Counting Heads in the stars Yannick Delpech. At 33, the head of L'Amphitryon Colomiers, is at an age when some are just beginning to make a name and hope to win a first star. Itinerary of a two-star Michelin chef who is not.
two Michelin stars, a Gault Millau and gold and not even cook ... no less. Yannick Delpech is an extraordinary character in the small world of gastronomy. At the same thirty-five years he has already made its place in this elite club of top restaurants, at the age when many are just beginning to come forward and hopefully get a first star. And it probably because it is not cook it has already made a career as TGV.
"The problem is that I have had all too young. I still have 25 years to work. What will I do? Either I'm going through and I try to get a third star in the next ten years, I do something else. I do not know yet, "he says with sincerity and authenticity, qualities of its cuisine. Two traits that come without doubt of its origins. Son of Gaillac wine, "with a mom who cooked a lot," he began an apprenticeship in pastry attracted by the aesthetics of this art. After passing by Michel Belin in Albi, he began a tour of France that lasted eight years before reaching the host, in 1997, where he was hired as a pastry chef. The beginning of a story that sounds like a true tale of modern times. The head of the establishment makes her apron and the owner asked Yannick Delpech of the interim offhand. He takes up the challenge and a year later won the first star! "In fact I was up against the wall and I really took a liking to the kitchen at this time. Sure I had to do a lot of crap, but I had no frame, training, and therefore deformation compared to the kitchen, I found myself just to cook that I loved. A kitchen that is chewed, which is eaten. " He admits today that the first star was really a surprise and he has not measured the time it meant everything, "Actually the first star is relatively easy to have and it didn has not much affected than the latter. For there is really a huge step in between. The second star is very hard to get and even harder to maintain. " For the meantime, the owner of the Amphitryon proposes him to take over the case. Something that will be made in 2004, in association with Sandrine Batard, freshly graduated from ESC Toulouse. "We are very complementary and this is probably why it works so well. An institution like ours is, beyond the kitchen, a company that is mounted very, very fast, strong financially and has grown from eight to forty employees in just four years "says it. Une entreprise qui n’a évidemment pas échappé aux retombées de la crise de 2008-2009 avec une clientèle très directement issue du monde de l’entreprise : « En fait nous avons été très directement impactés, mais nous avons bien réagi en faisant ce qu’il fallait faire. Cela nous a obligés à nous plonger totalement dans l’organisation, le calcul des coûts, pour nous adapter. C’est clair que nous avons eu peur, or, à la sortie, nous avons fait une belle année sans doute du fait de notre réactivité. Surtout, nous nous sommes dit que, de toute façon, cette crise n’allait pas durer dix ans. Qu’il y aurait forcément an end and that we should not stop everything. So in the heart of the crisis we have done work in the restaurant for the fully re telling us that it would go back when we were ready. What happened. " Recipe for Success Yannick Delpech, is probably to be found there also, apart from his cooking skills, the art of combining strong values with a sense of long-term certain. Values among them, he started his apprenticeship at fifteen, figured prominently that of labor. And you need when you want to keep a house like this open seven days a week at Throughout the year, also by consulting, as Sodexho at Airbus when abroad. When we met him and he flew to Russia on a mission a few days in a large institution, "because it also allows me to compare myself to other realities." As an eternal apprentice enriched each job. His hobbies now? His family and his son first 18 months and also eating out. Taste, discover, what others are doing. And he admits that as teachers in practicing chefs, Olivier Roellinger to Cancale and Michel Bras in Laguiole, is an ardent defender of restaurateurs, real ones, not necessarily the greatest: "The chefs that last are those that make the classic French cuisine. I'm not a fan of molecular gastronomy and others who are often just ways. In fact, everyone is good food, but those two are the ones who make me dream, which are a constant amazement with real consistency. What bothers me most today is that if you want to open a restaurant and you have enough money to do this is possible, whereas in any other job asks you a minimal training. We meet with people who invest huge surfaces, make a beautiful decoration and where they eat poorly for exorbitant prices in relation to quality. " He who is confident of offering a menu at 29 euros (lunch) in a two-star, is so small and cantor good homes: "There are many in Toulouse who are truly worth. That he must go home. It helps very little young, yet they are the ones who really need it. " With a word of advice: "In a restaurant there is one thing that counts is good where it is not. That's all. " And as it is not a man succumbing to the temptation of fashion will be understood, he does not do like others, a cookbook. "I think of course. But I would have to find a truly original idea. " An apprentice Standing you were told. Hervé
Chossat
