François Pasteau
"I fell into the cauldron by the greatest of chances, but sometimes chance does make good things happen". The son of a notary, François Pasteau was, at the time, destined for a career in law.
As an average student, his guidance counsellor recommended that he choose between cooking or gardening." I had parents who educated me about taste and food, I was a gastronome in short knickers if we can say ". He then begins the Ferrandian adventure, starting witha CAP in cooking which he obtained in 1980. He came back a few years later to be part of the second promotion of the school's bachelors.
Between his two training courses, he carried out his military service, then worked in restaurants in France and England. It is thanks to François Clerc who employed him in the Laffitte House after school that he went to the United States to work for 4 years in Greenwich, Connecticut, "the Beverly Hills of the East Coast". Once back in France, He opened his own restaurant, the Épi Dupin, in 1995: one of the pioneers of 'bistronomy'.
"I wanted to show my Parisian customers that it was possible to eat locally with local, seasonal products, by making sure not to waste» , and thus offer a gastronomic cuisine with a moderate price. Seven years later he opened the Épi Malin, the snacking version of the Épi Dupin, in order to meet the growing demand for fast food, often take-out, and gastronomic.
His commitment to the environment begins at home at a very young age. "We didn't talk about ecology at that time, but we were careful not to waste, we finished the plate, we made the next day's dish with the leftovers from the day before, it's part of my DNA". His convictions are reinforced in school by by following the instruction of chefs who taught him to be careful with the products he buys.
François Pasteau then crosses the path of Isabelle Vallet, director of Ethic Ocean (an educational NGO for the protection of the oceans and their resources), of which it will become the treasurer, then the president. He also met Jean-Luc Fessard, who was a journalist at the time for L'Hôtellerie Restauration, with whom he created "Bon pour le climat" (Good for the climate). The aim of this association is to awaken their colleagues to their food practices, in particular to build "low" dishes Carbon " seasonal and local products with more plants and less animal proteins.
Today at the head of a consulting company, Ethics and Gastronomy, and after selling the Épi Dupin and the Clever Epi, he passes on his knowledge for an eco-responsible diet. When he talks about FERRANDI Paris, it is "very beautiful daily memories" that he recalls.