
ambition, and the devotion of these professional women and men (cooks, sommeliers, maîtres d’hôtel…) to offer a unique gastronomic experience driven by their unmitigated desire to please and delight their guests.
81⁄2 Otto e Mezzo BOMBANA – Hong Kong, China
As the first and only Italian restaurant outside of Italy to receive 3 Michelin stars, restaurant 81⁄2 Otto e Mezzo Bombana is one of Hong Kong’s very best venues. Its chef Umberto Bombana, “The King of White Truffles”, elevates his cuisine to pure art form thanks to exceptional products as well as a clever balance in his compositions and powerful flavours.
Atelier Crenn – San Francisco, USA
Atelier Crenn is one of the most dazzling restaurant on the American gastronomic scene. Its chef, Dominique Crenn, who has just joined the highly prized 3-star club, managed, in just a few years, to create the most unique address that perfectly embodies the principles that are so dear to Les Grandes Tables du Monde: an uncompromising experience, fertile traditions, and strong narration and convictions between Brittany and California. The taste of times, in a sense.
Bord du lac – Veyrier-du-Lac, France
Here’s a modern-day knight, without a cape or a sword. Instead, a knife, an apron, and a rather ordinary man filled with extraordinary ideas. In this most unique establishment located on the shore of Lake Annecy, Yoann Conte and his wife Élodie Conte have built a true palace of flavours: the fruits of encounters, as the chef has a taste for others and an unquenched thirst for life. Absolutely vibrant.
Caprice – Hong Kong, China
Expertly led by Chef Guillaume Galliot, Caprice is a French 3-Michelin-star restaurant based in Hong Kong and one of the flagships of French gastronomy. Its prestigious wine menu, its cheese cellar – a first in Hong Kong -, and the precise craft of the chef and his team have catapulted the reputation of this fine address dedicated to French epicureanism.
Daní Maison – Ischia, Italia
As soon as you seat at the chef’s table in his old family home, you’ll feel the history and terroir roots of restaurant Daní Maison. The experience is comfortable, unconstrained, and offers an emotional journey into flavours that will bring back to mind lasting memories of garden products.
Kei – Paris, France
Paying great attention to the quality of products, Kei seeks the perfect balance between textures, flavours, colour harmony and elegant presentation. In his restaurant Kei, opened with his wife Chikako in 2011, he draws inspiration from the seasons to create new recipes and sublimate French gastronomy with great passion, unwavering precision, and resolute virtuosity.
La Grenouillère – La Madeleine-sous-Montreuil, France
As a cook’s house, La Grenouillère is a place for contemporary haute cuisine, a place of exchanges and sharing, a place of free expression and high human quality, in constant movement. Alexandre Gauthier, owner and chef, offers a sincere and unique auteur cuisine; he faithfully adapts the flavours of his terroir, the Opal Coast, which he explores in every aspect, both in its resources and know-hows.
La Marine – Noirmoutier, France
Located on the island of Noirmoutier, facing the fishing harbour, La Marine is one of these places at the end of the world where one can escape it all as soon as one seats down. Céline and Alexandre warmly welcome their guests and take them on a journey through their very personal, marine and vegetal cuisine.
Nuance – Duffel, Belgium
With Nuance, it’s all about elegance and friendliness. A warm and welcoming atmosphere, impeccable service, a wonderful setting, and top-flight recipes: chef Thierry Theys and his partner – in the restaurant and in life – Sophie Theys work hand in hand to offer the very best of their cuisine and hospitality.
Restaurant L’Atelier – Munich, Germany
L’Atelier is the result of a happy marriage between prestige – that of Munich hotel Bayerischer Hof, and excellence – that of chef Jan Hartwig and his team, who have conquered the city’s gastronomic scene with their intimate table. They’ve received 3 Michelin stars in 2017, a first in twenty-three years for a Munich restaurant.
Quadri – Venice, Italie
Opened in 1830 on Piazza San Marco, the Ristorante Quadri was renovated in early 2018 by Philippe Starck in collaboration with the very best Venetian craftsmen. The atmosphere is filled with mystery, beauty and poetry. The menu, expertly crafted by chefs Silvio Giavedoni and Sergio Preziosa, highlights their contemporary interpretation of traditional Venetian dishes prepared with local products from the Venetian Lagoon.
Ristorante Duomo – Ragusa, Italia
At La Rocca Palace, in Ibla, you’ll find the most refined establishment of chef Ciccio Sultano. Expert service, large wine cellar, the cuisine mirrors the chef’s personality, affiliations and commitments: everything here reflects the chef’s expert and inventive craft and his main inspiration source: Sicily, and its products.
Villa René Lalique – Wingen-Sur-Moder, France
Built in 1920 by René Lalique, the eponymous Villa has experienced a new destiny since 2015: it now serves as the sumptuous setting to a 5-star hotel and a gastronomic restaurant, rewarded with 2 stars in the 2016 Michelin Guide (just 3 months after opening!). Along with his brigade and chef Paul Stradner, chef Jean-Georges Klein has imagined menus that will transport you into his creative cuisine inspired from the world’s flavours.
About Les Grandes Tables du Monde
Created in 1954 on the initiative of 6 Parisian restaurateurs, the organisation Les Grandes Tables du Monde now unites 181 restaurants in 25 countries across 5 continents around a common ambition. Sharing the same vision to offer unique gastronomic and sensory experience to their guests, these restaurateurs are today the ambassadors of a rare culinary excellence, which combines tradition, transmission and innovation. Le Bureau des Grandes Tables and its President David Sinapian act as catalysts to this exceptional art-de-vivre by promoting a demanding, uninhibited, ambitious and dynamic contemporary fine cuisine.