Hubert Duchenne
He had always had in mind to make cooking his profession, but he did not dare take a step forward. Two months in a business school were enough to make him decide to leave the establishment yet again. Judging the technical level to be insufficient, he took an even more radical decision by stopping the training and knocked on the door of one of Alain Ducasse's prestigious restaurants to offer his services. The idea was to confront himself with the profession and to learn above all. Thanks to this six-month period, which he describes as "difficult", he became certain that he belonged.
He then joined FERRANDI Paris to take a CAP in cooking while studying at Georges V and then at the Ecole Supérieure de Cuisine Française (the forerunner of the Bachelor's degree in culinary arts and entrepreneurship). He comes out with a high level of knowledge and was able to retain from his years at the school the exceptional quality of his teaching and the professionalism of his instructors, in particular Benoit Nicolas and Eric Robert with whom he still maintains close ties. He also regularly takes young people from the school. "In addition to the teaching I received, I had the chance to do internships, notably with Olivier Nasti, who shared his entrepreneurial vision with me, and then with Jean-François Piège, for whom I worked on several restaurant openings and with whom I finally stayed for four years.
He then went on to work at Akrame as second in command and then took the plunge by creating "H", his own restaurant just a stone's throw away from the Génie de la Bastille et du Marais, at just 27 years of age. A concrete achievement for this young chef who had been awarded the previous year as "young talent" by the Gault & Millau guide. His restaurant is an elegant, cosy place with only eight tables, with the particularity of not offering an ‘à la carte menu’... The customer must indeed choose between 5 or 7 dishes and then let himself be carried away.
Hubert Duchenne very quickly obtains his Michelin star. However, he does not have any ambition for the second star. His pleasure today is in the smiles of the customers and in the discovery of products: "What guides me is the quality of the products, it's really the start of creativity" he underlines. He encourages those who are hesitating to get into the business to try a first experience and not be afraid to go for it.
FERRANDI Paris in 3 words...
Technical rigor and joie de vivre
What if FERRANDI Paris was a dish? ?
It would be ‘La canette à l’orange ‘. It is a dish that I like very much, and this goes back to a technical challenge that we had set for ourselves with Benoit Nicolas to make two services.