Christopher Coutanceau

Last updated
Christopher Coutanceau
Born (1978-10-12) 12 October 1978 (age 45)
Culinary career
Rating(s)
Current restaurant(s)
  • Restaurant Christopher Coutanceau
Website www.coutanceaularochelle.com

Christopher Coutanceau (born 12 October 1978) is a French chef. He is the owner of the restaurant Christopher Coutanceau, three Michelin stars at La Rochelle. [1] He defines himself as a "fisherman-chef" and is a proponent of sustainable fishing. [2] He is the son of chef Richard Coutanceau and the brother of chef Grégory Coutanceau. [3] [4]

Contents

Life and career

Christopher Coutanceau is the second son of Richard and Maryse Coutanceau, who obtained their first Michelin star a few years after his birth, the second star following in 1986. As a child, he dreamt of becoming a professional soccer player and joined the soccer club FC Nantes at the age of 12. However, he also entered the restaurant and fishing field. At the age of 3, he already went at the fishing market before school [5] and later, fished with his grandfather and regularly worked as a seasonal employee in the family restaurant.

Without warning his parents, he registered at the Lycée hôtelier de La Rochelle where he followed his training course as a competitor, regularly participating at cooking contestants. He followed internships with Michel Guérard, who had already trained his father, at his restaurant Prés d'Eugènie and with Jean Bardet at his restaurant Château Belmont. After his professional graduation, he worked again with Michel Guérard and then at El Bulli with Ferran Adria, at Le Grand Véfour with Guy Martin and at the Restaurant Laurent in Paris, where Joël Robuchon is the advising chef. [6] He also worked at the Café de Paris in Biarritz with Didier Oudill. He followed a training course in pastry at the Lenôtre school [7] and with Pierre Hermé with the advice of his father who considers that "a real chef, to be at the top level, must be butcher, baker, pastry chef, caterer".

In 2001, he came back to La Rochelle and opened at age 22 the restaurant Le Vieux Port that he owned for three years, until his father asked him to come back to the family restaurant to work with him. [8] In 2007, Richard Coutanceau retired and Christopher Coutanceau bought the restaurant with the sommelier Nicolas Brossard. [9] In 2008, he maintains his second Michelin star.

In 2018, he published the cook book Christopher Coutanceau, cuisinier-pêcheur. [10] In January 2019, Christopher Coutanceau received the "prize of the sustainable gastronomy". [11] In October 2019, he participates as a guest chef in an episode from the season 11 of Top Chef filmed at La Rochelle. In January 2020, he obtained his third Michelin star. [12]

Publications

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joël Robuchon</span> French chef and restaurateur

Joël Robuchon was a French chef and restaurateur. He was named "Chef of the Century" by the guide Gault Millau in 1989, and awarded the Meilleur Ouvrier de France in cuisine in 1976. He published several cookbooks, two of which have been translated into English, chaired the committee for the Larousse Gastronomique, and hosted culinary television shows in France. He operated more than a dozen restaurants across Bangkok, Bordeaux, Hong Kong, Las Vegas, London, Macau, Madrid, Monaco, Montreal, Paris, Shanghai, Singapore, Taipei, Tokyo, and New York City. His restaurants have been acclaimed, and in 2016 he held 31 Michelin Guide stars among them, the most any restaurateur has ever held. He is considered to be one of the greatest chefs of all time.

Bernard Daniel Jacques Loiseau was a French chef at Le Relais Bernard Loiseau in Saulieu, Côte-d'Or. He obtained three stars in the Michelin Guide and had a peak rating of 19.5/20 in the Gault Millau restaurant guide. He was one of the most mediatised French chefs between the 1980s and 1990s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alain Ducasse</span> French chef

Alain Ducasse is a French-born Monégasque chef. He operates a number of restaurants including Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester which holds three stars in the Michelin Guide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prosper Montagné</span>

Prosper Montagné was one of the most renowned French chefs of the Belle Époque and author of many books and articles on food, cooking, and gastronomy, notably Larousse Gastronomique (1938), an encyclopedic dictionary of the French culinary arts. While Montagné was once as famous as his friend Auguste Escoffier, and was one of the most influential French chefs of the early twentieth century, his fame has faded somewhat. In the 1920s, Montagné, Escoffier, and Philéas Gilbert—their close friend and collaborator, and an acclaimed chef and writer in his own right—were the French chefs and culinary writers esteemed above others by many French journalists and writers. After Montagné's death, the chef and author Alfred Guérot's description of the troika as the "celebrated contemporary culinary trinity: Auguste Escoffier, the father; Philéas Gilbert, the son; Prosper Montagné, the spirit" reflects the reverence in which all three were held by the French culinary community.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Curnonsky</span> French food writer

Maurice Edmond Sailland, better known by his pen-name Curnonsky, and dubbed the Prince of Gastronomy, was one of the most celebrated writers on gastronomy in France in the 20th century. He wrote or ghost-wrote many books in diverse genres and many newspaper columns. He is often considered the inventor of gastronomic motor-tourism as popularized by Michelin, though he himself could not drive. He was a student of Henri-Paul Pellaprat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guy Savoy</span> French chef (born 1953)

Guy Patrice Savoy is a French chef who is the head chef and owner of the eponymous Guy Savoy restaurant in Paris, France, and its sister restaurant in Las Vegas, U.S., both of which have earned multiple Michelin stars. He owns three other restaurants in Paris.

Michel Robert-Guérard, known as Michel Guérard, was a French chef, author, one of the founders of nouvelle cuisine and the inventor of cuisine minceur.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Troisgros family</span> French restaurant and hotel

Troisgros is a French restaurant and hotel with a primary location in Ouches and additional affiliated restaurants in Roanne and Iguerande, in France.

Éric Chavot is a French Michelin starred chef. He was working the head chef at the Bob Bob Cité and Bob Bob Ricard restaurants in London until January 2020, as well as the consultant chef at the Royal Albert Hall's Coda restaurant. Born in Arcachon, Gironde, Chavot was trained at the Boucanier, then at the Patio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marc Veyrat</span> French chef from the Haute-Savoie region (born 1950)

Marc Veyrat is a French chef from the Haute-Savoie region, who specialises in molecular gastronomy and the use of mountain plants and herbs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yannick Alléno</span> French chef

Yannick Alléno is a French chef who operates the restaurants Pavillon Ledoyen and L'Abysse in Paris and Le 1947 in Courchevel. He currently holds nineteen Michelin stars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thierry Marx</span> French chef

Thierry Marx is a French chef, specialised in molecular gastronomy.

Maartje Boudeling is a retired head chef, known for her cooking in the Michelin starred restaurant Inter Scaldes in Kruiningen, Netherlands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Éric Pras</span> French chef

Éric Pras is a French chef, Meilleur Ouvrier de France (2004), rated three stars by the Guide Michelin. He is the owner of the restaurant Lameloise located in Chagny, Saône-et-Loire.

Christophe Hardiquest, born on 20 October 1975 in Waremme, is a Belgian Chef.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michel Sarran</span>

Michel Sarran, born on 18 April 1961, in Nogaro, in Gers (France), is a chef from Toulouse whose restaurant, which bears his name, has been awarded a Michelin star since 1991, and two stars from 2003 to 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Les Toques Blanches Lyonnaises</span> Organisation of Cooks and Pastry chefs

Les Toques Blanches Lyonnaises is an organization that was founded in 1936 by 7 renowned chefs from the Lyon area, including the founder and first president of the organization, Marius Vettard. The organization's goals are to unite cooks and pastry chefs to preserve and maintain the culinary history and traditions of Lyon, including the mâchon, the Mères Lyonnaises, bouchons, and Lyon's Michelin-Starred restaurants. It also aims to promote Lyonnais gastronomy and regional products.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Érick Jacquin</span> French chef, naturalized Brazilian (born 1964)

Érick Jacquin is a French chef, naturalized Brazilian, who works in Latin America. He became better known after joining the talent show MasterChef, broadcast in Brazil by networks Band and Discovery Home & Health. The chef also presents the program "Pesadelo na Cozinha", broadcast by Band, which aims to help restaurants on the verge of bankruptcy to rise. Since 2019, he started publishing videos on his YouTube channel, where he presents the preparation of recipes in the kitchen of his restaurant Président, with the participation of his employees. On October 8, 2020, he scheduled a debut on the band of the Minha Renda program, always on Thursdays, at 10:45 pm.

Laurent Petit is a French chef, three stars at the Guide Michelin and established in Annecy.

Arnaud Lallement is a French chef. He is the owner of the gastronomic restaurant L'Assiette Champenoise in Tinqueux near Reims. The restaurant obtained its third Michelin star in 2014.

References

  1. Hemme, Pierre (5 November 2020). "A La Rochelle, Marseille ou Paris, cinq livraisons de chef à prix confinés". Le Monde .
  2. "Christopher Coutanceau : la sole solution". Libération (in French). 8 September 2019. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
  3. Clergeau, Cécile; Etcheverria, Olivier (9 October 2018). "The identity quality of restaurants". In Bellini, Nicola; Clergeau, Cécile; Etcheverria, Olivier (eds.). Gastronomy and Local Development: The Quality of Products, Places and Experiences. Routledge. pp. 20–36. ISBN   9781351743938.
  4. "Richard Coutanceau, 100 % rochelais". Les Echos . 1 September 2011. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
  5. "Christopher Coutanceau: tout sur sa mer". L'Express (in French). 26 July 2018. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
  6. Scotto, Elisabeth (5 June 2019). "Coutanceau, la mer comme terrain de jeu". Qutidien Libre (in French). Archived from the original on 10 November 2019. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
  7. Christopher Coutanceau (13 February 2019). "Ma passion pour la cuisine est née en même temps que moi !" (PDF). Le Parisien (in French).
  8. "Christopher Coutanceau - Food & Sens dans les cuisines du chef". Food & Sens (in French). 2 September 2018. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
  9. Binet, Hélène (4 September 2017). "Nicolas Brossard (Restaurant Christopher Coutanceau, La Rochelle): "Il n'y a pas d'école pour être patron !"". Un œil en salle (in French). Archived from the original on 10 November 2019. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
  10. "Christopher COUTANCEAU, Cuisinier Pêcheur • Les Nouvelles Gastronomiques | Actualités" (in French). Les Nouvelles Gastronomiques. 1 February 2019. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
  11. "Christopher Coutanceau : "Je ne peux pas être optimiste si la réalité ne l'est pas"". Fine Dining Lovers (in French). Retrieved 10 November 2019.
  12. Danancher, Thibaut (27 January 2020). "Michelin 2020 : découvrez le palmarès complet". Le Point (in French). Retrieved 28 January 2020.